[5] Pearl lives on her family's homestead with her paralyzed father (Matthew Sunderland) and stern German mother, Ruth (Tandi Wright), while her husband Howard (Alistair Sewell) serves in World War I.

Although she is smitten with the concept of stardom and dreams of being a famous dancer, Pearl shows signs of psychopathy as she kills farm animals and physically abuses her father.

When her sister-in-law, Mitsy (Emma Jenkins-Purro), tells her about an audition to discover dancers for a traveling troupe, Pearl sees an opportunity to escape her life.

When Ruth learns of her daughter's plans, Pearl kills her, her father, and the projectionist she had an affair with (David Corenswet) before leaving to attend the audition.

After she is rejected, Pearl goes into a lengthy confession to Mitsy regarding her resentment towards Howard, having an affair, her psychopathic tendencies, her miscarriage, and killing animals, her parents and the projectionist.

[8] In X, Mia Goth was cast as both the elderly antagonist, Pearl, and the final girl, Maxine Minx, making her the sole actress given a dual role in the film.

[1] Goth detailed that she and West spoke "at length" for months about Pearl's connection to Maxine, as, in her words: "they carry the same essence and they're just at different life stages ... but their spirit is the same".

[13] Goth enjoyed filming scenes in which she appears as both Maxine and Pearl, commenting that doing so gave her ample opportunity to "go inward" on her characters and create whatever impression was desired.

[10] The actress said reading the film's script multiple times gave her many interpretations of Pearl's character, adding that doing so not only helped her envision her humanity and complexity, but also to generate many ideas for her portrayal.

[17] The prequel was written to focus on Pearl as a young woman during World War I and how her backstory led to her becoming a killer, without making attempts to justify her actions.

She explained: "Stepping onto [the setting] for the first time after they had redressed everything just made me feel very confident, as though all my ideas and what I was doing with Pearl was going to fit perfectly into this world.

[14] Goth was grateful to be able to reprise the role of Pearl and characterized her in the prequel as "a dreamer" and "an emotional person who wears her heart on her sleeve and is quite sensitive", to which she opined: "to have a character like that to sink your teeth into was so rich".

[3] While developing Pearl's beliefs and personality for the prequel, Goth found herself relating intimately to "the ways her character sees movies as a path to a better life".

She practiced it every night as preparation, and they shot it on the last day of filming to allow Goth to put in perspective all the "emotional turmoil" Pearl had undergone.

[20] Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent praised how Goth's performance made Pearl's behavior believable, particularly describing "her commitment to every choked cry for attention", and "glassy-eyed departure from reality" as "unimpeachable".

[27] Yamato (The Los Angeles Times) considered Pearl to be a "richly dynamic role", adding that the character's monologue was one "for the ages".

[3] Wendy Ide of The Guardian praised Pearl's character, writing that it was "filled with kittenish cruelty and the creeping rot of madness, all topped off with a monstrous, distorting need to be loved".