As anticipation builds for the release of MaXXXine, the final instalment in Ti West’s critically acclaimed ‘X’ trilogy, fans are eager to see how the story of Maxine Minx will conclude. Set to hit theatres on July 5th, 2024, here is everything you need to know before walking into that cinema room.
Warning: there are spoilers ahead.
X (2022)
In 2022, A24 released the film X. It opens up with the titular character, Maxine (played by Mia Goth), as she sniffs a line of coke and tells her reflection in the mirror that she’s a star. And technically, she is.
Set in the late 1970s, the film follows a group of young amateur filmmakers travelling through rural Texas to shoot a porno with Maxine as one of the lead actresses. Renting a farmhouse from an elderly couple, they begin their shoot without knowing that they’ve just become their prey.
From the outset, X establishes its retro aesthetic with a grainy film texture and a score that harks back to the heyday of slasher flicks. Directed by Ti West, he pays homage to both American gothic and classic horror like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) with its stylistic tropes. From the denim overalls and cowboy attire to the handheld axe and rumblings of a satanic cult. However, instead of a large man in a mask who’s there to scare the audience, West uses a reality that many fear far more: growing old.
X discusses many themes with great nuance – explorations of sex, sexuality, art versus entertainment, exploitation, generational division, horror and pornography in both film terms and societal terms. And yet throughout all of it, the film never feels too heavy or political. Instead, it carries a dark humour even through the heavier last act that makes the film feel both fun and camp.
The elderly couple that lives in the house just above the farmhouse are Pearl and Howard. Pearl (also played by Mia Goth), feeling both envious and repulsed by the group’s youthful vigour, embarks on a killing spree that we discover isn’t the first one she’s executed. She and Howard slowly tick off the group with Howard discovering their film camera and accidentally pressing record.
The film culminates in a tense and bloody showdown with Howard dying of a heart attack and Pearl being blasted by a shotgun then run over by Maxine in a pick-up truck. And in true final-girl fashion, Maxine drives away into the night.
The film ends with the house being discovered by the police and most importantly, the film camera. As they walk through the house, we discover that the TV was left on in the living room, the news playing, and it is revealed that Maxine is the daughter of a fundamentalist Christian preacher which she ran from, which suggests there’s a lot more to Maxine that audiences have yet to learn.
Pearl (2022)
Just six months after the film X was released, the prequel Pearl was brought to the cinemas, transporting us further back in time to 1918. As the title suggests, it follows Pearl, the main antagonist in the earlier film – but this time as a young woman.
While this is a horror film, it is also a complex character study of a young woman who dreams of fame and escaping her oppressive life.
Mia Goth reprises her role and delivers a tour-de-force performance, imbuing the character with a haunting combination of innocence, ambition, and growing psychosis. Goth’s portrayal is both sympathetic and terrifying, capturing Pearl’s descent into madness with a raw intensity that is impossible to look away from. While Goth had already starred in previous horror films at that time of her career – Suspiria (2018), The Secret of Marrowbone (2017) – it is this role that has cemented her as a modern scream queen.
When it comes to Ti West’s stylistic direction, Pearl is both visually stunning and thematically rich. Pearl trades the slasher homages found in X for references to the Golden Age of Hollywood films with its technicolour-inspired visuals. Packed with odes to classics like The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Mary Poppins (1964), the clever and gruesome Pearl is, as West called it, a “demented Disney movie.”
While this film is the second in the trilogy, it is a prequel solely to X and it is hard to imagine the plot having much impact on the third film’s narrative. Director Ti West has said that the movies can be watched independently of each other. While X, Pearl, and MaXXXine all stand on their own, watching more than one of the films can deepen your understanding of the larger story, characters, and world of the films.
A theme that is carried throughout this cinematic universe is the theme of obsession. The obsession with youth, beauty, and most importantly, fame. So, it makes perfect sense for the last film to be set in Hollywood – 1980s Hollywood, to be precise.
MaXXXine (2024)
In April, A24 released the full-length trailer for MaXXXine. Here is everything we can expect from the film:
Set in the 1980s, we jump forward in time, 6 years after the events of X. We are reunited with Maxine Minx as she is finally getting her wish – to become a star. However, the iconic line has been transformed, her dreams have grown and her final goal realised – “to become a movie star.”
The trailer shows Maxine as she lands a big role in a Hollywood movie. Her hair is no longer mousy brown but bright bleach blonde in large curls, her makeup is dark and bold, and she now speaks with a confidence that was not present in the first film. The events of the past have transformed her and she is ready to move on with her life.
However, in pursuit of her movie star dreams, she is stalked by a strange PI and perhaps by a notorious serial killer ripped straight from the headlines.
With a larger budget than the previous two films and no longer held back by filming with COVID restrictions, expectations for this film are at an all-time high.
While the first film had greatly notable stars like Jenna Ortega, Brittany Snow, and Kid Cudi, this film features a star-studded cast that includes Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Kevin Bacon, Lily Collins, Halsey, and more in mystery-heavy roles.
“It’s the best script of the three by far. It’s going be the best movie of the three,” Goth tells Variety. “It’s the biggest story of the three with the highest stakes and Maxine has gone through so much at this point. So when we find her in this new world, she’s just a force to be reckoned with and she goes through some pretty wild adventures.”
From the previous two films, we know that Ti West often pays homage to other cult classics. This film is no different as the trailer shows the set of Bates Motel, the location of one of the most iconic horror movies of all time, Psycho (1960), directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Is this meant to be a direct tie to the spin-off film that was filmed in the 80s?
Another thing that sets this film apart from its predecessors is that it takes inspiration from something much scarier than fiction – real life.
The phenomenon of the serial killer was rife throughout 1970 to 2000 but it had peaked in the 80s when at least 200 such murderers were operating in the United States alone. From the trailer, West incorporates the real murder story of The Night Stalker, otherwise known as Richard Ramirez, which will be interesting to see how he blends true crime into fiction. Why is this serial killer interested in her? Does Ramirez have a connection to what happened in Texas?
The first song that plays in the trailer is “Obsession” by Animotion, which describes feeling so obsessed with someone that it becomes madness. Is this what the serial killer feels towards Maxine?
In regards to the PI following her, we can tell that the footage from the first film has finally been linked to her. How will this affect her newfound career? Or was this PI hired by her father after she ran away from home?
The trailer leaves us with much excitement for the time these questions will be answered. July 5th cannot come any sooner!
Whether you’ve followed the trilogy from the beginning or are jumping in for the first time, MaXXXine promises to be a captivating and fitting end to this epic horror saga.
