Pearl | Texas girl

Pearl (Mia Goth) is the main character in the 2022 horror movie Pearl, a prequel to Ti West's X. Pearl is a complex character who is the product of her upbringing, obsessive ambition, and inherent insanity. She is lonely, whimsical, and longs for a more exciting life, captivated by the movies she sees at the local cinema and aspiring to become a film star or chorus girl. However, her mother Ruth disapproves of her aspirations and Pearl chafes under the forced isolation of taking care of her parents on the family farm in rural Texas in 1918 while her husband is away fighting in World War I. Pearl's desperation to get away from her life and achieve her dream leads her to commit gory murders against anyone who wrongs her, including killing farm animals and physically abusing her father. She also indulges in abusing the liquid morphine provided to her father to manage his pain.

Pearl's character is also influenced by Hollywood, as she names her pets after famous actors of the time and performs on haystacks while dancing with a pitchfork. Some say that Pearl's mother, a strictly religious figure, fuels Pearl's frustrations by restraining her, and that Pearl may have started to long for stardom to get the recognition and love that she didn't get from her family. Others say that Pearl's character is a study of a vicious character who also terrorizes audiences with her violent tendencies, but also provokes sympathy from the audience with her desperation to escape her abusive mother and unresponsive father.

As she tends to her chores, Pearl shows signs of psychopathy, killing farm animals and physically abusing her father. Captivated by the movies she secretly sees while in town buying groceries, Pearl aspires to be a chorus girl or a film star.