It’s been nearly two years since my review of “Pearl” (2022) was published, in which I explored the intricacies of Ti West’s second installment of his horror trilogy. Two years later, I am once again drawn to the keyboard to discuss West’s third installment, “MaXXXine.”
“MaXXXine,” released this past summer, reprises Mia Goth’s role in a murder mystery. In similar fashion to the preceding films, “X” (2022) and “Pearl,” West continues his ode to the horror franchise. While “X” is a slasher that takes place in the 1970s and “Pearl” is a technicolor nightmare, “MaXXXine” explores the seedy underbelly of 1980s Hollywood. The shiny veneer of Los Angeles glam coupled with the dark realities of fame and stardom set the perfect scene for another of West’s horrific masterpieces. However, it is precisely its cinematic ideations that deny the film its own substance, thus making it a pretty but vapid filmic experience.
The film follows Maxine, our budding starlet, who has moved to the West Coast after narrowly escaping a gruesome massacre. She is not only running from the police, but also from the wreckage of her porn star past. She is determined to begin anew, to leave behind the bloody memories and become Hollywood’s next best thing: a ‘real’ actress. After landing her big break in the in-universe horror film Puritan II, Maxine finds herself at the end of a blackmail scheme which threatens to reveal her involvement in the killing spree she has so desperately tried to leave behind. What ensues is over an hour and a half of dread-inducing anxiety, as each of her friends and co-workers are killed off one by one in response to her lack of cooperation.
In contrast to the film’s predecessors, whose horror and villains were well-presented and easily grasped, “MaXXXine” is instead characterized by what’s missing. The film’s faceless perpetrator continues to haunt Maxine with the trauma she’d rather forget. The buildup to his reveal occupies the majority of the run time, making countless allusions to 80s horror icons and serial killers, including Richard Ramirez (aka the Night Stalker). Yet, it is continuously suspended, without hint, making for a rushed and loose finale.
Goth’s exploration of trauma and denial is rather interesting — her performance is one of the few saving graces of the film. She questions what it is that shapes us, and whether we truly have control over these factors. “You’re a f***ing movie star” she whispers to herself in the mirror in a rather cultish fashion. But she’s not just a movie star. She’s a preacher’s daughter, a porn star and, most compellingly, a killer. But these are things she tries desperately, and unsuccessfully, to forget. Goth blazes with gumption throughout the film, but also with a vulnerability prone to surface at any moment.
“MaXXXine” was perhaps the most eagerly awaited film of the trilogy, but unfortunately it has proved itself to be the weakest link of the three. While greatly anticipated and riding off the coattails of its accomplished older siblings, “MaXXXine” could not make up for a flat plot with no direction. Perhaps it was exactly those things that stood in the way of its greatness, as it lost the bareboned and quirky quality of its predecessors.
