MaXXXine (2024)

Direction: Ti West
Country: USA 

Writer-director Ti West likes his films infused with blood and anger. Due to his successful past collaborations with actress Mia Goth in X (2022) and Pearl (2022), everyone was curious about the third installment in his X film series, MaXXXine, but the film fails to deliver, soon plummeting into ridiculousness and a mutilated sense of justice. 

Encouraged by her father from a young age, Maxine Minx (Goth) seeks fame in the movies, growing up with his advice in mind: “I will not accept a life I do not deserve”. At 33, after starring in porn films, Maxine finally has a chance to work in a real Hollywood film, The Puritan II, directed by the ruthless British director Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki). However, due to a dark past, she’s followed by a shady private detective (Kevin Bacon) and a couple of LAPD agents. The events take place in 1985, when The Night Stalker, the satanic serial killer who murdered at least 14 people, is still at large on the dark streets of LA. 

Buckling under the weight of trying to subvert expectations, MaXXXine ends up being a muddled, trashy piece of madness whose narrative jolts rather than compels. It is a gory B-movie with no style or rhythm, plagued by a lamentable script populated by obnoxious characters and terrible dialogue. This silly satire tries to sell a murderous psycho with a conscience for justice, but anyone jonesing for clever plots should look elsewhere as the last part of West’s trilogy is a significant letdown. Skip it.

Pearl (2022)

Direction: Ti West
Country: USA

Ti West’s Pearl, a prequel to X (2022), is a psychopathy-driven horror film that almost never manages to surprise, being neither better nor worse than any other. Yet, it’s definitely a showcase for Mia Goth, who plays the unpredictable title character with absolute confidence. Constantly followed by the camera, she delivers a mix of emotional fragility and murderous fury in her portrait of a young woman with real dreams and a repellent soul. And she saves the film. 

But is this really worthy of your time? Well, even if what you’ll get from this tale is the cruelty of the protagonist and learn nothing, the film is bathed in darkness and its gory scenes are a bonus for fans of the genre. Maybe a hint of black humor would have given the whole thing a more cathartic dimension. 

This way, Pearl felt more confessional than disturbing, occasionally managing to give us the chills, like in a scene where Pearl chases her next prey with an axe in her hand. It’s a shame that the script doesn’t unpack more of these moments for the actress who co-wrote the script with West. The latter, never putting enough stylistic spin of his own in the mix, wastes more time with Pearl’s alligator than generating chilly vibes. The result never fully rises above the pack, but it’s still passable.

X (2022)

Direction: Ti West
Country: USA 

X, the new slasher flick that will give horror fans another good reason to smile, was conceived by American writer and director Ti West (The House of the Devil, 2009; The Innkeepers, 2011; The Sacrament, 2013), who applies his own formula with surprisingly good ideas. 

The story, set in 1979 Texas, follows a porn film crew that rents a secluded farmhouse to shoot a low-budget film that is intended to revolutionize the genre. The problem is that the elderly couple that owns the place and lives next door - Howard (Stephen Ure) and Pearl (a completely transformed Mia Goth) - turns out to be as much violent as they are creepy. Everything gets transfigured when the decrepit yet libidinous Pearl, already attracted to the vicious actor Maxine (double role by Mia Goth), witnesses a scene from the movie by peeking through the window. 

Endorsing the patterns of several classics but endowing them with unbridled new audacity, this shocker also provides substantial gore. There’s even a fierce crocodile attack that challenges Spielberg’s Jaws. When you enter the theater, you don’t really know where you’re stepping, but you get what you paid for: a viscerally graphic parody that oozes and suppurates.