MaXXXine ★★★☆☆

Ah, MaXXXine, the grand neon-lit finale to Ti West’s horror trilogy, where Hollywood dreams, ‘80s VHS nostalgia, and slasher tropes all collide in a grimy pile-up. If you’ve made it this far, you’ve survived the carnage of X (1979) and the delirium of Pearl (1918). Now, we fast forward to 1985, where Maxine Minx, our erstwhile porn star survivor, has escaped the Texas bloodbath and landed smack dab in Hollywood—where, surprise, the nightmares aren’t over. And trust me, they’re as sticky as the vinyl upholstery of a 1980s convertible.

Maxine (Mia Goth) is back, baby, six years after X made her the last woman standing. Now, she’s traded rural sleaze for the sleaze of Tinseltown. Maxine’s ambitions stretch beyond adult film stardom; she’s gunning for Hollywood legitimacy. But just as she’s about to nab her breakout role in a B-horror flick, there’s a nasty wrinkle—someone’s lurking in the shadows. The infamous Night Stalker is picking off people left and right, and to make matters worse, a shady private investigator (Kevin Bacon in peak greasy form) seems to know a bit too much about her past. So, while Maxine’s shooting for the stars, she’s also dodging serial killers. You know, typical Hollywood problems.

West’s trilogy always had more on its mind than simple hack-and-slash. Here, we’re treated to a meditation on 1980s moral panics, particularly the backlash against adult entertainment and horror films. With protesters waving signs outside studio lots and moral outrage bubbling over, MaXXXine taps into that era’s cultural anxiety about what people were consuming on their new-fangled VHS players. It’s a movie about movies, just as the whole trilogy has been, but this time the commentary feels more like a knowing wink than a deep dive. The message: the American dream is a blood-soaked fantasy. Fun, right?

Visually, MaXXXine is a love letter to mid-80s Los Angeles, with all the sleaze and neon glitz you’d expect from that era. Picture dingy alleys, greasy spoon diners, and leather-clad killers—all drenched in the glow of arcade machines and cheap fluorescent lights. West directs with the same affection for pastiche that we’ve seen in his earlier work, evoking not just the slasher films of the era, but the erotic thrillers and detective noirs, too. The result? It’s stylish, but occasionally too much—like watching a music video for ZZ Top after too many cocktails.

Mia Goth is, once again, the glue holding this blood-slicked ship together. Her Maxine is a mesmerizing mix of grit, ambition, and barely-contained madness. Whether she’s swinging from ruthless survivor to desperate dreamer, Goth ensures you can’t take your eyes off her—even if the script occasionally leaves her stranded with less to do. Kevin Bacon is gleefully sleazy as the detective dogging her steps, while Elizabeth Debicki steals scenes as a lofty film director who might be as much of a predator as the killer stalking Maxine. This ensemble is solid, but you get the feeling Goth is pulling them all along by sheer force of will.

Here’s where MaXXXine stumbles. While the first act is a tight blend of suspense and character-building, the film meanders a bit too much in the middle, bloating itself with subplots that don’t quite pay off. It tries to juggle too many genres—slasher, detective noir, erotic thriller—and while the ambition is admirable, the result is a film that feels like it’s trying to do too much. And then, just as it reaches its climax, it sort of fizzles out. By the time the killer’s identity is revealed, you’re left scratching your head, wondering if you missed something important. Maybe that’s the point, but it’s not exactly satisfying.

There’s something deeply amusing about watching a movie that takes Hollywood’s illusions of glamour and shreds them with a junkyard car crusher. It’s a grim little fable about the price of fame and the dark underbelly of entertainment—one that hits a little too close to home in a world still obsessed with influencer culture. MaXXXine taps into that nihilistic undercurrent with glee, and while it doesn’t always succeed, it’s hard not to admire its audacity.

MaXXXine is an uneven but entertaining ride through 1980s excess, spliced with the DNA of slasher films and Hollywood satires. It’s not as sharp or as impactful as X or Pearl, but it delivers enough blood, guts, and wry humor to make it worth the trip. If you’re already invested in this trilogy, you’ll want to see how it ends, but for newcomers, this might feel like a glitzy mess of half-baked ideas and slasher cliches. Still, Mia Goth’s performance is so electric that even the film’s weaker moments can’t dim her star.