A serial killer stalks Hollywood in MaXXXine. Six years after being the sole survivor of the massacre in Texas, adult film star Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) plans to crossover into the mainstream by being cast in the horror film The Puritan II, directed by Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki). However, Maxine is tracked down by Louisiana private investigator John Labat (Kevin Bacon), who blackmails her to see if his employer or her involvement in the massacre would be made public. Maxine ignores his demands and people close to her begin getting brutally killed by a black-gloved killer following the M.O. of the Nightstalker terrorizing Los Angeles. This results in Maxine being questioned by Detectives Williams (Michelle Monaghan) and Torres (Bobby Cannavale).
MaXXXine Synopsis
MaXXXine sees writer/director Ti West conclude the trilogy that began with 2022’s X and continued later that year with the prequel Pearl. MaXXXine picks up the story of Mia Goth’s titular character in Hollywood in 1985, under the background of the real-life reign of terror by the serial killer the Nightstalker, with her living in an apartment above a video store run by her close friend Leon (Moses Sumney). Happy to be cast in her first mainstream role, albeit in a B-movie horror film, Maxine turns down requests from her friends Amber James (Chloe Farnworth) and Tabby Martin (Halsey) to join them at the party in the Hollywood Hills. However, as Maxine begins preparing for her role, her past involvement in the “Texas Porn Star Massacre” comes back to haunt her when she is tracked down by private investigator John Labat, who is the employee of a gloved man, who begins committing Satanic murders in the style of the Nightstalker.
After being questioned by Detectives Williams and Torres about the murders, due to Maxine’s connection to the victims, she begins to experience post-traumatic stress about the events six years prior. Maxine desperately seeks help from her agent and lawyer Teddy Night, Esq. (Giancarlo Esposito) to do something about John Labat’s constant stalking. When these personal issues begin affecting Maxine’s prep for the film, director Elizabeth Bender gives her a weekend to work them out.
My Thoughts on MaXXXine
2022’s X marked Ti West’s comeback to horror, after taking a hiatus from the genre, during which time he directed the Ethan Hawke and John Travolta starring Western thriller In a Valley of Violence. The film becam a trilogy that happened by happenstance, as the script to Pearl was written pre-production of X, while Ti West was in 2 weeks of COVID-19 quarantine. By the time Pearl premiered as part of Midnight Madness at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, MaXXXine was already greenlit.
It is apparent that Ti West wanted each film in this trilogy to have its unique style, with X being a sexploitation slasher and Pearl being a darkly comic fantasy. In the case of MaXXXine, it’s a film about how dark and gritty Los Angeles was in the 1980s, with a serial killer influenced by Italian Giallo films. The kills in the film are quite brutal and in at least one case, difficult to watch.
Sadly, MaXXXine doesn’t end up crossing the finishing line unscathed. The third act of the film gets quite convoluted, including an extremely predictable killer reveal. The film also has the unfortunate habit of introducing predominantly female supporting characters, only for them to be killed off the next time we see them.
That said, MaXXXine probably has the most most stacked cast of any film in Ti West’s filmography. This includes prominent roles for Elizabeth Debicki (Tenet) as horror director Elizabeth Bender, Michelle Monaghan and Bobby Cannavale as Detectives Williams and Torres, Giancarlo Esposito as Maxine’s agent Teddy Night, Esq., and Kevin Bacon bringing the southern sliminess to private investigator John Labat. The film also features appearances by pop star Halsey, Sophie Thatcher (Yellowjackets, The Boogeyman), and Lily Collins as Maxine’s horror co-star Molly Bennett. There is even a cameo by actor and filmmaker Larry Fessenden, who produced many of Ti West’s early films.
While I wouldn’t go as far as to call MaXXXine a disappointment, it does end up being my least favourite film of the X Trilogy. The Nightstalker and Giallo elements don’t seem fully developed and there’s a puzzling and unnecessarily gory moment of (pre-)rape-revenge that seems out of place with the rest of the film, other than Ti West perhaps wanting to reference I Spit on Your Grave. Combined with an ambiguous ending that is incredibly open to interpretation, MaXXXine concludes this trilogy with a whimper rather than a scream.
