Within less than three years, writer/director Ti West and rising star Mia Goth have been two of the most prominent figures in the current horror zeitgeist. West’s erotic Texas Chain Saw Massacre homage, X, made him a director to pay close attention to while Goth has slingshotted through the industry with a meteoric sense of momentum. Their previous feature, Pearl, entered the two into an upper echelon of horror status that left the world frothing at the mouth for this story’s conclusion, MaXXXine. As a character, Maxine surpasses Pearl’s dreams of grandeur tenfold as she becomes a true movie star. However, in an ironic twist of events, MaXXXine fails to surpass Pearl as a film, serving as a mildly unsatisfying conclusion to one of my favorite trilogies in recent memory. 

Ti West tries his hand at a lot more narrative complexity, but he loses a vital emphasis on character in the process. Pearl was such a smash hit because of how iconic Pearl was as a character, whereas MaXXXine figuratively and literally lives in Pearl’s shadow. Haunted by Pearl’s killing spree (dubbed “The Texas Porno Massacre” in a newspaper clipping) on the farm in the first film, Maxine Minx has abandoned porn acting and is looking for her big break in Hollywood. The fervent desire to be something in the industry breathes echoes of Elizabeth Berkley in Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls, but, MaXXXine has little-to-no commentary to make other than vaguely condemning the prudish satanic panic backdrop that looms over the story. 

It attempts to embellish themes of trauma (because every horror movie has to have that now), stardom, and success, but none of these themes are interwoven or handled in any way outside of a vaguely surface-level idea. Maxine is horrifically traumatized by what happened on the farm, but we are never given any catharsis for that trauma. It’s an idea that is alluded to and then forgotten, but maybe that could be West’s illustration of fame taking over everything else. It could be a stretch, but leaving the trauma unaddressed can be indicative of how the thirst for success swallows everything in its path, but I wish West did something with any of these loose threads of thematic material.

Like the first two entries, MaXXXine relies heavily on the pastiche of its designated timeframe, with references and homages galore to the post-Giallo/Exorcist era of the 1980s. On occasion, MaXXXine feels like being bludgeoned to death with 80s iconography, which feels considerably tired after the relentless 80s resurgence that started with Stranger Things in 2015. It’s as if West backed himself into a corner by starting with a 1970s pastiche in X, as he forces himself to regurgitate the same corresponding imagery and pop-rock needledrops that have been used for this decade-long nostalgia train. As someone who wouldn’t be born until twenty years later, I’m really starting to get sick of the 80s. 

With that said, I can’t lie and act like the noir genre that West is riffing on wasn't exactly up my alley. I thoroughly enjoyed the thriller aspect of MaXXXine, which felt like a fresh change of pace from the last two’s slasher roots. Make no mistake, MaXXXine still has plenty of bloodshed, but the film is much more akin to Brian De Palma’s Blow Out or Roman Polanski’s Chinatown than something like A Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th. The film is always lit beautifully, whether that be the sunny skies of Hollywood, the rainy neon-lit streets, or strobing raves. Even if the narrative is paper-thin, I can always count on Ti West to get a good shot. He employs the classic De Palma split-screens and the classic Kubrick slow zooms to good effect, but the over-stylization might come across as West playing copycat rather than referential/allusive filmmaking. Those clued into what West has been doing with the previous two entries will be more appreciative than those who consider West as a culture vulture. If you enjoyed X and Pearl, you’ll at least have fun with MaXXXine. If you didn’t like the first two movies, I highly doubt you would like the third.

Furthermore, this is easily my favorite cast in the whole trilogy. It’s such a star-studded cast of some of my favorite actors, each playing a reflexive and new role that they haven’t tackled before. Giancarlo Esposito, an actor who has unfortunately been typecast into oblivion, plays such a refreshing role as Maxine’s lawyer that it hurts me to know that this man has been restricted to the Gus Fring archetype for so long. Kevin Bacon also makes a hilarious appearance as a slimy private investigator, characterized by a mix of Jack Nicholson from Chinatown and Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc. Michelle Monaghan plays a homicide detective alongside the always-welcome Bobby Cannavale, and their scenes together are always quite entertaining, but they seem mostly out of place in a movie that does not need another subplot. Similarly, I wanted to see more of Moses Sumney as Leon, the video store clerk, but the sprawling setup of MaXXXine doesn’t allow for much time with any of these characters, let alone Maxine herself. I felt like West’s script was a little unfocused, and there is a decent chunk of fat that could be trimmed from the overall narrative.

While these characters are enjoyable in a vacuum, the enormous cast seems like another misstep for West, as he should’ve spent more time developing Maxine as a character rather than introducing another supporting character. Despite being the titular character, the film feels more like “MaXXXine and Friends” than just MaXXXine. Mia Goth chews up the scenery as always, but she never feels like the star of her own movie. She is certainly the main character, but she never got to show off her acting chops like she did in Pearl. Whereas Mia Goth in Pearl felt like a tour-de-force performance of an upcoming icon, her performance in MaXXXine hits a plateau. This is no fault to Goth, however, it’s more of a result of weak writing and having too many eggs in one basket. The film, let alone the whole trilogy, ends on a weak note that leaves each plot thread hanging to some degree. There’s a jarring twist about Maxine’s past that could’ve been exchanged so that she could confront her trauma from the farmhouse, but even that is left unfinished. West is undoubtedly overflowing with ideas, but a lot of those ideas should’ve been saved for material outside of the X universe.

While I had barrels of fun with MaXXXine, it pales in comparison to the extremely high highs of Pearl, while stooping to some head-scratching lows that were slightly disappointing. After two of the most defining horror films of the decade thus far, you’d think that the finale would feel like much more of a grand slam than how it ended up being. However, despite all the drawbacks, I still had a blast with MaXXXine, and I eagerly recommend it to all horror fans. Even if this was my least favorite of his, I will always be seated for whatever Ti West has coming up next.