Kid Cudi Channels His Inner Porn Star in X Trailer

A24 has released the trailer for its next slasher X, directed by Ti West, and it comes with a decidedly A24 spin: it takes place amidst a pornographic movie shoot. When the cast and crew arrives to “set”, the homeowner (played by Stephen Ure) reveals his wife is unwell and relegates them to a shabby shack on the property. Naturally, all kinds of horrific chaos ensues.

This is certainly not the popular distributor’s first foray into the adult film narrative—both Zola and Red Rocket, two films released by A24 last year, poke and prod at the type of contemporary sex work that makes it on camera. But X takes place in 1979, and seemingly has the energy of a slasher film like Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Friday the 13th.

Kid Cudi (billed as Scott Mescudi) joins Brittany Snow, Mia Goth, Martin Henderson, and Owen Campbell as the crew traveling to Texas. Jenna Ortega also joins the cast of X, as part of the film crew that arrives in Texas only to be (presumably) brutally murdered. The young former Disney star seems to certainly be making her way into scream queen territory this year, coming fresh off the release of the new Scream film, in which she also stars. It’s not a new genre necessarily for Goth, either, who recently starred in Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria, a remake of Dario Argento’s giallo film. But it definitely feels like a departure from the previous work of Snow and Mescudi, both of whom play the porn stars in X, which debuts March 18.