Celebrity and faith are at impassable odds in the capstone to Ti West’s surprise trilogy, MaXXXine. What started with ’70s shlock in X, then traveled back in time to WWI-era West Texas with the outstanding technicolor prequel Pearl, now arrives in 1980s Hollywood in MaXXXine. The titular character, consistently played with wild-eyed abandon and gnawing verve by Mia Goth across the three films, grapples with the events of her blood-soaked past, sheds her present porn star celebrity, and charges into a bright future as a legitimate actress.
Unfolding during the Satanic Panic of the Reagan-era 1980s, West sets Maxine’s story of a Hollywood serial killer at the intersection of faith and filth. The streets churn with the dispossessed. Religious protesters campaign against studio horror films, while the real-life serial killer known as The Night Stalker leaves a trail of desecrated corpses. An opportunistic cloaked man tries to mask his own crime spree by copycatting the prolific killer. Meanwhile, Maxine Minx auditions for the starring role in a sequel to the popular horror movie The Puritan, hoping to leave behind her hardcore roots and complete her transformation into a proper movie star.
When Maxine lands the starring role she finds herself trapped between worlds: psalms and sleaze, past and present. Her shot at the limelight is complicated by the arrival of a sleazy P.I., played by Kevin Bacon as an anti-Jake Gittes (complete with nose bandage), who possesses incriminating information about her past. Meanwhile, her friends keep turning up dead, each branded with a pentagram. These personal complications seep into Maxine’s professional life, leaving her shaken at work, threatening her coronation as a star. The film’s calculating director, Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki), urges the aspiring starlet to confront her demons head-on. Maxine interprets this advice in a gruesome way.
[READ MORE: Our effusive review of ‘Pearl‘ directed by Ti West and starring Mia Goth]
The supporting cast is an impressive collection featuring Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Halsey, Lily Collins, Giancarlo Esposito, and Moses Sumney. While it’s notable that West assembled such a talented ensemble, MaXXXine doesn’t really provide enough room for so many characters to flourish. Instead, it feels overcrowded and lacking in focus. Although it’s fun and thematically fitting to see Cannavale as an assertive detective who actually wanted to be an actor, and Esposito playing against type is a rare treat, the film doesn’t find the bandwidth to give its many side characters the spotlight they deserve.
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Mia Goth’s performance remains the propulsive, perverse, and rotten heart of these movies—ambitious and immoral yet driven, deeply problematic but still easy to root for. She’s excellent here again. There’s a certain irony in the fact that these films, centered on the pursuit of stardom at all costs, have themselves catapulted Goth to fame. The depths these characters are willing to go to earn their fifteen minutes of fame hint at the depravity of humanity, the entertainment industry, and the insatiable need for recognition. In a meta twist, the very films that explore the dark side of fame are the ones that have proven Goth’s stardom. Her star is inextricably tied to Maxine and Pearl’s story of murderous ambition, and this role will undoubtedly remain a defining one in her career.
The third act of MaXXXine falters as it awkwardly attempts to tie together Maxine’s past, present, and future into a too-tidy conclusion. The revelation of the killer’s identity feels both contrived and unsatisfying, reflecting some of the film’s broader issues. Although the practical effects are impressive, the horror and slasher elements remain limited and restrained, potentially struggling to engage horror purists: one could argue that MaXXXine is more a blood-soaked, pulpy noir than a proper slasher. While it’s probably the weakest of the trilogy, handcuffed by a need to too-carefully tie back everything that came before, Ti West’s trifecta of different-era slashers nevertheless remains one of the best modern horror trilogies. One thing remains certain: Mia Goth is a f*cking star.
CONCLUSION: Mia Goth flashes her newly-minted star status in Ti West’s bloody trilogy topper as porn-star-turned-actress Maxine Minx. While the film can be a bit unfocused and stray from what has made the series so effective, it remains a proper showcase for Goth’s talent and a fitting conclusion to this generational story about achieving celebrity at any cost.
B-
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By: Matt Oakes
Started blogging about film in college when the university paper wouldn’t have him. Dislikes your consensus film Twitter favorites. Devotee of horror movies that make him die a little inside. Catches films at festivals when he can. Proud SFCS and OFCS member and Tomatometer-approved critic. Editor-in-chief of Silver Screen Riot.
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