The day after X (2022)'s South by Southwest premiere, writer/director Ti West revealed that during a mandatory two-week COVID-19 quarantine in his New Zealand hotel, before production could begin on this film, he wrote a prequel, Pearl (2022). A24 saw the script and greenlit the movie even before production on "X" had wrapped. He asked star Mia Goth if she wished to remain in New Zealand and film "Pearl," and she readily accepted. The prequel released later in 2022.
The title of the films refers to the X rating used by the MPAA from 1968 to 1990, which indicated that a film was only suitable for an audience aged 16 or older. The idea behind the rating was that, unlike the other certificates, X would not be trademarked, and would allow filmmakers to release their film in theaters without needing to submit it to the MPAA for an age certificate. Notable films that were originally released with an X rating include Naranja mecánica (1971), Fritz el gato (1972), Último tango en París (1972), Cowboy de medianoche (1969), and Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971). In the '70s, the porn industry would end up exploiting the X rating's lack of a trademark by releasing pornos in theaters with that same rating. Eventually, X became more associated with porn, and more and more theaters started refusing to show films with an X rating, forcing non-pornographic films to be censored to receive an R rating. In 1990, the MPAA discontinued the X rating and replaced it with NC-17. Unlike X, NC-17 was trademarked and could not be self-applied, but it still meant that most theaters would not show films with the rating, resulting in censorship, once again.
In an interview, Brittany Snow talked about filming the nude scenes, "I think there was a lot of confidence in terms of our characters, and a part of the nudity came from that confidence that our characters exuded. It almost felt necessary, because not only were we filming a porn, but our characters would've been so comfortable with that." Snow said the film "was an exercise in me feeling confident about my body. I was pretty proud of myself."
When the moon is seen rising over the barn, the dark lunar "seas" (located predominantly in the northern half of the moon) are seen at the bottom. This is a result of the movie having been filmed in the southern hemisphere (in New Zealand) rather than in its setting of rural Texas.
There's an adult film called The Farmer's Daughters (1976), which is infamous because it starred future acclaimed mainstream writer and actor Spalding Gray.