The following contains spoilers for Pearl, currently in theaters.
Following up on Ti West's X, the director's latest installment Pearl serves as the film's prequel, diving into the story of Pearl (Mia Goth). Among the film's positive reviews, one often mentioned comparison is its references to The Wizard of Oz. Setting the scene in a small town, Pearl revolves around a farmer's girl's desire to escape her normal life, similar to Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz. However, unlike Dorothy, who successfully escaped her reality and journeyed back home, Pearl was unfortunately trapped in hers, which led to a series of disturbing events.
In Pearl, Ti West paid homage to the golden age of Hollywood and used a surreal, highly contrasting color palette that seems not so different from the ethereal cheerful palette of The Wizard of Oz. The cornfield, the blue farmer's overalls and the white hair band were all done so fashionably similar to the cornfield and Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz. Just like Dorothy, Pearl was tired of farm life. The constraint of reality drove her into an Oz-inspired hallucination.
When the wind blew the film clip gifted by the projectionist, Pearl entered a golden cornfield. She danced, kissed and even had sexual intercourse with a scarecrow while hallucinating it to be the projectionist. Though her scarecrow didn't come to life as it did for Dorothy, it did something to that effect for Pearl.
It's interesting to note how, in Pearl's psychological deterioration, she became less of a Dorothy but more of the wicked witch. After accidentally injuring her mother, Ruth (Tandi Wright), Pearl took the red dress from her mother's wardrobe and went to the audition her sister-in-law Mitsy told her. Here, Pearl resembled the wicked witch more, and Mitsy, with her innocent eyes and the way she dressed, was more authentic to Dorothy's character.
From the first kill, Pearl escalated and eventually killed everyone except Howard. At the end of Pearl, she had to rebuild her reality, positioning her dead parents and spoiled food to depict a perfect dinner, but it was already pure hallucination. Fantasy exists as an escape from reality. It's a thin line between hallucination and fantasy. From a child's perspective, The Wizard and Oz is a fascinating adventure with the scarecrow, the tin man and evil witches, but in reality, it could very well be what Pearl was seeing in her eyes while she tuned out of reality.
In a twisted way, Pearl explored the dark alternative of what could have happened to Dorothy if she never went to Oz and learned to appreciate her home. Maybe Dorothy didn't go to Oz. Maybe it was all in her head, just like Pearl, who saw herself killing the evil witch (her mother) and overcame every obstacle that stood between her and her dream. As her acting dream failed, Pearl ended up killing Mitsy, who represented the innocent Dorothy. Pearl became the witch herself, but the reality was too much to bear. In the end, the only thing she could do was escape into another illusion.
To see a much darker Wizard of Oz, Pearl is now in theaters.