GoneTrending

After surprisingly agreeing to an interview on NPR as opposed to his usual choice of more sympathetic venues like Fox News, NewsMax or OANN, Donald Trump essentially rage quit the whole thing after repeatedly being asked about his thoroughly debunked election fraud claims. During the less than 10 minute interview, NPR’s Steve Inskeep did his best to get Trump to defend his allegations of election fraud and asked the former president if Republicans have to support those false claims if they want an endorsement. Trump did not like any of that.

The situation devolved even further when Inskeep asked why more Republicans in the Senate weren’t challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election and have accepted that Biden was the clear winner. Via Mediaite:

Trump replied by raging at McConnell.

“Because Mitch McConnell is a loser,” Trump said. “And frankly, Mitch McConnell, if he were on the other side and if Schumer were put in his position, he would have been fighting this like you’ve never seen before. He would have been fighting this, because when you look at it, and this is long – is a long way from over.”

After Trump blasted Mitch McConnell, Inskeep continued to press Trump on whether the GOP has to push his Big Lie stance to keep his favor, but by that point, Trump had already worked himself up into a froth and abruptly hung up. He should probably stick to fielding softballs from Sean Hannity from now on.

(Via Mediaite)

In mid-November, the Dallas Mavericks boasted a 9-4 record and looked to be building on a 42-30 season from 2020-21. However, there were underlying issues with the Mavericks’ profile and, in short order, things crumbled with a 6-13 stretch that produced plenty of consternation. That 19-game downturn ended with a competitive loss to the Utah Jazz on Christmas Day and, since then, Dallas is 7-1 with an active six-game winning streak that assuages at least some of the doubts around the team.

Over the course of that six-game streak, the Mavericks toppled the Warriors and Bulls, among others, and held Golden State to 82 points in the process. The win over Chicago ended a nine-game winning streak for the Bulls and, during the run, Luka Doncic returned from a lengthy absences. The face of the franchise has appeared in four of the last five games and while Doncic continues to battle shooting issues, he is averaging 11.8 assists and 9.5 rebounds per game while raising the level of the team’s offense.

For the season, the offense has been maddeningly average in Dallas, even with an overall profile that is relatively similar to last season. The problem is that the Mavericks are simply making fewer shots this season. Dallas is shooting just 45.1 percent from the floor and 33.5 percent from three-point range this year after 47 percent and 36.2 percent, respectively, a season ago. That explains most of the downturn, even against a more moderate offensive environment, and Doncic is sporting career-worst marks in true shooting percentage (53.4 percent) and turnover rate (16.6 percent).

Doncic is a proven star and, at this juncture, there is no reason to worry about his contributions. From there, the Mavericks are scoring more than 1.15 points per possession in the last eight games, even as the defense is carrying the largest workload. Dallas is allowing an elite 96.7 points per 100 possessions during the six-game winning streak. Some of that is explained by unsustainably poor three-point shooting (28.7 percent) for opponents, but the fundamentals are stronger, and there is reason to believe that the Mavericks can rekindle the elite offense they have showcased in previous seasons with Doncic.

As of Tuesday, Jan. 11, the Mavericks are projected by FiveThirtyEight’s RAPTOR model to finish fifth in the West with 48 wins. That includes a 96 percent chance to make the playoffs. It might seem high given the team’s current proximity to the play-in tournament, but RAPTOR takes player value into account, illustrating the notion that Dallas is more talented than its early-season results indicate. If nothing else, the West is wide open with a huge gap after the top four in the standings and, at present, there is no reason to think the Mavericks can’t keep most of this going in pursuit of the No. 5 seed.

Where do the Mavs rank in the hierarchy of our DIME power rankings this week? Let’s explore.

1. Phoenix Suns (31-9, Last week — 1st)

Phoenix wasn’t a given in the top spot after a weirdly ugly loss at home to Miami. That hiccup matters, but the Suns are 4-1 in the last five games. Phoenix has the best record in the league, but they will have to hold off the insane charge of the No. 2 team.

2. Memphis Grizzlies (29-14, Last week — 5th)

The Grizzlies haven’t lost since before Christmas. Some of the victories during Memphis’ 10-game winning streak don’t jump off the page, but the Grizzlies beat the Suns and Nets on the road before sweeping through Los Angeles and then beating the Warriors on Tuesday. It’s been quite a run for Memphis, and the Grizzlies should be taken seriously.

3. Golden State Warriors (30-10, Last week — 1st)

Golden State has the better profile for the full season, but the head-to-head loss in Memphis prompts a flip-flop. The Warriors are operating without Draymond Green, which matters a great deal, but return of Klay Thompson is an unquestionable positive. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the Warriors were back at No. 1 in short order.

4. Utah Jazz (28-13, Last week — 2nd)

Utah dips a little bit, but there is no reason to panic. The Jazz are 1-3 in the last four games, but all three losses came without Rudy Gobert. Predictably, Utah’s defense cratered in that four-game stretch, allowing more than 1.2 points per possession. Gobert’s return should cure most of those ills.

5. Chicago Bulls (27-11, Last week — 3rd)

There wasn’t much to learn from Chicago’s annihilation of Detroit on Tuesday, but the Bulls won that game by 46 points. That is tough to do against any NBA team, and Chicago is 10-1 in the last 11 games. The Bulls drop this week because they finally lost a game, but they are truly rolling.

6. Philadelphia 76ers (23-16, Last week — 6th)

We showered praise upon the Sixers last week, detailing a winning spree. Since then, Philadelphia racked up three more wins without a loss, and the Sixers haven’t dropped a game since Dec. 23 against Atlanta. Philadelphia’s peripherals still aren’t incredible, but this recent stretch is highly encouraging, especially with a looming Ben Simmons trade if they want to make one.

7. Dallas Mavericks (22-18, Last week — 11th)

Dallas has national TV road games in New York and Memphis on Wednesday and Friday. Those are nice tests for the resurgent Mavs, and it would be nice to see a little more from Doncic as he gets back in the swing of things.

8. Milwaukee Bucks (26-17, Last week — 6th)

The Bucks got swept by the Hornets in a two-game set in Charlotte, which isn’t ideal by any stretch. Milwaukee was without Jrue Holiday, though, and the Bucks are forced to play some lineups that aren’t exactly reminiscent of their championship run. Overall, things are just fine, but they haven’t been full strength much this season.

9. Brooklyn Nets (25-14, Last week — 8th)

Quietly, the Nets are only 4-6 in the last 10 games. Brooklyn’s defense looks strong on paper, but the Nets have allowed 1.16 points per possession in January. The Nets have been better on offense, but they aren’t firing at the same level they were a season ago when it comes to putting the ball in the basket.

10. Miami Heat (25-15, Last week — 10th)

This is going to be an interesting week for Miami. The Heat just picked up a pair of road wins over Portland and Phoenix, but Miami now faces Atlanta (twice), Philadelphia, and Toronto in the next four contests. Expectations are high for the Heat, and they can set the tone a bit in the East with this stretch.

11. Cleveland Cavaliers (23-18, Last week — 9th)

The last two losses for Cleveland are totally explainable in that they came to Memphis and Golden State. Zooming out, though, the Cavs have leveled off a bit with a 4-6 mark in the last 10 games. If you’re looking for optimism, Cleveland is still 21-14 when Darius Garland plays this season.

12. Toronto Raptors (20-18, Last week — 16th)

Toronto saw a six-game winning streak snapped on Tuesday, but the Raptors still rise in the rankings. For one, the streak-busting loss came by a narrow margin to the No. 1 Suns. For another, the Raptors are now up to No. 13 in the NBA in net rating and, since the beginning of December, Toronto is 11-5 with a +4.4 net rating.

13. Charlotte Hornets (22-19, Last week — 20th)

After a hollow period, the Hornets just enjoyed a great week. Charlotte won three straight, bludgeoning the Pistons before sweeping the Bucks in a two-game set. The Hornets showcasing an elite offense, scoring 112.6 points per 100 possessions, and that is good enough to keep them afloat with even reasonable defensive efficiency.

14. Los Angeles Lakers (21-20, Last week — 14th)

Sunday’s loss to the Grizzlies wasn’t tremendous in that Memphis was simply the more physical team. Before that, the Lakers did win four games in a row, but all four wins came at home against non-elite opponents. That qualifies as a “ho-hum” kind of winning streak.

15. Minnesota Timberwolves (20-21, Last week — 15th)

Minnesota might’ve risen in the pecking order if not for Brandon Ingram’s game-winner on Tuesday. That isn’t a disastrous loss for the Wolves, but they did give up nearly 130 points and it wasn’t the best performance. Now, Minnesota faces Memphis and Golden State in the next two games. That’s a challenge for any team.

16. Boston Celtics (20-21, Last week — 13th)

The Celtics have been within two games of the .500 mark every day since Nov. 3. Boston is the epitome of average right now, and there is a great deal of consternation around that. They do have a top-five defense, but the offense is ugly, both on paper and on the floor.

17. New York Knicks (20-21, Last week — 17th)

New York hasn’t been the same this season on defense, but that doesn’t apply to the last nine games. The Knicks are 6-3 in their last nine, giving up only 1.04 points per possession during that run. Opponent shooting struggles always help, but there is nothing terribly out of the ordinary in the numbers, and it would be fair to suggest the Knicks can (or should) be better on defense than they have been in the first half of the campaign.

18. L.A. Clippers (21-21, Last week — 18th)

A head-to-head win over Denver on Tuesday keeps the Clippers one spot ahead of the Nuggets. That isn’t to say things are going well in L.A., because they aren’t, but the Clippers did pick up a nice win over the scuffling Hawks on Sunday and followed it up with another victorious effort.

19. Denver Nuggets (20-19, Last week — 12th)

Usually, holding an opponent to 87 points is enough to win in the current NBA. The Nuggets did that against the Clippers on Tuesday and lost anyway. A six-game homestand begins on Thursday, though, with the opportunity to pick up some wins.

20. Washington Wizards (21-20, Last week — 19th)

It isn’t a celebratory occasion to beat the Magic and Thunder, but the Wizards did just win back-to-back games. Of course, that was followed by the news that Montrezl Harrell and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope had a scuffle during the game, casting a shadow over an otherwise positive evening.

21. Atlanta Hawks (17-22, Last week — 22nd)

If you want to take a positive viewpoint, the Hawks are no longer battered by COVID protocols, and this is the healthiest the team has been in weeks. If you want to face the other direction, Atlanta is 6-13 in the last 19 games, with some reported frustration in the mix, and the defense is a true problem.

22. New Orleans Pelicans (15-26, Last week — 26th)

As noted in the Wolves section above, New Orleans picked up a last-second win behind Brandon Ingram on Tuesday. The Pelicans haven’t fully overcome a hideous 3-16 start, but they are 12-10 in the last 22 games. That’s closer to what was expected from New Orleans this season.

23. San Antonio Spurs (15-25, Last week — 21st)

Just three weeks ago, the Spurs seemed to be coming on strong after a 10-5 stretch. Since then, San Antonio is 1-7 with a hideous offensive rating (102.2 points per 100) that makes the team’s overall profile appear ugly. The good news is that the Spurs have the next six games at home, but they gave back the gains from December.

24. Portland Trail Blazers (16-24, Last week — 25th)

It’s been fashionable, even in this space, to bury the Blazers without Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. There are big-picture concerns with this roster situation, but Portland is 3-2 in the last five games before starting a six-game road trip. It could be worse!

25. Indiana Pacers (15-26, Last week — 27th)

Indiana’s season-long profile remains incredibly weird. The Pacers are 15th in the NBA in net rating, basically playing dead-even basketball in the process. However, Indiana is 3-10 in the last 13 games, falling 11 games under .500 at the midway point of the season. Good luck parsing that.

26. Sacramento Kings (16-27, Last week — 23rd)

Unlike some other teams in this range, the Kings are definitely trying to make the play-in tournament. They’re just having trouble finding success. Five straight losses push Sacramento into a tie for the No. 12 spot in the West, and they need to pick a direction quickly.

27. Detroit Pistons (9-31, Last week — 28th)

The Pistons got absolutely annihilated by the Bulls on Tuesday. That took some of the shine off the week, but Detroit beat another lottery contender in Orlando and then put together an impressive win over Utah. Cade Cunningham was brilliant against the Jazz and, really, that is better than any win-loss result would’ve been for Detroit.

28. Oklahoma City Thunder (13-27, Last week — 24th)

The Thunder are 0-5 in 2022. That is closer to what was expected of Oklahoma City than a relatively impressive 2021 performance, but the Thunder are still competitive. Four of those five losses came by single digits.

29. Houston Rockets (11-31, Last week — 29th)

The Rockets have a 15-game losing streak, a seven-game winning streak and an eight-game losing streak in the same half of a season. That’s truly wild. Houston is 1-11 in the last 12 games, and opponents scored 122.9 points per 100 possessions in those 12 contests. Yikes.

30. Orlando Magic (7-34, Last week — 30th)

Since mid-November, the Magic are 3-23. That kind of run speaks for itself in how gross it’s been, and Orlando has been outscored by 9.7 points per 100 possessions. The Pistons and Rockets aren’t far off when it comes to point differential, but a closer look leaves Orlando in pole position for the lead in draft position.

As Travis Scott prepares to defend himself from an avalanche of lawsuits from Astroworld survivors, another lawsuit has cropped up across the Atlantic. According to TMZ, a French artist, Mickaël Mehala — also known as Black Childish — is suing Travis over artwork from the compilation project Travis La Flame. Mehala’s painting depicting Travis as a centaur in a desert landscape was used as the cover, but Mehala says he did not give the rapper permission to do so.

According to Mehala, he created the painting in 2015 and DMed it to Travis in 2016, when the project was released. The painter never heard back but was surprised to see the artwork used as the cover. He says he registered a copyright in 2019 and has since tried to contact Travis and his management, only to be contacted by an attorney for the rapper who told him Travis was unaware that the art belonged to anyone. The project has since been removed from streaming platforms, but Mehala wants “hundreds of thousands” in restitution for the years it was in use and sole control of its use going forward.

Meanwhile, Complex notes that the compilation may not even be an official Travis Scott release and as we’ve seen before, artists’ projects have been uploaded to DSPs without their knowledge or consent in the past. Considering that Travis La Flame is made up of older tracks of Travis’ — including several from his Days Before Rodeo mixtape, it’s possible that this is the case here. Of course, Travis has been accused of plagiarism and unauthorized use of artwork in the past, so it looks like we’ll have to wait to see what a court thinks.

At the top of February, Mitski’s new album Laurel Hell will be out in the world. Before the LP’s February 4 release, though, Mitski has offered another preview of it with “Love Me More.” The track is dramatic and energetic and the accompanying video is a constantly engaging and artistic affair that explores a number of visual and thematic ideas in aesthetically captivating ways.

Mitski says of the song:

“As ‘Love Me More’ was written pre-pandemic, lyrics like ‘If I keep myself at home’ had different meanings than what they would now, but I kept them on the album because I found that some of the sentiments not only remained the same, but were accentuated by the lockdown.

‘Love Me More’ went through the most iterations out of all the songs on the album. It’s been too fast, too slow, and at some point, it was even an old-style country song. Finally, I think because we had watched The Exorcist, we thought of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells and experimented with floating an ostinato over the chorus. As we steadily evolved the ostinato to fit over the chord progressions, we began to hear how the track was meant to sound.”

Watch the “Love Me More” video above.

Laurel Hell is out 2/4 via Dead Oceans. Pre-order it here.

Ted Cruz simply cannot stop attracting negative attention to himself. It’s easy to wonder, as well, about how Ted might be wanting to distract everyone from his impending one-year anniversary of “Cancun,” but nope, this is probably only a case of Ted being Ted. He’s never, ever deflated, not even after being caught “liking” a porn tweet or being unflatteringly compared to a Game of Thrones character for groveling to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson after (accurately) describing January 6 as a “terrorist attack.”

Ted’s month keeps growing ever more squirrelly, and his current appeal to the Supreme Court is a prime example. The above Getty photo (of Ted smugly shaking the hand of the Trump-nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh in 2018) goes with the theme well. That theme’s related to what recently landed Lauren Boebert in hot water: using campaign funds to pay personal expenses. Ted’s now brought a sketchy case (Federal Election Commission v. Ted Cruz for Senate) to the Supreme Court that asks them to essentially legalize campaign bribes. At the very least, the case means to loosen restrictions, and it would do so — with a confusing loophole — by removing limits on how much a candidate can “loan” their campaign and how these loans could be repaid by donations that go straight to the candidate.

In a roundabout way, this means that candidates can directly take donations (which could very well be bribes) and bypass their campaign-related red tape in the process. They would also earn interest on the money during these loans, in addition to taking what could be bribes without checks and balances. It’s crafty as hell, as Vox points out:

And even if lawmakers do not enrich themselves by making high-interest loans to their campaign, the fact remains that every dollar a campaign donor gives to help a campaign pay back a loan from the candidate goes straight into that candidate’s pocket. As the Justice Department argues in its brief defending against Cruz’s lawsuit, “a contribution that adds to a candidate’s personal assets (and that can accordingly be used for personal purposes) poses a far greater threat of corruption than a payment that merely adds to a campaign’s treasury (and that can accordingly be used only for campaign purposes).”

While a decision in Cruz’s favor could effectively make it legal for wealthy donors to bribe lawmakers, Cruz has a very good chance of prevailing in a Supreme Court where Republicans control six of the Court’s nine seats.

Unshockingly (and as pointed out above), the Justice Department is looking to shut down Cruz’s case, but the court’s leaning in Cruz’s favor, particularly because Brett Kavanaugh has (in the past) argued that limits on campaign contributions are somehow unconstitutional. Whatever the outcome of this case turns out to be, no one on Twitter seems to be surprised at all that Ted Cruz wouldn’t mind effectively legalizing bribery through campaign donations.

(Via Vox & SCOTUS Blog)

Coldplay first formed after Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland met at college back in 1996. The seeds of Martin’s desire to even pursue music, though, run deeper than that: During his appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show yesterday, he said the movie Back To The Future, specifically the iconic scene where Michael J. Fox performs at the school dance, made him want to be in a band.

Martin told Clarkson, “We’ve been so lucky with people we get to do covers with, when there’s a special moment, or a city we’re in where a cover feels right, or a person who’s there that we want to ask to come on stage. My No. 1 probably is [when] Micheal J. Fox came and played two of the songs from Back To The Future with us in MetLife Stadium, and that was really wonderful.”

He then added, “That’s what made me want to be in a band, that scene. […] I grew up in real farm land of England before the internet, so any music on TV… the first thing I ever recorded was, there was a show called The A-Team, and I had a cassette recorder and held it against the TV to record the theme tune.”

The performance Martin is talking about took place at the East Rutherford, New Jersey venue on July 17, 2016, when Fox joined the band to perform a couple of Back To The Future staples: “Earth Angel” by The Penguins and “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry. Coldplay shared pro-shot footage of the “Johnny B. Goode” performance not long after it took place, and the video shows Martin often flashing a wide smile that indicates he can’t believe what he’s doing in that moment. After the song ends, he proclaims, “Oh, that’s our dream come true. Thank you, Michael.”

Watch a clip of Martin’s interview above and find Coldplay and Fox’s joint performances below.

Coldplay is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Between being stripped of his license to practice law in either New York or Washington, D.C. and banned from yukking it up on Fox News, one has to imagine that Rudy Giuliani’s cell phone (the one the FBI didn’t snatch up when they raided his apartment back in April) has been going through a bit of a dry spell. So maybe he’ll be happy to hear that someone wants to talk to him… even if it is the January 6th Select Committee.

As Forbes reports, Select Committee chairman Bennie Thompson told a pair of CNN reporters that Giuliani is at the top of their list of key Donald Trump associates who undoubtedly have valuable information to share with the committee about Trump’s comings and goings-on and surrounding the Capitol insurrection. “He’s an integral part of whatever happens,” Thompson said of the disgraced former New York City Mayor.

Though Thompson did not specify a timeline for when they might want to speak with Rudy, he was certain that they “absolutely” would call on the man formerly known as America’s Mayor at some point. He also didn’t say whether they would be subpoenaing Giuliani or if they expected him to voluntarily cooperate with their investigation, only noting that the committee is currently “working through the process.”

In the final days of Trump’s presidency, Rudy was regularly at his side and one of his most vociferous supporters (even if he sometimes seemed less than coherent). As the former president’s personal lawyer, he was also part of a very tiny inner circle that reportedly set up a kind of war room at the Willard Hotel to find a way to keep Trump in power. While Steve Bannon, who was also there, has already proudly stated that he did indeed plot to make the fatal events of January 6th happen, Giuliani is famous for going off-script, so it’s hard to know what he’ll say. Or whether they’ll be an accompanying PowerPoint presentation.

(Via Forbes)

WARNING: Spoilers for The Book of Boba Fett Episode 3 below.

About halfway through the latest episode of The Book of Boba Fett, longtime Star Wars fans were not only created with the return of a classic creature, the Rancor, but its handler was none other than cinematic badass and frequent Robert Rodriguez collaborator Danny Trejo. Now, to be clear, this is obviously not the same Rancor from Return of the Jedi, which was killed by Luke Skywalker in the film’s opening escape from Jabba the Hutt’s palace. No, this new Rancor is a much younger creature gifted to Boba Fett by Jabba’s twin cousins who are getting the heck out of Dodge. (Or so they claim.)

As for Trejo, his character appears to be a new addition to Star Wars lore as he’s simply credited as “Rancor Trainer.” However, he seems to have a much meatier part than the previous Rancor Keeper from Return of the Jedi, who didn’t really say much of anything except for breaking down in tears when Luke crushed his baby with a mechanical door. While introducing Boba Fett to the new Rancor, Trejo’s characters explained the creature’s surprising emotional depth, and more importantly, set the stage for Boba to ride the thing, which yes, sign us up for that.

In the meantime, Trejo is already trending on social media where Star Wars fans are absolutely loving his addition to The Book of Boba Fett, and the fact that he remains a welcomed presence in Rodriguez’s work. You can see some of the fan reactions below:

Ted Cruz has lost track of what he believes. Last week, on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Capitol insurrection, Cruz—who has spent the last 12 months regularly downplaying the events of January 6th—suddenly decided to condemn that day’s riots as a “violent terrorist attack.” But when Tucker Carlson criticized the Texas senator for his bold assertion, Cruz quickly folded then popped up on Fox News to raise the white flag and admit that what he had said was “frankly dumb” while Carlson berated him.

That 24-hour about-face could have been the end of it, had Cruz simply chosen to slink off back to his cave while the rest of the world labeled him a “sniveling coward” and compared him to Reek from Game of Thrones. Instead, the unofficial ambassador of Señor Frog’s Cancun has decided to double-down on his previous treatment of January 6th as anything but a “violent terrorist attack” by declaring it a false flag operation.

As Raw Story reports, Cruz is doing everything he can to become a VIP member of Club MAGA once again, most recently by spending some time chatting with Sean Hannity on Tuesday night. When the topic turned to the Capitol coup, Cruz broke out a popular conspiracy theory that the events of that day were a false flag operation, claiming that insurrectionist Ray Epps was an FBI informant. As Cruz told Hannity:

“I asked FBI [official Jill Sanborn], ‘Is Mr. Epps an agent of the FBI? Is he an informant of the FBI?’ And she stonewalled, refused to answer. We know the FBI put him out on the list of people they wanted information about, and then magically he disappeared. There needs to be transparency, and the Biden administration needs to fess up—is this a politicized law enforcement operation that is targeting the enemies of the president? And did they actively encourage and solicit illegal conduct?”

It was the second time that Cruz pushed this idea on Tuesday, having made the same general assertions earlier in the day during a legislative hearing, writes Raw Story. The January 6th House select committee issued an unequivocal response to Cruz’s suggestions on Tuesday, stating:

“The Committee has interviewed Epps. Epps informed us that he was not employed by, working with, or acting at the direction of any law enforcement agency on Jan 5th or 6th or at any other time and that he has never been an informant for the FBI or any other law enforcement agency.”

People on Twitter had some thoughts about Reek Cruz, with many of them attempting to remind him who the president was on January 6, 2021 (hint: not Joe Biden).

(Via Raw Story)

After putting out many of the best movies of 2021, including The Green Knight, Zola, and Red Rocket, A24 has another big year ahead. 2022 will see the release of Disappointment Blvd., Ari Aster’s mysterious follow-up to Hereditary and Midsommar starring Joaquin Phoenix; the awesome looking Everything Everywhere All at Once; After Yang, from Columbus director Kogonada; and X, which I can only describe as, what if The Texas Chainsaw Massacre… but with porn stars.

The 1970s-set horror film follows “a group of young filmmakers set out to make an adult film in rural Texas, but when their reclusive, elderly hosts catch them in the act, the cast find themselves fighting for their lives,” according to A24. There’s no Leatherface (although Leatherface should appear in non-Massacre movies; he’s been typecast for too long), but X does have creepy weirdos in a middle-of-nowhere Texas house — and plenty of violence. And sex, obviously.

X was written and directed by Ti West, who also made The House of the Devil, In a Valley of Violence, and The Innkeepers, and stars Mia Goth (Suspiria), Jenna Ortega (Jane the Virgin), Martin Henderson (The Ring), Brittany Snow (Pitch Perfect), and Scott Mescudi (a.k.a. rapper Kid Cudi). It comes out in theaters on March 18.