Yes, 6 out of 10. It is a 1918 farm slasher with several brutal scenes and a lead character who is hard to watch.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
6 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Medium
It lasts about a night, mostly because of the lead character.
DOG
Dog: fine
fine, though a goose is killed early on.
Ruling: It is a farm drama that turns into a slasher, so skip it if you hate watching animals get hurt.
Pearl runs 102 minutes and is set on a Texas farm in 1918, where the family is isolating against the Spanish flu. Pearl wants to be a movie star. Her mother wants her to stay home and look after the farm, and the farm comes with an alligator named Theda.
The premise, briefly
In 1918 a young Texas woman, stuck on her family's farm while her husband is away at war, dreams of becoming a film star and keeps a violent temper hidden.
How much do you want to know?
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The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
Pearl kills her mother, the projectionist, her father and her sister-in-law Mitsy, feeding some of the remains to the alligator. Her husband Howard comes home to the rotting bodies, and Pearl greets him with a pained smile.
The scene you're dreading
Late in the movie, the projectionist drives Pearl home, and she stops him from leaving by stabbing him with a pitchfork. She then pushes his car into the pond, where the alligator eats the remains.
The dog
No dog dies in Pearl. A goose does, early on: Pearl kills it with a pitchfork.
Pearl is a farm drama that becomes a slasher, and most of the fear comes from watching Pearl.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
A farm with a paralyzed father and a pet alligator
The story begins in 1918, with Pearl living on her German immigrant parents' farm in Texas while her husband Howard is away fighting in World War I. Her father is paralyzed, and her strict mother Ruth expects Pearl to nurse him and run the farm while the family keeps to themselves to avoid the Spanish flu. Ruth has no patience for Pearl's dream of becoming a chorus girl or a movie star. Pearl is full of repressed anger and chafes at the isolation. She secretly abuses her father and kills animals, and she throws them to an alligator she has nicknamed Theda.
In town, Pearl meets a projectionist who takes a liking to her. Back at the farm she dances with a scarecrow and then has sex with it. Ruth berates her and withholds her food, because Pearl claimed she bought sweets to explain the 8 cents she really spent on a movie ticket. Pearl's wealthy sister-in-law Mitsy tells her about an audition for a dance troupe across the state, and the projectionist shows her a forbidden stag film and tells her to go after her dreams. Pearl feels unable to leave her family, and she wishes they were dead. At dinner Ruth says she knows about the movie trips, and when Pearl asks to audition, Ruth calls her her biggest failure. The argument turns physical, Pearl shoves her mother against the hearth, and Ruth's dress catches fire. Pearl puts it out with boiling water and drags her mother into the basement, then abandons her father and heads to the cinema, where she has sex with the projectionist.
Pitchforks and pillow covers
The next day the projectionist drives Pearl home. He is disturbed by how agitated she is, and by a rotting pig that a relative of Ruth's left at the farm several days earlier. When he tries to leave, Pearl stabs him to death with a pitchfork. This is the scene people dread most, and it comes late in the movie. She pushes his car into the pond, where Theda eats the remains. Pearl then puts on one of Ruth's fine gowns, dresses her father in his best clothes, and smothers him with a pillow cover.
The ending, explained
Pearl goes to the audition sure that her dance will impress the scouts, and they turn her down, saying she is too old, wrong hair color and not the "all-American" type they want. Mitsy goes home with her to console her, and Pearl confesses everything: her resentment of Howard, her affair, the animals, and the murders of her parents and the projectionist. She presses a stunned Mitsy until Mitsy admits she won the audition herself. Mitsy then tries to get away, Pearl goes after her with an axe, catching her in the driveway, cuts up the body and feeds it to Theda, then lies down in the basement next to Ruth's corpse. She decides to make up for her crimes by building a home for Howard. Some time later he returns to find the long-decomposed bodies of her parents seated at the dining table around a rotting feast. Howard stares in horror. Pearl gives him a long, pained smile and tells him she's so happy he's home.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, though a goose is killed early on.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Pearl scary?
Yes. Pearl is a 6 out of 10: a period farm drama that becomes a slasher, with several brutal killings and a lead character who is hard to watch.
How does Pearl end?
Pearl is rejected at the audition, kills Mitsy with an axe, feeds her to the alligator, and waits for her husband. Howard comes home to the decomposed bodies of her parents at the dining table, and Pearl smiles at him.
Does the dog die in Pearl?
No, no dog dies in Pearl. A farm goose does, early in the movie: Pearl kills it with a pitchfork.
Is there a post-credits scene in Pearl?
No. Pearl has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
Who is Theda in Pearl?
Theda is the alligator Pearl nicknamed and keeps feeding. In Pearl she eats the animals Pearl kills, the projectionist's remains and the remains of Mitsy.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of Pearl is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
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