MaXXXine Review | A Brilliant & Gruesome End to the Horror Trilogy

Summary

• MaXXXine
  celebrates cinema’s power with retro Hollywood homage and a gripping storyline that ties into the previous films and the real-life Night Stalker case.
• A24’s high-quality production offers a mix of comedy, satire, and horror, with a brilliantly talented cast.
• The film pays tribute to ’80s aesthetics in clever ways, and Mia Goth ends her character’s trilogy in top form, cementing Maxine Minx as one of the great film characters.

Thank heavens for this post-COVID era of folks re-embracing the cinemas and getting out to see movies where they’re supposed to be consumed, not on their smartphones or iPads. Enter MaXXXine. Its jaw-dropping opening scenes are perfectly cut together to remind us of the power of movies. It’s meta magic, sucking us right into retro Hollywood and encouraging us to fist-pump at the silver screen. Hey, that’s what folks were doing at the wild premiere for the film in Hollywood this week.

MaXXXine offers something for almost everyone (unless intense violence and gruesome death scenes aren’t your thing, but why would you even be here if they weren’t). There’s comedy and biting satire, intellectual subtext, scene-stealing performances from A-listers, and a very dark deconstruction and homage to horror and Hollywood.

Glitz, Glam & Gore Galore

MaXXXine

4/5

In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx lands her big break, but her rise to stardom is jeopardized by a mysterious killer targeting starlets. As the body count rises, secrets from Maxine’s past threaten to surface, intertwining her quest for fame with a deadly game of survival.

Release Date July 5, 2024

Runtime 1h 43m

Studio A24, Bron Creative, Film New Zealand

Distributor(s) A24

Pros

• Mia Goth continues her perfect hot streak of performances and wraps up the great Maxine Minx trilogy.
• The supporting cast is excellent, especially Kevin Bacon and Giancarlo Esposito.
• MaXXXine is gloriously retro with an intelligent mix of genres.

Cons

• It doesn’t rise to the heights of Pearl and the horror may be too gruesome for mainstream audiences.

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This is A24, people, let’s not forget — so the expectations are high. Plus, filmmaker Ti West effectively set the bar with the masterpiece that was Pearl (2023). So MaXXXine has a lot to overcome, but it does so quickly with a gripping first act that sees the titular coked-up heroine arriving in Tinseltown following the horrific events that transpired in X (2022). The talented writer-director gave us a break from young Maxine’s journey with Pearl, where he revealed the haunted backstory of the terrifying elderly villain from the first film (who happened to be played by Goth, but you’d never know under all that special-effects makeup).

But now, with MaXXXine, we’re back with the adult-film star’s journey to stardom, as she struts onto a studio lot to audition for a juicy film role. She sheds fake tears convincingly for director Elizabeth (Elizabeth Debicki) and simply kills it, telling the long line of gals waiting to audition behind her, “Y’all might as well go home ’cause I f***in’ nailed that!” Cue the eruption of applause inside your movie theater, which might just happen at plenty of other moments in MaXXXine as well. Maxine Minx herself has simply become one of the best movie characters in recent years.

Related 5 Things to Remember From X and Pearl Before You Watch MaXXXine

X revitalized the slasher subgenre of horror, and the third installment is about to do the same. Here’s what you need to know before seeing MaXXXine.

The triple-X lettering in the title reminds us of the kinds of films Maxine did in her past life — and the kind of work she does at clubs around Hollywood alongside showgirls like pal Tabby (Halsey, leaning into her Jersey accent) for extra cash until the big studios finally start shelling out the real money Maxine rightfully deserves. Until then, she’ll work dead-end jobs like clubs and even video stores with another friend of hers, Leon (the always appealing Moses Sumney).

The writing in MaXXXine is first-rate, with clever, self-reflexive lines — like when Maxine turns to Leon in the video store, grabs a horror movie VHS with a scream queen on the cover and proclaims, “This is gonna be me before you know it!” The double entendre is utilized in other delicious one-liners throughout. Just wait — the screams get loud here as the gore gets gruesome.

Related: MaXXXine Director Teases 80s ‘Terminator-Like Aesthetic’ for the Upcoming Horror Film

MaXXXine’s Great Supporting Cast (Including Richard Ramirez)

Also in the first act, there’s a killer retro-TV montage of news clips showcasing for us the lay of the land in this throwback time period, with the theme of the television channels finally landing on real-life serial killer Richard Ramirez. Wait, what? He’s involved in poor Maxine’s ill-fated journey? No spoilers here, but past classic films like Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood and even Forrest Gump found success by layering nonfiction elements into an otherwise fictitious tale. MaXXXine follows suit to thrilling effect, more in the tradition of Spike Lee’s Summer of Sam, as West himself has referenced.

But the real fun comes from the delicious supporting turns by renowned, award-winning performers like Bobby Cannavale as a hilariously colorful detective paired with Michelle Monaghan as the more straight-faced law enforcer. They’re on the case as women start dropping dead around Los Angeles while Maxine is busy pursuing her dreams of stardom. Then there’s Better Call Saul alum Giancarlo Esposito soaking it up as Maxine’s lovable but crime-friendly representation. At one point, he does Maxine’s dirty work in a sticky, murder-laced predicament, and when she thanks him, he merely replies, “That’s what agents are for!”

Related MaXXXine Director Teases ‘Gruesome’ Deaths; Says the Horror is Much ‘Broader’ This Time

Though MaXXXine will have some deaths worthy of Ti West’s trilogy, the director believes his latest film isn’t as “in your face” as previous entries.

Kevin Bacon Is Camp Perfection in Ti West’s Auteur Vision

But hats off, most of all, to Kevin Bacon when it comes to the side players, giving Foghorn Leghorn a run for his money with that ludicrous accent of his. As villainous private dick John Labat, he drives the A-story working under a mysterious client whose only features we see are clenched fists straight from some edgy film noir. Is it the Night Stalker? Another real-life serial killer? Someone personally connected to Maxine?

West’s latest feature may lose out to Pearl in terms of timeless, hard-hitting material, but thrives on offering a unique blend of genres and subgenres. In MaXXXine, we get a biting satire of Hollywood (Maxine’s absurdist press interviews as she rises the ranks in Hollywood are hilarious) combined with the smoky ’80s horror and erotic thriller vibes of Brian De Palma, plus a delicious soundtrack we could consume all day. But the high-concept editing (from the director himself) reminds us we are indeed in the year 2024, and proves that the possibilities of the moving-image medium are still increasingly endless, at least with an auteur like Ti West in charge.

From A24, MaXXXine will be released in theaters July 5.

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