Sex, religion and violence are again the key driving forces behind the dramatic action in this final instalment in Ti West’s trilogy of horror films starring Mia Goth. The series began with X, in which a group of amateur filmmakers headed to a remote ranch in Texas to shoot a pornographic movie but became caught up in a real-life horror film when the elderly owners took exception to the content of their film. This was followed by a prequel with Pearl, which gave the backstory behind one of the characters in X. And now West follows up with MaXXXine, which is set in 1985 and is a direct sequel to X as it follows the character of Maxine Minx (Goth), the sole survivor of the massacre that concluded X.
She now works as a porn actress in Los Angeles, but she aspires to a more serious career. She gets her chance when she is approached by film director Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki) to star in a film called The Puritan II, the sequel to a controversial box office success that has attracted protests from religious zealots for its blasphemous content. But Maxine’s past soon catches up with her when she finds herself approached by Labat (Kevin Bacon), a private detective who has been hired by a mysterious but wealthy and powerful man to track her down. At the same time Los Angeles is being terrorised by a serial killer known as the Night Stalker, but many of his victims are closely connected to Maxine. She is approached by a couple of detectives (Bobby Cannavale and Michelle Monaghan) who ask her for assistance in trying to identify the mysterious killer.
While Maxxxine is not strong as the first two films in the series, West includes enough gore and bloody horror which still gives audiences enough to satisfy their thirst. Given the setting, the film is littered with clever filmic references, which cinephiles will easily recognise. One scene is set around the iconic Bates Motel set, and in another instance Bacon deliberately resembles J T Gittes, Jack Nicholson’s character in the classic Chinatown.
West and his regular cinematographer Eliot Rockett superbly capture the seedy, sleazy nature of LA in the mid 80s. One scene, which is set in a red light district peep show booth that caters to private clients, is bathed in garish red and reminds audiences of Ken Russell’s 1984 film Crimes of Passion, which starred Kathleen Turner as a prostitute stalked by Anthony Perkins as an obsessed man trying to save her soul.
This is Goth’s film and she has a strong presence here as the feisty porn star with attitude. Giancarlo Esposito (from the TV series Breaking Bad) brings a ruthless quality to his performance as Teddy Knight, Maxine’s agent. But Cannavale’s performance as a detective lacks subtlety and he comes across as a walking cliche of the tough cop.
As West himself intended, audiences can watch MaXXXine without having seen the first two films. And apparently he is already at work on a fourth film in the series.
Greg King
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Greg King has had a life long love of films. He has been reviewing popular films for over 15 years. Since 1994, he has been the film reviewer for BEAT magazine. His reviews have also appeared in the Herald Sun newspaper, S-Press, Stage Whispers, and a number of other magazines, newspapers and web sites. Greg contributes to The Blurb on film
