The third and what is claimed to be the last film of Ti West’s horror film series is “MaXXXine” released in 2024, with “X” and “Pearl” as its predecessors. Maxine, who was presented in the first part of the series as the only woman who escaped the massacre, became a popular actress in the adult movies, but she has her eyes set on the big screen and tries to get a part in a horror film sequel ‘The Puritan II’. As Maxine tries to make her way into Hollywood, she becomes the target of a killer in a black leather coat and her friends are being killed one by one. The film also connects Maxine’s narrative with that of Theda Bara, a silent film actress and thus explores the topics of identity, ambition, and the price that is paid for celebrity. As a film that is set in the mid 1980s, “MaXXXine” tries to create the atmosphere of the era’s dirty thrillers and giallo films a blend of horror, murder and suspense elements, as well as expose the shadowy side of the American film industry. Although the film is rather glamorous in its story and its approach to style, it fails to truly capitalize on its potential and leaves the audience with more questions than answers considering this is the last installment of the saga. There are movies that are not bad and you can still watch them although it does not met your expectations there for you feel let down, this is MaXXXine for me, very recently same thing happen with A Quiet Place: Day One, not what I was expecting, so here is my opinion about the movie.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22048412/
- Platform: AppleTV+
Maxine's Ambitions
The main focus of the movie is the transformation of Maxine Minx, a girl from a religious preacher’s family, into a successful star of adult movies. In the series that is set between the events of “X” in 1979 and “MaXXXine” in 1985, Maxine goes through a complete change of identity, including her name, looks, and goals. The dark hair and the conservative dress is no longer there, instead there is blonde hair, leather pants and a shiny jacket. Maxine’s desire for fame is not restricted to her achievements in the adult industry but she craves fame and acceptance in the general society, its clearly not about the money.In the beginning of the movie, Maxine is trying out for the lead part in “The Puritan II,” a horror film that has a possibility of being her ticket to fame, this is seen in her as she works hard in order to be the best performer that she can be, but she is not that lucky, a stranger starts following her and sending her videotapes that bring back memories of her past that she wished to leave behind. This stalker is thought to be the Night Stalker, a real life serial killer who terrorised Los Angeles at the time of the story and who seems to know a lot about Maxine’s past, making her face her past that she is trying to escape from.
Maxine is ambitious and ruthless and one cannot help but compare her to Theda Bara who was a silent film actress who played the role of a vamp. Fox studio that controlled Bara’s image wanted to capitalize on her exotic looks but she was not a typical exotic beauty in real life. In the same way, Maxine has also created for herself a new personality and a new life leaving behind everything she went through to get to where she is. The film links Bara’s and Maxine’s stories to show how far people will go to become famous and the price they pay for it.
The Setting and Style
MaXXXine is a mid 1980s’ film a very sounding era for many of the audience out there since its still 2024, the 80s in coincidence was the era of VHS porn, video nasty, and the dirty peep shows. The film tries to link with the atmosphere of this period, for this the filmmakers were inspired by the sleazy thrillers and giallo movies of the 70s and 80s. The writer and director of the film is Ti West and he has tried to give the film a retro feel with certain visuals that are similar to directors such as Brian De Palma and Alfred Hitchcock.
The film is based on Maxine’s transformation and the environment of Los Angeles with famous places like Hollywood Boulevard and the Universal Studios lot. The movie also has some scenes shot at the Psycho house and the Bates motel, which makes the link stronger with the genre of classic Hollywood horror. MaXXXine is a film that tries to go over the top in terms of style, but it fails to meet the expectations set by the audience and some critics online, I'm on that boat too, many claim that the plot and the setting are not dirty enough to make the intended effect work, when I refer to dirty I'm not talking about sex, I'm talking about how potentially the killer would be and his motives, similar to how the movie 8MM with Nicolas Cage was in terms of how verbally and figurative they explain what they do on this "Snuff" scenes where they higher a slasher to take care of the victim in this case the star of the scene.
Character Development and Performances
Mia Goth is electric as Maxine Minx and yet the character never feels as fully develop as other characters in the film, she is a hardworking woman who has climbed the corporate ladder, but the reader does not find her as likable or as complex as she was in “X” and she is not as intriguing as Pearl. Still, Goth’s efforts do not make Maxine a very interesting character and the audience has very little to feel for her.The supporting characters are played by several talented actors, one of which is Elizabeth Debicki, who portrays Elizabeth Bender, the director of “The Puritan II. ” while Debicki does a decent job in her role, her dialogue is rather unnatural and at times force, as if the writers relied on improvising to come up with the lines, there are other characters like Michelle Monaghan and Bobby Cannavale who play detectives and Kevin Bacon who plays a private investigator do not enrich the plot line and their acting comes off as exaggerated or poorly developed.
The cast of the film is impressive, but the characters describe in the film are two dimensional and fail to capture the viewers’ interest, most of them felt very flat, I suppose we all were expecting more chaos. The movie is more concerned with the aesthetics and the imagery than the plot and the characters, visually is a movie that does takes you to the 80s but when you are already there the plot does not kicks in and things start to fall apart.
Movie Theme
The movie is not complicated by any means, the theme is very clear from desire for success and the price of celibrity, Maxine as the main character is one of the most interesting as she tries to escape her past and start anew in the world of Hollywood films The film also deals with the issues of censorship and people’s indignation, with the protesters against the horror movie “The Puritan II” calling it the satanic film. This aspect of the story corresponds with the cultural phenomenon of the 1980s, when the video nasties and the home video market became a subject of controversy regarding the effects of media on the audience. Luckily this is not a film that had any of the most related and controversial topics when it comes to adult content both sexually and the ruthless aspect of the movie, so we can't put blame of any gender or sex power conflicts for the potential failure of the movie.
This is the third horror film directed by Ti West, I would have thought that through time they would polish and refine the product which is a direct continuation of the events of “X” and “Pearl” but is not as successful as the previous films considering Pearl the most out of the three. The attempt at telling a complex story and its attempt at using a visually stylistic approach to boost the plot was probably the perfect recipe to close the trilogy, the film that might have been quite good at some point, yet it is far from being great, I had a lot of curiosity about this movie and the reason why I decide to watch it, I wont say its the worst film I have ever seen but at the best point I fell we were mislead to watch a movie that look great in paper and trailer but that was it, my score is 6/10.
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