Catching up with MaXXXine

Over the last couple of years, filmmaker Ti West, who got his start with low budget horror flicks The Roost and Trigger Man before breaking out with 2009’s double bill of The House of the Devil and Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever, has quietly become one of American cinema’s most interesting filmmakers. In 2022, he released another double bill, first X, then Pearl. X is set in 1979 and follows the clash between adult actress Maxine Minx and elderly murderess Pearl, with both roles played brilliantly by Mia Goth. In Pearl, West rewinds the clock to the 1910s to tell Pearl’s origin story, with Mia Goth delivering another towering performance.

Now, West is closing out the trilogy, returning to the franchise’s “present” and catching up with Maxine Minx in 1985. She’s in Los Angeles, she’s still trying to make it as a “real” actress, the Night Stalker is terrorizing the city, and Mia Goth once again stars as Maxine. And because these films have rapidly gained a devoted audience that counts Martin Scorsese among its ranks, there are bigger stars joining Goth on screen this time (though Jenna Ortega and Brittany Snow appeared in X). Bobby Cannavale, Elizabeth Debicki (looking so tall!), Lily Collins, Michelle Monahan, Giancarlo Esposito, and Kevin Bacon all appear in MaXXXine.

It looks great, but at this point, I expect that of West. He’s always had an interesting eye, but with the X trilogy, he’s tapped into a whole new level of auteurist filmmaking. And he does have a LOT of control over these movies, writing, directing, producing, and editing each of the three films. These are VERY much Ti West’s vision, though he found his perfect muse in Mia Goth. Her committed performances lean into West’s wildest impulses while also touching on the many cinematic references seeded in these films, whether it’s invoking the “psycho-biddy” vibes of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? in X or twisting nostalgia for golden age child stars like Judy Garland and Elizabeth Taylor in Pearl.

I am excited to see how West and Goth close out this trilogy, though the prospect of Ti West, a man who has never left a bucket of fake blood undisturbed, tackling the Night Stalker on film makes me a smidge wary, if only because that’s not a cinematic reference, that’s a real tragedy in which a lot of women suffered and died. West has found surprising corners and interesting turns in the previous two X films, but he also wasn’t directly dealing in true crime like MaXXXine is teasing. It’s not impossible to incorporate true crime into a fictional narrative (see also: Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood), but it sets a higher degree of difficulty. Still, if anyone can meet it, it’s Ti West. Slashers aren’t for everyone, but if you like horror and haven’t see X and Pearl, do yourself the favor. These films are incredibly good.