MaXXXine Rounds Out X with an A-grade Finale
The latest film in the sexy slasher franchise just may be the best
How the hell are you? Keeping busy and having fun, I hope! I celebrated my 27th birthday with friends and family last week, as well as a belated dinner out that weekend, and was spoiled with great company and gifts. It’s absolutely humbling to have such kind people in my life who keep me young and grounded, so thank you for being a part of it. I’ve also been getting some sun where I can between watching lots of cool new movies, one of which I’d love to talk with you about today.
I’ll be honest, as a die-hard horror fan who likes to keep up with the latest offerings in the genre, I was late to the party for one of the more unique entries this decade: X (2022). I mentioned this in my first post on The Drip Tray and we just recorded an episode on it for Dead House, which will go live next Monday. The first instalment in the sexy slasher saga follows an amateur film crew who stay at a farm in rural Texas to shoot a porno, unbeknownst to the reclusive elderly residents. As the quirky and sexually-frustrated Pearl begins encroaching on their unsavoury affairs, the group call her out on it before being brutally murdered by the couple (apologies for spoilers, but the third one just dropped, so it’s your own fault). It has some unconventional cinematography, gorgeous gore (yes, there is such a thing), and a lot to say about misconceptions surrounding the forbidden desires of old people.
Strangely enough, the prequel Pearl (2022) was released six months later that same year, exploring the origin story of the first film’s antagonist whom you can’t help feeling sorry for. The uncomfortable final act is one of the most memorable in recent times and I love the sly commentary on living in a pandemic, as the film takes place during the Spanish flu of 1918. What’s even more fascinating is that Mia Goth, who stars as both Maxine Minx and Pearl in X, also plays a young Pearl in the prequel, as well as co-writing the film with series writer-director-editor Ti West. However, it’s MaXXXine (2024), a direct sequel to X, that truly cements both West as an undeniable auteur and Goth as a modern scream queen. Like the first two films, it was distributed by arthouse horror tastemakers A24 and is tracking to be the most successful of the franchise, having grossed $17.8M worldwide at the time of writing this.
With Goth reprising her role as Maxine in an utterly captivating performance, she is joined by Elizabeth Debicki as audacious film director Elizabeth Bender, Michelle Monaghan and Bobby Cannavale as dogged detectives Williams and Torres, Moses Sumney as Maxine’s horror nerd friend Leon, and a brilliantly flamboyant Kevin Bacon as Arbogast-esque private investigator John Labat. Not to mention a small but compelling role by my celebrity crush Halsey as porn star Tabby Martin. There’s a humorous dynamic between the stereotypical bickering detective duo that keeps the mood light despite the graphic violence throughout, with Monaghan playing the compassionate good cop and Cannavale the arrogant bad cop. Debicki is a convincing bitch with heart, a kindred spirit to a young Pearl and mature Maxine, while Leon offers witty comic relief and a touch of humanity among these whacky characters.
MaXXXine is set in 1985 Los Angeles and follows the titular character, who has since become a successful porn star in the six years after the events of the first film, as she gets her big break in Hollywood. Coincidentally, it also takes place in the same time and setting as the Night Stalker, who murdered at least fourteen people before being convicted and sentenced to death that same year. This pseudo-factual narrative reminds me of Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), in which a fictional movie star and his stunt double find themselves caught up in the Charles Manson murders. I like how both films take a morbid historical event in the pop culture capital of the world and put a fictional spin on it with a parallel story. In MaXXXine, it raises the stakes by suggesting that the protagonist is the Night Stalker’s next victim when it’s just a clever misdirect for the real killer targeting her social circle.
The film opens with Maxine auditioning for the lead role in the fictional The Puritan II, a horror flick following the burning of a suspected witch in the original’s brutal ending (the 80s were the best for scary sequels and remakes, after all). Once she lands the part, Maxine’s friends are picked off by a mysterious killer dressed in black leather then branded with a pentagram. The press immediately blames the infamous and elusive Night Stalker, but detectives Williams and Torres are not so quick to judge and instead spend most of the film trying to connect Maxine to the crimes. Meanwhile, angry Christian protestors picket outside the studio lot where they are shooting the film, challenging its controversial nature at the peak of home video and abusing the cast and crew. When she’s not on set, Maxine is also stalked and harassed by Labat, who is repeatedly outsmarted by the former in funny and frightening ways.
Before meeting his grim demise in a car compactor, the private investigator pursues Maxine at the location of the original Psycho (1960), where the director takes her earlier for a tough but inspiring chat. Even before the camera tilted up to show the Bates Motel sign then panned over the looming gothic mansion, I knew what it was from the layout of the rooms. West must be a Hitchcock fanboy, what with all the Psycho references in X and the literal set and resembling characters in MaXXXine. Wait, what was that about a car compactor, you ask? Oh yeah, a dude gets crushed in a painfully long one-shot then dogs lick up the mess. Gnarly. But what’s worse (or better) is in the first act Maxine makes a mugger strip naked at gunpoint, get on his knees and suck on her pistol before ordering him to lay facedown on the ground and stomping on his testicles with the heel of her boot. As the only guy in the cinema, I cringed something fierce.
I won’t go into the nitty-gritty of the final act because I want it to be a welcome surprise for you if you ever watch it – which you should. Although, I will say that some of the peripheral narrative in the first two films are properly explained in this. There’s a lot of callbacks to X and Pearl, through motifs like the letter “x” and silent film actress Theda Bara, as well as recurring songs and shots. I love West’s signature associative editing style, with split screens of juxtaposed city life conveying both the glamourous nightlife and seedy underbelly of 80s LA. Even the subtle cues in dialogue were smooth, my favourite being a cut from someone saying ‘Learn your lines’ to a shot of Maxine snorting cocaine. As for the cinematography, it boasts the franchise’s trademark vibrant colour scheme and impressive unbroken shots. I also appreciated the falling chair shot that I presume was inspired by the hypnotism scene in The Exorcist (1973).
While it’s still unclear whether MaXXXine is the final film in the X franchise, it’s undoubtedly my favourite. The thematic and technical connections throughout make it a cohesive and deliberate instalment in an already esteemed series. It sees our flawed protagonist go from a small town girl trying to make it in the big city to an unfuckwithable atypical heroine, subverting the patriarchy and empowering young women with free-spirited strong female leads. Put simply, MaXXXine is a smart and stylish slasher for classic horror fans, and that’s enough for me.