Imagine if Paul Schrader had directed Brian De Palma’s Body Double, about a struggling Hollywood actor caught up in a murder plot. Or if De Palma had directed Schrader’s Hardcore, about a devoutly religious Michigan father who attempts to retrieve his runaway daughter from the Hollywood porn industry. That’s something like what you get with MaXXXine—though in truth, despite those three Xs, MaXXXine is far tamer than both of its predecessors.
The third installment in Ti West’s trilogy of horror films featuring Mia Goth, MaXXine catches up with porn star Maxine Minx (Goth), survivor of the murderous mayhem unleashed in 2022’s X at the hands of a deranged, aging farmer’s wife. (Goth played the wife as a young woman in the prequel Pearl.) Set in 1985 (Hardcore came out in 1979; Body Double in 1984), MaXXXine finds our heroine trying to process her survivor trauma while also negotiating her big break—a role in the horror sequel The Puritan II. Oh, a serial killer targeting women in the porn industry is also on the loose.
MaXXXine gestures toward themes that have been explored throughout the trilogy—namely the lengths one will go to for fame, as well as religious hysteria—but without much conviction. Take away the endless Hollywood references and 1980s signposts (yes, there’s a New Coke gag) and there’s not much else going on here. Save for an incredibly unnerving sequence in which an effects artist for The Puritan II drips a goopy head mold over Maxine—the sludge covering the camera in a suffocating POV shot—the movie doesn’t even display much of the formal ingenuity West has become known for thanks to films like The House of the Devil and The Innkeepers. With this West-Goth trilogy now complete, I still love the idea of it more than the actual results.
(7/7/2024)
