MAXXXINE (2024)

Studio:   A24
Director: Ti West
Writer:   Ti West
Producer: Mia Goth, Kevin Turen, Harrison Kreiss, Jacob Jaffke, Ti West
Stars:    Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Halsey, Lily Collins, Simon Prast, Sophie Thatcher, Uli Latukefu, Giancarlo Esposito, Kevin Bacon

Review Score:

---

Summary:

Six years after escaping a traumatizing massacre, adult film star Maxine Minx encounters a mysterious serial killer as she navigates Hollywood in 1985.

---

Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

With Hollywood in the grip of The Night Stalker's killing spree in July of 1985, 32-year-old adult film star Maxine Minx continues pursuing her dream of mainstream stardom by auditioning for the role of Veronica Rutland in "The Puritan II," a controversial horror film written and directed by Elizabeth Bender. Afterward, Maxine returns to work on a porno shoot alongside fellow actress Amber James and director Shepard Turei, both of whom are Maxine's friends.

Maxine's shady agent Teddy Night calls Maxine to tell her she got the part in "The Puritan II." Maxine shares the news with her friends Leon, who runs an adult bookstore beneath her apartment, and Tabby Martin, a peep show performer unknowingly stalked by a mysterious man.

A man dressed as Buster Keaton attempts to assault Maxine with a knife in an alleyway. Maxine stops Buster by calmly drawing a handgun, forcing him to strip naked on the ground, and crushing his testicles with her boot.

Maxine finds a videocassette left anonymously outside her apartment door. Footage on the tape shows police evidence of Maxine on the Texas set where brutal murders took place in 1979.

Traumatic flashbacks to the events in Texas give Maxine a panic attack while an FX artist fits her for a life cast. Meanwhile, police detectives Williams and Torres investigate the discovery of the pentagram-branded corpses of Amber James and Tabby Martin, the latter of whom was previously seen being kidnapped and taken to the mystery man who had been stalking her.

Maxine finds a high school yearbook page identifying her as Maxine Miller on her car's windshield. By calling the number written on the page, Maxine ends up meeting with sleazy private investigator John Labat. Refusing to identify the mystery man who hired him to track her down, Labat only says his employer wants retribution for what happened in Texas. Labat then gives Maxine a Starlight Drive address and instructs her to go there that night for a party, which she does not do.

Detectives Miller and Torres question Maxine about the deaths of Amber James and Tabby Martin since Maxine was the last person to see them alive. After refusing to answer their questions, Maxine takes the blackmail videotape to Leon to ask for help finding out who made it. The mystery man later stabs Leon to death inside his adult bookstore.

Maxine meets with Elizabeth Bender about the movie shoot. While touring the famous Bates Motel set together, Elizabeth offers advice and asks if Maxine is willing to do whatever it takes to succeed in a career-defining role.

Labat follows Maxine to a meeting with her agent Teddy. After brutally beating Labat out of frustration, Maxine privately tells Teddy what happened in 1979 and that she is being tailed.

Upon discovering Leon was murdered, Maxine is taken to the morgue where detectives Williams and Torres show her the pentagram-branded bodies found thus far. The detectives tell Maxine they don't believe The Night Stalker is responsible, but they do believe Maxine is connected somehow. Williams implores Maxine to help them prevent another woman from being murdered.

Per an arrangement made through Elizabeth, Maxine briefly meets with Molly Bennett, the star of the original "The Puritan" film. Afterward, Labat tries confronting Maxine on the studio backlot, but Maxine flees. Labat chases Maxine to the "Psycho" house where a security guard ultimately escorts him away. Maxine then receives more words of wisdom from Elizabeth.

Labat next trails Maxine to a nightclub. However, Maxine lures Labat outside and into a trap laid by herself, Teddy, and Shepard Turei. Maxine and the two men bring Labat to a junkyard where he is pulverized in a car crusher after refusing to reveal who hired him.

News of another Night Stalker victim inspires Maxine to remember Amber and Tabby both mentioned going to the Hollywood Hills prior to their deaths, as did Molly Bennett during their meeting. Also remembering what Detective Williams said to her about preventing another murder, Maxine finally decides to investigate the Starlight Drive address Labat gave her earlier.

At a house in the hills, Maxine discovers her father, evangelical pastor Ernest Miller, has been behind the murders of Maxine's friends. Crusading against perceived indecency, Ernest reveals he rallied other grieving parents who "lost" children to Hollywood to form a cult determined to expose salacious sex and satanism in the entertainment industry. Ernest additionally plans to make Maxine the star of a documentary by exorcising the devil from her for his film's climax.

While trying to escape her father, Maxine knocks over a suitcase containing Molly Bennett's severed head. Ernest uses the moment to knock out his daughter by suffocating her with a plastic bag.

Maxine wakes up bound and gagged in front of Ernest's robed "congregation" in the midst of filming the event. Ernest tells Maxine he tried to save her friends, but he had to kill them because they wouldn't accept God.

Detectives Williams and Torres interrupt, and a massive firefight ensues with Ernest's followers. Ernest flees up the hill to the Hollywood sign with both detectives in pursuit. Freed from her restraints, Maxine follows them.

Torres is shot and killed. Ernest stabs Williams in her eye with a crucifix and she falls down the hill to her death.

With her father lying prone on the ground, Maxine uses a recovered shotgun to hold him there. Ernest tells Maxine he did everything for her, but he still created a monster. Maxine momentarily fantasizes about becoming a celebrity for killing her Night Stalker-like father and becoming a major movie star following the enormous success of "The Puritan II." Back in reality, Maxine tells her father he actually gave her just what she needed. With a police helicopter shining a spotlight from overhead, Maxine fires the shotgun to explode Ernest's head.

One month later, the crew applauds Maxine as she finishes filming her decapitation scene in "The Puritan II." When Elizabeth asks what she wants to do next, Maxine indicates she never wants her newfound stardom to end.

---

Review:

Until a rumored fourth film possibly sees release, "MaXXXine" completes writer/director Ti West's trilogy of Mia Goth vehicles that began in 2022 with "X" (review here) and then "Pearl" (review here). For anyone coming into this franchise out of order, or without the time or opportunity to see all three, I've heard it said "Pearl" can be safely skipped since Goth plays an entirely different character in that film, but "X" provides background context for her other role, Maxine Minx, that would be arguably indispensable for getting the most out of "MaXXXine."

I say "arguably" because I personally would argue it's easy enough to understand the full scope of "MaXXXine" without knowing what happened in "X." It might even be an intriguing experience since you'd get to know Maxine from a fresh perspective, without the baggage brought by memories of the murders and mayhem she was previously involved in. "MaXXXine," which takes place in 1985, may mislead a newcomer into thinking Maxine did more dirty deeds than she actually did in "X," which took place in 1979. But flashbacks fill in enough blanks so attentive viewers can get up to speed on critical bullet points as "MaXXXine" lays out a new serial killer whodunit to be solved.

Since the events of "X," Maxine made a move to Hollywood where she's still in the throes of adult entertainment, working as a porn star and peep show performer amid auditioning for a mainstream break in a hot horror sequel, "The Puritan II." Stardom remains out of reach for now, yet bodies still have a habit of dropping around her. As Maxine maneuvers through semi-seedy streets dealing with shady agents and sleazy private investigators, someone appears hellbent on butchering controversial hustlers she comes into contact with.

Where "X" aimed to evoke the grittiness of early slashers, and "Pearl" turned itself into a Technicolor drama influenced by the heyday of movie musicals, "MaXXXine" sets its sights on delivering a gory mystery that would be right at home on a neon-lit marquee underneath a Dario Argento giallo or Brian DePalma thriller. In 2009, Ti West made a terrific throwback '80s horror movie with "The House of the Devil," whose retro aesthetic was successful in part because it was also subtly employed. West is more on the nose with "MaXXXine." I'm not sure cutting away to a close-up on a can of New Coke does anything more than provoke a brief nostril laugh from viewers of a certain age. Still, West gains back lost ground like that with lush, sometimes lascivious looks at a side of 1980s Hollywood that would be challenging to recreate in the 21st century for anyone without his artistic eye.

Even without the narrative, "MaXXXine" takes viewers on a unique tour of Tinseltown not seen since Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." I'm never certain how much this appeals to those outside of that geography, but as a longtime Los Angeles resident fascinated by the city's rich history, I appreciate what West and his creative collaborators achieve in finding the right locations, looks, and cinematic style to make the movie feel like it could have dropped out of a decades-old time capsule.

Selling the setting and telling a tidy tale are objectives that sometimes butt heads, however. With ongoing news of The Night Stalker murders draping a dreadful backdrop, "MaXXXine" creates its canvas from a town already on edge during the peak of Satanic Panic. Weirdly though, The Night Stalker's repeated mentions don't amount to much more than a distraction. Anyone who knows anything about Richard Ramirez will know right away that he cannot be the killer in "MaXXXine" given their different movements and M.O.s. The same goes for some of the other suggestions "MaXXXine" serves up as potential suspects. All of these red herrings flounder on the shore while the movie gently moves away from the mystery and more into a character study often sidetracked by slaughter.

Circling back to a previous point, the killer's ultimate identity might have more bite with people who've seen "X." But honestly, I had a hard time recalling how much that person featured in the first film, if at all, reaffirming my assertion that "MaXXXine" doesn't need the other movies to stand on its own as an old school thriller, midnight movie slasher, or even as an intimate look inside a troubled person's life.

What I would add onto that last point is, in my opinion, "Pearl" had a more interesting persona to pick apart. "MaXXXine" has a lot going on that doesn't directly involve its featured player, leaving the film's focus to dart around from dissecting her psyche to dissecting victims to detouring into (mis)directions leading to disappointing dead ends. That probably shouldn't be surprising considering how, by design, these three films experiment with exploring all sorts of threads, themes, and genres. This is a scattered series whose entries have divided viewers regarding relative quality. For "MaXXXine," I'd simply say it works as a captivating creeper populated by captivating personalities. Yet when I think about its meandering moments, like Maxine's director delivering mentoring monologues meant to layer a veneer of deeper meaning motivating Maxine's arc, I'm just not sure what "MaXXXine" really has to say once its B-movie bloodshed is all said and done.

Review Score: 65

---