Blood and Cheap Thrills in ’80s Los Angeles
When I saw Ti West’s X in 2022, I felt refreshed. Yes, his lurid slasher—set in 1979 on a rural farm where an adult-film shoot goes very, very wrong—was hardly the most original movie ever made. West is a technician who specializes in paying tribute to primo trash of yesteryear, be it a VHS “video nasty” (his excellent The House of the Devil) or something more visceral and country-fried, such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. X combined the latter aesthetic with vintage pornography—a stylish bit of sizzle that didn’t exactly scream “franchise potential.”
But in Hollywood, a hit—even a minor indie one distributed by the buzzy kingmakers at A24—begets more hits. Two years later, here is MaXXXine, the third in a trilogy of horror pictures directed by West and starring Mia Goth. In between was Pearl, also released in 2022, a prequel set in the 1910s that evoked Douglas Sirk’s classic melodramas amid scenes of pitchfork murder presented in bright Technicolor. MaXXXine is the first proper sequel, following the lead character of X, Maxine Minx (Goth), an aspiring actor and the only survivor of its farmhouse carnage. Minx, who has since ascended to minor porn stardom, is now living in ’80s Los Angeles and attempting to make the leap to legitimate movies. Meanwhile, the Night Stalker, a real-life serial killer who murdered more than a dozen victims in California, prowls the streets. As it always goes with West, MaXXXine is an expert homage, channeling the era’s bloody classics with plenty of visual verve. Three movies in, does he have anything else to offer?
Maybe that’s too much to ask of any horror franchise. The goriest slasher movie may possess hidden depths—the mold-setting Black Christmas, the meta-aware Scream—but its primary function is providing entertainment and vicious thrills. All three movies in West’s X trilogy basically deliver on that front, even the slightly ponderous Pearl, which featured fewer murders and more tearful monologues by Goth. MaXXXine has a bitchin’ soundtrack; lots of sultry, De Palma–inspired long shots; and a very engaging and salty performance from Goth at its center. It’s fun, but it’s unavoidably a bit of a style exercise, albeit a very good one.
At this point in his career, West is able to attract the kind of glitzy cast of character actors that most trashy horror directors could never dream of. So even as MaXXXine recalls largely forgotten ’80s exploitation films such as Vice Squad, it does so with a packed ensemble that includes Elizabeth Debicki (as Elizabeth Bender, an imperious director who casts Maxine in her new horror film), Bobby Cannavale and Michelle Monaghan (as sunglasses-wearing cops chasing the Night Stalker), and a wonderfully seedy Kevin Bacon (utterly in his element as a low-life private eye hassling Maxine about her bloody past). They’re all clued into the goofy-serious tone, and I perhaps most enjoyed Giancarlo Esposito as a bloodthirsty Z-list agent.
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Still, there were many moments where I felt Goth drowning among all these fancy co-stars. MaXXXine thrives when the title character is having a good time on-screen, fighting back against creepy muggers on the streets of L.A. and clashing with Bender, who’s pushing her toward legitimacy. Yet much of the movie sees Maxine swirling in self-doubt, unsure of her acting ability and dodging her sordid past, all while she may be the Night Stalker’s next target. West nicely conjures up the anti-Satanic paranoia of the mid-’80s, but at times I longed for the simplicity of X with its one location, tiny cast, and ruthless efficiency.
That’s probably most glaring in MaXXXine’s big showdown with all of her tormentors, set in the spooky Hollywood Hills. The final big plot twist is a bit of a dud, though watching Goth take on Maxine’s many challengers is violent pleasure. (One sequence with a car crusher is especially … gooey.) Yet every time MaXXXine tiptoed toward making larger points about the price of fame, or the trauma and moral toll of Maxine’s past, I struggled to take it too seriously. Goth is a terrific badass, and West’s camera loves her. There’s not much to MaXXXine beyond heavy helpings of blood and glitter, but perhaps that’s all a horror hit really needs this summer.