MaXXXine (2024)
Director: Ti West
Screenwriter: Ti West
Starring: Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Halsey, Lily Collins, Giancarlo Esposito, Kevin Bacon
X and Pearl, the first two instalments of Ti West’s recent feature film horror series, are stories that, amidst the blood and guts, contain metacommentaries on the evolution of sex and horror in cinema.
Released in 2022, X follows a group of young filmmakers in 1979 Texas who assemble to make a pornographic film at a rural farmhouse, but eventually find themselves at the mercy of the murderous elderly couple who live there. The film featured Mia Goth in duel roles as the young actress Maxine and Pearl, the unhinged older woman who owns the property. Set during both the height of the slasher genre and the second half of the porno-chic era, X plays out against the backdrop of a period in Hollywood when sexually explicit films were going mainstream and filmmakers were actively trying to push the boundaries of just how much sex and violence were acceptable on screen.
Pearl, a prequel to X that was also released in 2022 and shot in tandem with the original film, added another layer to this metacommentary, exploring the origin story of X’s main antagonist, alongside the early days of filmmaking. Set in 1918, Pearl draws influence from the technicolor wonders of the 1930s and 40s, like The Wizard of Oz, and speaks to the lingering Victorian ideals of the time, as well as the isolation and loneliness brought on by World War I and the Spanish Flu pandemic. In one key scene, a young projectionist (David Corenswet) shows Pearl the elicit 1915 film, A Free Ride, which is one of the earliest known pornographic films ever shot.
MaXXXine, which released in North America on July 5 2024, is a direct sequel to X. MaXXXine follows in the footsteps of the previous entries in the series and is a neon-colored pastiche that attempts to comment on a number of defining pop culture moments from the 1980s, including the rise of video rental stores and the Satanic Panic. Unfortunately, while the film is fun to look at, it is also the weakest of the three. Visually striking, but uneven and unfocused, MaXXXine‘s narrative is largely unsatisfying and leaves star Mia Goth with little to do.
MaXXXine picks up 6 years after the grisly events of the previous film that left Maxine at a Texas farmhouse dubbed by the media as “The Texas Pornstar Massacre,” a cheeky nod to X‘s main horror inspiration. It is now 1985 and Maxine is living in LA, where she has made a name for herself as an adult film star. West sets the stage for this would-be 80s slasher by invoking the look and feel of film grain as well as the nostalgic glitching of a VHS tape rewinding, as we’re bombarded with a montage of news clips from events that came to define the era. There is the re-election of Ronald Reagan as President, which ushered in a new wave of conservatism and deregulation in the United States as well as the Satanic Panic (a moral panic that swept the nation and eventually spread to other parts of the world, which saw rock stars like Dee Snider of Twisted Sister testify in front of Congress regarding supposed occult messaging in the band’s songs). And then there’s the serial killer then known only as the Night Stalker, who, at the time of MaXXXine, is terrorizing Los Angeles.
In the middle of everything is Maxine, who is intent on breaking into the mainstream to become the star she believes she was always meant to be. Though she successfully lands the lead role in the horror sequel, Puritan II, directed by Elizabeth Debicki’s Elizabeth Bender, Maxine’s past begins to catch up with her. Not only is she’s harassed by private investigator John Labat, played with delicious sleeziness by Kevin Bacon, whose client seems to know far too much about Maxine’s past, but she is also pestered by LA detectives Williams (Michelle Monaghan) and Torres (Bobby Cannavale), who seem to think Maxine knows something about a series of recent Night Stalker copy-cat murders. With young actresses dying around her, Maxine is forced to either face her own demons or fade into obscurity.
MaXXXine, like X and Pearl, attempts to be a commentary on Hollywood, specifically its fraught history with sex and violence, self-censorship, and the influence of Evangelical Christianity, set against the backdrop of a specific time period in the entertainment industry. While X takes its cue from the horror and porn films of the 1970s, and Pearl seeks to invoke a demented Disney musical, MaXXXine is a mish-mash of 80s slasher movies and noir detective thrillers, with a dash of Italian horror – for instance, a mysterious figure that is seen stalking Maxine wears black leather gloves, an obvious reference to Dario Argento. The main problem with MaXXXine, however, is the same as what plagues the whole series (though to a much lesser degree in X and Pearl): Ti West uses this imagery almost exclusively as set dressing. While pastiche may be imitation, it does require a certain level of critique that is only hinted at in MaXXXine, but never fully realized or explored. Showing us the set used for Psycho rings hollow if you have nothing to say about it.
In focusing so much attention towards paying homage to films of the past, MaXXXine ignores elements from the previous films that would have provided a solid throughline for its conclusion. The question posed in X – “Is it possible to make a good dirty movie?” – is seemingly answered by the time Maxine makes her way to LA. The porno-chic movement was ultimately short lived, as was the brief commercial viability of the X rating, which by the mid-1980s was used almost exclusively for pornographic films, while filmmakers worked with the MPAA to edit their films to get an R-rating instead. Hollywood’s relationship with sex was made even more complicated by the AIDS crisis, which was at its height in 1985, creating new fears and anxieties around sexuality and sexual expression. But Maxine’s position as straddling the line between pornography and Hollywood is glossed over, as is her religious upbringing and how it affects her psyche.
Juggling several different genres proves to be more than West can handle, and the pacing in MaXXXine often feels disjointed and meandering. There’s a distinct lack of tension and suspense, and the film’s characters suffer greatly because of that. Nearly every character feels like a glorified cameo, with never enough screen time to get us fully invested in them. Kevin Bacon certainly has the most to do and clearly relishes being a complete slimeball, but both Elizabeth Debicki and Giancarlo Esposito (who plays Maxine’s entertainment lawyer) feel particularly flat and uninspired. Additionally, singer Halsey gives a rather stilted performance as fellow porn star Tabby Martin.
In the middle of it all, Maxine is completely lost. Though her name is in the title, our Final Girl barely registers as a person. Though Maxine ends X by defiantly claiming that she’s a “fucking star” and will not accept a life that she doesn’t deserve, her journey to fame and fortune in MaXXXine feels predictable and entirely anti-climactic. Because Goth plays both Maxine and the Pearl, there’s an obvious parallel between the two characters, with Pearl’s thirst for murder and mayhem ultimately overshadowing her desire to be a star. There’s a question, going into MaXXXine, as to whether or not she is fated to go down the same path. It’s clear that Maxine is not opposed to violence – evident in an early moment where a would-be assailant dressed as Buster Keaton tries to assault her, only for her to turn around and point a gun at him, ultimately humiliating him – but this spark of anger never manifests as anything significant and West doesn’t bother to explore Maxine’s psyche in any meaningful way. It is a shame, given Goth’s outstanding performance in Pearl, that we see her once again standing just outside of the spotlight.
Taking all of the wrong lessons from the previous films in the series, MaXXXine is more interested in aesthetics than substance, with a center that is ultimately hollow. West fails to give his star room to breathe, which leaves MaXXXine without an anchor. No amount of classic horror movie references can magically turn this movie into one.
Score: 11/24
