 Director Ti West wraps up his X trilogy with a bloody and glamorous homage to slasher films. MaXXXine is a less terrifying but effective character study.
Ti West’s acclaimed X film series concludes in the highly anticipated MaXXXine. With each film in the series tackling a different genre of horror movies and yet bringing a new vision to them, the expectations from MaXXXine were high. While it doesn’t live up to those expectations, in Maxine (Mia Goth) we get a character that ranks high in the order of final girls in cinema in a stylish and provocative movie.
After the massacre at the farmhouse in X, the lone survivor, Maxine returns to Hollywood to pursue her dream of becoming a famous star. She’ll do whatever it takes, and eliminate any obstacle that stands in her way. The time is 1985 and Hollywood is famously drowning in sex, drugs and rock n roll. Horror movies are all the rage, more so with the advent of home video.
Maxine who’s made a name for herself making pornos gets to audition in a legit movie, a horror sequel, and no one wants the role as bad as her. Naturally, she nails it. The film’s director Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki) has high expectations. She wants her actor to be devoted to the role and the film production. In a movie with serial killers and rapists, Debicki convinces us to be the most terrifying thing in it. She plays the director with Katherine Hepburn’s grace and Hannibal Lecter’s menace.
Being so close to achieving her dreams, Maxine can’t afford any distractions. But the past comes back to haunt her in the shape of John Labat (Kevin Bacon, entertaining as the cheap private detective). There is also a serial killer on the loose; The Night Stalker.
Since the movie is set in Hollywood there are callbacks to more iconic movies than you can count. Eliot Rockett, the cinematographer of the trilogy has captured the high contrast and grainy textured style of the movies from that era to give it an 80s vibe. There’s a cool tracking shot inspired by the one from Goodfellas at the start of the movie that follows Maxine getting out of her car and entering a restaurant-type establishment from the front entrance, following her into the kitchen, exiting the back and then entering a lot where a porn film is in production.
When the killer strikes, the scenes are shot in classic Giallo fashion, complete with black gloves and electronic music. Maxine may once again have to fight a sadistic killer. Mia Goth, being one of the most daring and talented actors of her generation embodies Maxine’s inner strength as well as captures the nervous stillness of someone venturing completely new territory. With everyone else, she is balls-crushingly fierce, but with her director, she’s like a lamb with a butcher.
Slasher movies thrive on the sense of dread the audience feels for the movie’s main characters. But knowing Maxine, the danger of the killer striking lacks that tension. Also, not enough time is spent with the minor characters for us to worry about their fate. The thing about the best Giallo movies is that the final twist is so bizarre and out-of-the-box, that it leaves you smack-jawed. Their re-watchability increases tremendously due to that, adding to their heavily stylized take. Style can also be found in abundance in MaXXXine but it’s sparse in the thrills and twists department.
As a character study, the movie works well. With loads of style and a charismatic lead, MaXXXine makes a distinct space for itself in the pantheon of horror movies and as part of a trilogy.
Elizabeth Bender – ‘Do you want some free advice? Look around you. You’ve made it to the belly of the beast, congratulations, very few come this far. To stay here you must make it your obsession. Eliminate all other distractions, because if you take your eye off that prize for even a moment the beast will spit you right back out where you came from. May never get a taste for you again.’