Pearl(2022)
2022 · Ti West · 102 min
Trapped on her family’s isolated farm, Pearl must tend to her ailing father under the bitter and overbearing watch of her devout mother. Lusting for a glamorous life like she’s seen in the movies, Pearl’s ambitions, temptations, and repressions collide.
Horror
7.22.7k votes
TMDB score
3/5
Intensity
3/5
Gore
3/5
Stays with you
How Pearl scares
Pearl spends most of its time as a bright, colorful character study before letting its darker side loose in sudden, ugly bursts. The scares come less from jolts and more from watching someone's mind slowly come undone, with a growing sense that something violent is bubbling under all that sunny farmhouse charm. When the violence does arrive, it's sharp, quick, and shown pretty plainly, though it's not a nonstop gore movie. It plays like a strange mix of old Hollywood musical energy and horror, so it can feel oddly fun and unsettling at the same time.
On The Horror Database's 0–5 scare profile, Pearl rates psychological 4/5, visceral 3/5, gore 3/5, lingering effect 3/5, and overall intensity 3/5.
- Psychological: 4 of 5
- Visceral: 3 of 5
- Gore: 3 of 5
- Lingering: 3 of 5
- Intensity: 3 of 5
Slow burn vs Jump scares: 15 of 100 — leans Slow burn
Supernatural vs Real-world: 95 of 100 — leans Real-world
Fun-scary vs Disturbing: 55 of 100 — balanced
Intensity over runtime
Shape only — no eventsReveal pacing shapeHide pacing shapeHidden by default — shows where the tension peaks and lets up.
A colorful, character-driven slow build that stays mostly calm and quietly unsettling until it erupts hard near the end, with a strange, unnerving comedown after.
Intensity across the runtime, 0 to 100: 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 3.
How scary is Pearl?
On The Horror Database's 0–5 intensity scale, Pearl rates 3/5 — solidly scary, building its fear through slow-burn dread rather than shocks. It works on both fronts, unsettling the mind while going for the body. Expect it to be moderately gory and scary but not punishing. Some of it will follow you to bed, but it lets go within a day or so.
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