Written by: Ryan Dailey
The year is 1985. It was a simpler time.Kids rushing home when the streetlights started coming to life. There were no keyboard warriors taking up arms on the social media battleground. Disputes were settled face to face, online anonymity being non-existent. Yes, a much simpler time. Simple for everyone, it seems, but for Maxine Minx.
Maxine has finally found herself on the precipice of landing an acting role that could change the trajectory of her career for years to come. With the good comes the bad, as Maxine finds herself haunted by Pearl and someone that knows what she did to escape the farmhouse back in 1979.
MaXXXine is the third film in TI West’s beloved trilogy of films that include X and Pearl. The brilliance of this trilogy is that the time period that each one is set in, is a character in and of themselves. X featured the era of cinema where pornography and slasher films had started to become a thing. Pearl was set against the backdrop of the advent of Technicolor in the early life of cinema. MaXXXine ends the story at the next logical “Golden Age” of cinema, the 1980’s, where the films coming out of that era would cement those years as one of the last renaissance of film. The themes of this trilogy weave together so flawlessly throughout all three films, a quality that most franchises in Hollyweird definitely lack.
If the viewer were to look for any flaws in this otherwise brilliant film, it would be the Night Stalker plot. This plot line basically makes Mia Goth’s Maxine a more reactive character as opposed to the proactive character from the first film. The addition of the Night Stalker plot forces the film to add the “cop dynamic” to the film, which turns into our protagonist being harassed by stereotypical “grizzled cops” as she is being implemented in murder that she has nothing to do with. Set in a time frame of cocaine, debauchery and Satanic Panic, the film could have done fine without the detective aspects. One could argue that Maxine’s role transition from manifester of her destiny to passenger in her own life could be argued that it is jarring and out of place for Maxine, but it could also be seen as a testament to how much of herself she has given up to reach her current lot in life.
All in all, the horror nation has a terrific horror trilogy, thanks to West and Goth. MaXXXINE is a very solid entry to the franchise, as well as a great stand alone film.
MaXXXine released on July 3, 2024 in theaters and is playing in said theater as of the time of this writing.