Line #85 Film/XX


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/xx_1.jpg]]
2	[=XX=] is a Horror AnthologyFilm directed by Roxanne Benjamin, Sofia Carrillo, Creator/KarynKusama, Music/StVincent, and Jovanka Vuckovic. It stars Creator/NatalieBrown, Creator/MelanieLynskey, Breeda Wool, and Christina Kirk. The main gimmick of the movie was that all of the four segments were directed by women.
3
4	* '''The Box''': A young boy, Danny, (Peter [=DaCunha=]) lost the will to live after looking inside a mysterious red box from a strange man on a train. Much to the fear of his family, he refused to eat anything, slowly starving himself to death. Based on a short story by Creator/JackKetchum.
5	* '''The Birthday Party''': Mary (Melanie Lynskey) was setting up a birthday party for her daughter Lucy. However, things took a turn for the worse when she finds out her husband had committed suicide. She would have to hide the body so it doesn't ruin the party.
6	* '''Don't Fall''': A monster in the woods story where four friends led Gretchen, who was afraid of heights, to a cursed cave. They got more than they bargained for, as their friend got possessed by an evil spirit.
7	* '''Her Only Living Son''': A single mother, Cora, had to deal with her troubled teenage son, Andy. However, she soon finds out said son was a spawn of Satan himself.
8
9	The framing device that connected the segments together was a StopMotionAnimation depicting a walking dollhouse, directed by Sofia Carrillo.
10
11	It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2017, and was released in a limited release and through video on demand on February 17, 2017.
12
13	Not to be confused with ''Film/XXx''
14
15	----
16	!!''XX'' provides examples of:
17
18	[[foldercontrol]]
19
20	[[folder:The movie in general]]
21	* AnyoneCanDie: As per the horror tradition, most or all of the characters bite it either before or at the end of each segment except for the Birthday Party.
22	[[/folder]]
23
24	[[folder:Framing Device]]
25	* CreepyChild: The dollhouse's friend.
26	* CreepyDoll: The camera follows a dollhouse with a porcelain doll's face and limbs.
27	* HeartDrive: What the dollhouse is ultimately trying to find for its friend.
28	[[/folder]]
29
30	[[folder:The Box]]
31	* ArcWords: "Nothing."
32	* BodyHorror:
33	** Susan's nightmare, where a large chunk of flesh has been carved from her leg and arm.
34	** By Christmas, Danny is pretty emaciated from having gone without eating for so long.
35	* CreepyChild: Danny after peeking inside the man's red box, and his sister too after he passes on the secret. Especially creepy during Susan's nightmare about the family eating her for dinner.
36	* CrusadingWidow: [[spoiler: When her family finally starves to death, Susan becomes determined to find the man with the box.]]
37	* CuriosityKilledTheCast: Danny should not have peeked inside that box. And the others should not have strived to find out from him what was in the box.
38	* DeathSeeker: Danny. Whatever he sees inside the box saps his will to live. He doesn't care that he's going to starve to death. The same thing happens to Jenny and Robert when they get told the secret. [[spoiler: At the end, it's implied Susan becomes one too, as she knows what will happen if she looks inside the man's box but wants to find him anyway.]]
39	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Danny tells his sister and his dad what he saw inside the box, but we never find out what he told them. All three of them starve to death, leaving Susan alone. Now, she searches for the man and the red box, unable to stop her curiosity as to what was inside.]]
40	* EatenAlive: Susan has a nightmare in which she is carved up by her family, who then devour her flesh, all while she is still alive... and smiling.
41	* EurekaMoment: When Danny hands Susan a box exactly like the one the man showed him, Susan realizes why he and the rest of her family have stopped eating.
42	* FoodPorn: Played with. Lots of shots of uneaten food that looks really tasty.
43	* HollywoodGiftwrap: This is how the eponymous box is wrapped. Of course, there is a good chance [[TheSpook the man carrying the box]] wanted someone to look inside. And it is never revealed exactly who the box was a present for...
44	* ImAHumanitarian: Susan has a nightmare where she is being consumed by her family.
45	* NightmareSequence: Susan suffers a nightmare where she's [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalized by her family at the dinner table]].
46	* NothingIsScarier: [[spoiler:We never find out what's in the box, who (or what) the man carrying it was, and why he showed it to Danny.]]
47	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Robert hits an AngerBornOfWorry RageBreakingPoint when Danny refuses to eat pizza, his favorite food.
48	* SchmuckBait: The Movie.
49	* TheSpook: Who is the guy with the red box? [[spoiler:We never know.]]
50	[[/folder]]
51
52	[[folder:The Birthday Party]]
53	* AlcoholicParent: David has a whole shelf of alcohol in his office, along with a flask in his suit jacket, and he died with an empty glass in his hand.
54	%%* BasedOnATrueStory
55	* BedsheetGhost: After a PottyFailure ruins Lucy's first costume, Mary makes her a new costume as a bedsheet ghost.
56	* ABirthdayNotABreak: Mary feels compelled to keep her husband's death a secret so as not to spoil their daughter's birthday.
57	* BlackComedy: Mary's attempts to keep her normal suburbia-hell life on track while also hiding her husband's body are darkly hilarious.
58	* BodyInABreadbox: Or, more accurately, Body In A [[spoiler: Panda-Suit]].
59	* ControlFreak: Downplayed. Mary is implied to be one, to the detriment of Lucy, but she truly does love Lucy and doesn't want her birthday to be ruined.
60	* {{Determinator}}: Mary absolutely refuses to let her husband's suicide ruin Lucy's birthday, going to increasingly desperate and outlandish lengths to hide the body.
61	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: David's body is eventually discovered and the title cards imply that it scarred Lucy for life]].
62	* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Mary's assistant Carla, intensified by her all-black wardrobe and dark makeup.
63	* EitherOrTitle: ''The Birthday Party, or, [[spoiler:The Memory Lucy Suppressed From Her Seventh Birthday That Wasn't Really Her Mom's Fault (Even Though Her Therapist Says It's Probably Why She Fears Intimacy)''.]]
64	* HarmfulToMinors: What Mary is trying to prevent; she doesn't want her young daughter and the other kids at the party to see her husband's body and be traumatized. [[spoiler: She fails. [[CrowdPanic Spectacularly]].]]
65	* INeedAFreakingDrink:
66	** After hiding David in [[spoiler: a panda-suit]] just as the guests arrive, Mary pours his flask into her drink.
67	** Clara, already exasperated by the party, takes a swig from David's supply when she thinks no one is around.
68	* JumpScare: To Mary, when Carla appears behind her out of nowhere.
69	* JustEatGilligan: The entire plot could have been avoided if Mary had just called the police about her husband's suicide and didn't touch his body, though this is somewhat justified as a case of her being a ControlFreak who is aware she's causing her young daughter distress and, in a nonsensical way, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero doesn't want to make it worse]].
70	* NeverMyFault: Mary brushes off comments from her daughter's therapist that state she's the reason for Lucy's anxiety. [[spoiler:The title also implies she'll feel this way after her daughter is scarred for life, when it would have been easier to just call the police.]]
71	* OddballInTheSeries: Unlike the other segments, this one is a BlackComedy more than a horror; there is NoAntagonist or real danger (save the danger of potential childhood trauma), with the source of the conflict being Mary trying to avoid anyone finding her husband's body during their kid's party.
72	* OfCorpseHesAlive: [[spoiler:Mary dresses her husband's corpse in a panda suit and props it up at the head of the table]]. The charade lasts for a remarkably long time.
73	* PottyFailure: A potty failure ruins Lucy's first costume, causing Mary to make her a new one as a BedsheetGhost.
74	* StealingFromTheTill: Clara is helping herself to her employers' liquor.
75	* StoppedCaring [[spoiler: By the time David's body is discovered, Mary is too drunk/exhausted to care, she ends up just sitting there, [[ThousandYardStare staring blankly]], as everyone around her freaks out.]]
76	[[/folder]]
77
78	[[folder:Don't Fall]]
79	* CatScare: At one point, Paul pretends he's being attacked and ducks down behind some rocks, and then goes quiet. Gretchen gets scared and goes to look for him. When she turns around to argue with the rest of the group, something sneaks up behind her. [[spoiler: It's just Paul, milking the joke.]]
80	* DangerousKeyFumble: Jay drops the keys to the RV when he goes back to rescue Jess. He has to go back and attempt to retrieve them from under the broken window where Gretchen is lurking outside.
81	* DontGoInTheWoods: Don't bribe the gas station attendant to tell you about a cool off-road camping spot in the middle of the desert.
82	* EvilMakesYouMonstrous: Gretchen begins to transform into... something... soon after her possession.
83	* FromDressToDressing: When Jess falls off a cliff and breaks her leg, she rips up her top and turns it into a tourniquet.
84	* GrandTheftMe: The evil spirit attacks and kills Gretchen, taking over her body.
85	* IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight: Gretchen's girlfriend, Jess, tries this. [[spoiler: No dice.]]
86	* LivingShadow: The spirit.
87	* OnlySaneMan: Jay takes one look at Demon!Gretchen and immediately [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere tries to leave in the van]]. [[spoiler: It doesn't help.]]
88	* PoorCommunicationKills: [[spoiler: If Jay had actually explained what was wrong with Gretchen, the others probably wouldn't have stopped him from ditching her.]]
89	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: OnlySaneMan Jay takes one look at Demon!Gretchen and immediately tries to leave in the van. [[spoiler: It doesn't help.]]
90	* TheStoner: Paul.
91	* TaintedVeins: The first visible sign of Gretchen's transformation is the veins in the palm of the hand that touched the cave wall turning black.
92	* TitleDrop: Gretchen's girlfriend teases her by saying "don't fall" when they're standing on the edge of a rock formation.
93	* TransformationTrauma: The transformation Gretchen undergoes into [[spoiler:human/spider hybrid]] is extremely rapid and painful.
94	* WallCrawl: [[spoiler: Gretchen does this at the end to get to Jess.]]
95	* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Gretchen is afraid of heights. Jess pretends to push her over the edge of a cliff in a practical joke that sets the plot in motion.
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:Her Only Living Son]]
99	* AdultsAreUseless: After Andy violently attacks another student and sends her to the emergency room, the school refuses to do anything, even going so far as to blame the victim, [[spoiler:as they're in the same cult Chet is.]]
100	* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: Andy gives one at the end. [[spoiler: It gets him and his mother killed.]]
101	* AntiAntichrist: [[spoiler:What Cora tries to persuade him to be. She succeeds, but they're both killed.]]
102	* TheAntichrist: [[spoiler:Andy is the offspring of Cora and Satan, destined to bring about an "empire of misery".]]
103	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Andy and Cora both suffer painful deaths on his birthday, but both resist the lure of Satan's power and die together, affirming their love for each other.]]
104	* CatapultNightmare: Cora after a dream/flashback about the birth of her son.
105	* DeadAnimalWarning: Andy nails a dead squirrel to a tree outside Cora's home.
106	* DeadlyNosebleed: Cora and Andy both develop nosebleeds when they are hugging, [[spoiler:attempting to withstand Satan's assault on them. They die]].
107	* DisappearedDad: Cora mentions that Andy's father had no interest in raising him, preferring to carouse around Hollywood with girlfriends. [[spoiler:Because he knows he's not the real father, and just sold Cora out for fame and fortune.]]
108	* {{Fingore}}: Andy is described as ripping [[NoodleIncident another student's fingernails off.]] [[spoiler:She may not be his only victim, judging by the box of nails and fingertips under his bed.]]
109	* EvilAllAlong: [[spoiler: The cute postman who flirts with Cora]] is actually a cultist.
110	* {{Jerkass}}: Andy is a really nasty person. He nails squirrels to trees, rips off his classmates' fingernails, and displays a strong sense of hostility towards his mother. [[spoiler:Of course, this should all be expected, since he's the Antichrist. Although he performs a HeelFaceDoorslam at the end.]]
111	* KickTheDog: A literal variant happens just offscreen.
112	* MamaBear: Cora stands up to Satan himself for her son.
113	* ThePowerOfLove: [[spoiler:How Cora wins Andy over.]]
114	* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Only for him to be killed when he embraces her.]]
115	* StealthSequel: [[spoiler:To ''[[Film/RosemarysBaby Rosemary's Baby]]'', although it barely tries to hide it.]]
116	* YouHaveFailedMe: [[spoiler:Satan [[OffingTheOffspring murders Andy]] for refusing to accept his destiny.]]

Context Film / XX