After taking everyone by surprise by following up X just a few months later with the entirely different (and astronomically better) 1918-set prequel Pearl, now writer-director Ti West moves his A24-backed slasher franchise forward in a more conventional way with Maxxxine, a much more traditional (for better and, often, worse) horror sequel. Moving the action out of Texas into 1985 LA, riffing on the ‘video nasties’ of the era, West and his consistent leading lady Mia Goth’s threequel is still fun enough, but lacks the grimy propulsiveness of X or the gripping character work of Pearl, leaving it too shorn of identity to make a real impact.
After emerging from X as the final girl, we reunite with Maxine Minx (Goth) a few years later, now seeking to escape the porn industry into real films as a proper actress, soon landing a role in a controversial slasher sequel, directed by the sternly British Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki). Yet, of course, her blood-soaked past is still trying to catch up with her, and it’s not long before Maxine is caught up in a series of killings, trying to avoid the attentions of both the LAPD and a villainous private detective (played by Kevin Bacon with a real ripe New Orleans accent) working for a mysterious benefactor.
Maxxxine’s various plots keep colliding and bouncing off on one another, but the problem is that in trying to be both a noir and a horror, neither genre gets to really shine. The mystery is never all that mysterious, even when West brings in the true story of the Night Stalker, the infamous real LA serial killer of the era, while the more grindhouse stuff (with the exception of one early encounter with a rape-y mugger) also feels a little tame. Yes, there are some explosions of blood, but for a movie about serial killers, cults, Satanic Panics, and pornstars, Maxxxine is shockingly un-shocking.
With the weakest script of the series, Maxxxine thus relies more heavily than ever on Goth to bring fire to proceedings, and though her performance here never comes close to hitting the mountainous highs of her work in Pearl, she’s still a magnetic central presence, balancing ferocity and fear perfectly. Cast-wise, she’s the clear standout, though it is also just fantastic to finally see a film use Giancarlo Esposito (playing Maxine’s ride-or-die agent/lawyer) in a role that doesn’t just ask him to be Gus Fring again. Kitted out with a ridiculous wig and granted some of the movie’s coolest moments, he’s clearly having a blast.
Though it is plenty entertaining at its best (West triples down on the homage/reference stuff here and it mostly pays off, particularly during a set-piece revolving around the original Psycho sets), Maxxxine is a slightly disappointing note for the X trilogy to go out on, particularly as its own ending is its weakest sequence. Goth is more than enough to keep it compelling for the first go through, but, despite its reverence for its slasher predecessors, I can’t see it joining that sort of horror pantheon.
Jack Blackwell – Film Reviews 