I was in the audience for the premiere of Pearl at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. When the credits rolled, Ti West and Mia Goth took the stage, electrifying the crowd with the surprise announcement of the trilogy’s final installment, and treating us to an exclusive teaser. At that point, the third chapter hadn’t been filmed, so the short clip was more of a concept video than anything—a VHS cam filter plastered over some B-roll of the Hollywood sign, backed by Animotion’s song ‘Obsession,’ and the title card read MaXXXine in the classic After Effects retro font. All West could share with the audience is that it would take place in 1985 Los Angeles and would carry on Maxine’s (Mia Goth) story years after the events of X unfolded.
I felt like jumping up, cheering, and flashing Ti West like he was a member of Mötley Crüe. Still buzzing from the high of watching Pearl—which I absolutely loved—I couldn’t imagine a more perfect backdrop to complete the series. The 1980s saw a surge in the popularity of pornography, thanks to the widespread availability of home video, with Los Angeles becoming the epicenter of the industry. It’s only natural that the fame-hungry final girl Maxine would end up there. Shots from the films Body Double and To Live and Die in L.A flashed through my mind. I thought to myself, ‘wow, this will be like if a season of American Horror Story was actually good.’
What I didn’t clock back in 2022 was how naive it was for West to publicly commit to a concept before even making the movie. This explains a lot of what I saw in MaXXXine. It’s like coming up with a song title before writing the lyrics, or naming your newborn baby something that will get them bullied later on.
I can understand why West chose the setting he did, it’s rife with horror movie plots—the looming presence of the Night Stalker killer, the dark underbelly of Hollywood, Satanic Panic, religious cults, anti-sex censorship. Just because all of those things existed parallel to Maxine’s story, doesn’t mean West had to shove them all into a 100-minute film.
Image Courtesy of A24
Previous instalments X and Pearl were effective because they had singular, albeit simple, but effective plots. Pearl paid homage to the dawn of Technicolor cinema while weaving in a narrative about the demise of the American dream. X channeled the classic slasher film and blended it with the real horror of realizing you missed out on all of life’s offerings. West abandoned this formula in MaXXXine, seemingly attempting to tell five different stories at once.
Buried in between subplots was the one measly nugget of a story that would have been perfect if isolated from the noise; Maxine finally landed the role that would make her a star, only to be derailed by her violent past catching up to her. Simple. Obvious. Perfect. But West—much like the film’s producer and Euphoria creator, Sam Levinson—decided to stroke his own ego and ruin a good thing.
Despite the messy patchwork of a story, MaXXXine lives up to its predecessors with the trademark theatrics, spoof-like violence, and undeniable pastiche. It’s more funny than it is scary, staying true to the trilogy’s modus operandi. The kills elicit just the right amount of flinch and grin. The dialogue offers both cliché corn and intense monologues. Even in moments that can be considered objectively bad, like Halsey’s New Jersey accent, you can’t help but laugh. Side characters, like Kevin Bacon’s John Labat and Giancarlo Esposito’s Teddy Knight, add an ostentatious vitality that holds the story together. And, of course, Mia Goth—she’s the only reason these films have become instant cult classics, without her, Ti West’s career would have remained at the ‘Streaming Exclusively on Shudder’ level.
Before watching MaXXXine, I did my normal temp check to see what some trusted critics thought of the first preview showings and the results were polarizing and confusing. It seemed like those who didn’t like it felt very deeply about their hatred, almost offended, “all surface, meaningless symbols, and not an ounce of substance to be found,” one critic wrote. On the other side of the spectrum, it was given five stars and coined, “Defining Film of Brat Girl Summer.” After watching it, those opinions became even more perplexing. MaXXXine is neither THAT bad or THAT good. It’s weird and a bit juvenile to ‘stan’ something that so obviously falls in the middle tier, but it’s even weirder to hate something that is literally just mindless entertainment. If anything, MaXXXine just proves that movies shouldn’t exist on a binary scale. I think the collective movie-goer brain is losing the ability to both critically think and have fun at the same time. Sad!
Final ranking: Pearl > MaXXXine > X