In 2022, writer/director Ti West shocked the horror world by dropping not one but two films at once: his 70s slasher X and, six months later, its decades-earlier prequel Pearl. Now, he wraps up this surprising trilogy with MaXXXine, trading the rural farmhouse for the big city. Unfortunately, despite the larger scale and a star-studded cast, there isn’t much to enjoy beneath the surface.
The year is 1985, and in the six years since being the sole survivor in X, actress Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) has relocated to Hollywood and has become a huge star in the porn world. Maxine’s still hellbent on being a mainstream Hollywood star, and she finally lands her first role as the lead in director Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki)’s next horror film, “The Puritan II.” However, a couple more roadblocks will come between her and stardom: Namely, a serial killer named the Night Stalker who has been targeting people close to her, a shady private investigator (Kevin Bacon) who may know something about Maxine’s past and two detectives (Bobby Cannavale and Michelle Monaghan) hot on the killer’s trail.
Before the film starts, there’s a quote from legendary actress Bette Davis: “Until you’re known in my profession as a monster, you’re not a star.” Funnily enough, that quote clues into why the movie didn’t work much for me. To West’s credit, like his previous two films, MaXXXine displays his knowledge of the aesthetics that each film inhabits, in this case, the 80s slashers and Giallo films. In particular, MaXXXine plays very similar to Brian De Palma’s 1984 erotic thriller Body Double.
“The entire X trilogy has been a showcase for Mia Goth’s incredible talents, and once again, she captures your attention the moment she’s on screen.”
That film was one that De Palma made in response to the criticism he was receiving for his other erotic thrillers at the time, and he intentionally went all out with sexuality and violence. It seems like in making a movie that wants to be as sleazy as those thrillers; you need elements of sleaziness in your real-life personality. West doesn’t have that, and as a result, MaXXXine feels way too sanitized and glossy to stand alongside those thrillers.
X had similar issues in recapturing the griminess of the 70s beyond aesthetics, but it worked better as a whole because the homage was balanced out by the film’s commentary of linking the porn industry at the time to the 70’s independent cinema boom, and Pearl side-stepped those issues entirely because it was focused on being a character study on top of the Golden Age homage. While MaXXXine focuses its commentary on the Satanic panic that was rampant at the time, it feels more like set dressing rather than doing anything substantial with it.
It’s not just the aesthetics that ring hollow, the story itself isn’t much to write home either. The Night Stalker was a real-life killer in the 80s, and to have him as Maxine’s antagonist is a novel idea, but the stalker’s reveal is both underwhelming and unsurprising. Not to mention, it never felt like Maxine’s harassment and her making the movie ever came into conflict with one another aside from the most minor of ways. Her trauma dealing with the last movie was a bigger struggle for her than the murderer currently killing her friends. There’s even a point where Debicki’s character essentially says “just deal with whatever you got going on and then come back when you’re done to make the movie”. It all just wraps up too neatly for me.
“While MaXXXine focuses its commentary on the Satanic panic that was rampant at the time, it feels more like set dressing rather than doing anything substantial with it.”
All that being said, I still think the cast does a great job overall despite the weak script. The entire X trilogy has been a showcase for Mia Goth’s incredible talents, and once again, she captures your attention the moment she’s on screen. The movie opens with her audition for The Puritan II, and the way she’s able to switch her range of emotions on a dime is impressive every time. The rest of the cast is having a blast as well, the main ones being Kevin Bacon and Bobby Cannavale. Bacon is relishing every second as the slimiest private detective you’ve seen, all the way down to the gold teeth.
Cannavale as Detective Torres, on the other hand, may as well be auditioning to be in a Miami Vice episode and the moments where he and Michelle Monaghan show up give more personality than the usual generic cop characters in horror flicks usually allow. Even Giancarlo Esposito’s brief scenes as Maxine’s lawyer are fun. They all feel like they come from a separate, more interesting movie. Also, like other Ti West films, when it gets violent, it gets really gross, and the practical effects help in a big way. There’s one moment in particular that will have every man in the audience wincing in pain at the same time, and I’ll leave it at that.
As someone who was just lukewarm on X and loved Pearl a lot more, I have no doubt that MaXXXine will work a lot better for fans of the first film. There are moments where I did have a lot of fun, but as the big closer to this trilogy, it just all ends on a somewhat limp note. The most it amounts to is a pretty decent modern cover song. It’s pretty good, but I’d rather go look for the real thing instead.
