The Only Recap You Need Before MaXXXine
She's blonde, she's dangerous, and she's a motherf***ing movie star. The end of Ti West's "X" trilogy, "MaXXXine," is heading our way, and the Mia Goth vehicle has proven to be one of 2024's most anticipated releases. West has already said that the film will be "different from 'X' and nothing like 'Pearl,'" which is understandable considering the former was evoking the gritty realism of 1970s slashers, while the latter was like "The Wizard of Oz" in Hell. Goth returns as her "X" character Maxine Minx six years after the events of "X," and 67 years after "Pearl." This is a film to get us into the mind of Maxine and how she came to be. West's trilogy has thus far been tackling themes of fame, beauty, envy, youth, and the brutal acknowledgment that life isn't fair, and "MaXXXine" looks to be continuing those explorations.
"Pearl" showed us a young woman on a farm who killed those who wronged her on her quest to become a star and make it out of her boring life. "X" saw a now elderly Pearl and her husband Howard mowing down an adult film star crew out of jealousy, with Maxine the final girl of the whole ordeal. Before clanking your heels across the Walk of Fame, here's everything you need to remember for "MaXXXine."
The past 'ain't finished' with Maxine
"MaXXXine" features Kevin Bacon as private investigator John Labat, who is shown in both trailers for the film explaining that he's been tasked with tracking her down. He tells Maxine that "the past ain't finished with you yet" and that with nowhere to hide in show business, "she'll never work in this town again." We know that Maxine will do just about anything to be famous, so it's doubtful that she's going to take too kindly to his threats. As alarming as it is (for Maxine) that a P.I. is tracking her, the big question is who sent him to track her? The detective tells Maxine that he was hired by a powerful man, which could mean any number of suspects.
Given how many hippies in the late 1960s and early 1970s were actually just rebellious children of well-connected and wealthy families, it's not outside of the realm of possibility that one of the families of the porn crew chose to track her down. There's also the possibility that Howard's family hired him, as we learned in "Pearl" that Howard came from a well-to-do Texas family, which Pearl resented. Generational wealth after a few generations? They've definitely got the money to spend on a detective to solve his murder. But what's more likely is that Maxine's father hired the detective.
Maxine is the daughter of a televangelist
Throughout "X," a televangelist played by Simon Prast is shown on TV. Pearl and Howard watch him at home, and the woman working at the gas station on the way to the farmhouse is shown watching him as well. At the end of "X," it is revealed that this main televangelist is Maxine Minx's father, who uses her image as a cautionary tale of a young girl seduced by Satan. He's a lot like Estus Pirkle, who also made exploitation films solely to scare people into the church. Televangelists are performers above all else, and it's likely that Maxine's obsession with fame was birthed from her carnival barker-esque father. His catchphrase "I will not accept a life I do not deserve" is Maxine's mantra, so his words aren't completely lost on her.
Many of the televangelists of the 1970s — like Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and Reverend Ike — gained massive wealth by preaching the prosperity gospel, or the idea that giving money to the church (and its leaders) would bring you blessings. One of Reverend Ike's most famous sermons included the preaching "Anything that you feel you do not deserve, that you're not worthy of, you automatically cut yourself off from that good," which certainly sounds quite a bit like Maxine's father.
The religious element is also present throughout the 1980s due to the Satanic Panic. In the trailers, a man holding a protest sign reading "SATAN STOLE MY DAUGHTER" is wearing an airbrushed memorial shirt with Lorraine on it. The religious fervor from groups like "The Moral Majority" and other conservative fundamentalists pushed back immensely toward Hollywood in this decade, so there's no doubt Maxine will have to deal with their nonsense.
Maxine is the sole survivor of The Texas Porn Star Murders
Lorraine Day (Jenna Ortega) had her hand obliterated before being shot with a shotgun, Bobby-Lynne Parker (Brittany Snow) was fed to an alligator, Jackson Hole (Scott Mescudi) was shot in the chest, RJ Nichols (Owen Campbell) was stabbed to death, and Maxine's ex-boyfriend Wayne Gilroy (Martin Henderson) was stabbed with a pitchfork. Pearl's loving husband Howard (Stephen Ure) died from a heart attack, and Pearl (Mia Goth) broke her hip from the recoil of a shotgun throwing her off the porch, putting her in the perfect position for Maxine to run her over with the truck and escape to freedom. This makes Maxine the sole survivor of what is now being called "The Texas Porn Star Murders" from "X" (per a newspaper article shown in the trailer).
The only person Maxine actually killed was Pearl and it was in obvious self-defense, but what police force in the country is going to believe two old psycho-biddies were responsible for annihilating a young, healthy, physically capable group of people? At the end of "X," the police find the camera RJ had filmed the porn on, which includes the barn scene of Maxine and Jackson. There's physical proof that she was there. Even if the cops do believe her story that it was self-defense, she's still going to catch heat for having not called them earlier.
Goth played both Maxine and the elderly Pearl in "X," and it was shown that Maxine greatly resembled Pearl in her youth (further confirmed by Goth's performance in "Pearl"). The two women are a lot alike despite being decades apart. Perhaps "MaXXXine" will give Miss Minx her chance for her own "Pearl" story, with "X" serving as more of a bridge to connect these two character studies. Nothing brings people together like a massacre, huh?
The Night Stalker is a part of MaXXXine
The first trailer for "MaXXXine" included news reports referencing the Night Stalker, Richard Ramirez, whose killing spree in Greater Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area took place from 1984 to August 1985. This puts his activity and capture right in the heart of Maxine Minx's time in Hollywood. Ramirez targeted people in their homes and apartments, a completely different modus operandi from other killers from this period like Golden State Killer Joseph James DeAngelo, Gary Ridgway in Utah, or Doug Clark in Hollywood. Maxine Minx has already shown that she will do just about anything for fame, including kill. She could have absolutely left Pearl to die in the driveway and kept her hands clean of it all, but she made the decision to back over her skull in the van before driving off.
There's no telling what Maxine will do to become a movie star, and seeing her paralleled with both Pearl in 1918 and now the Night Stalker is a pretty smart way to show the range of American killers. With MaXXXine performing as an adult film star trying to transition to "legitimate" acting, this also puts the film in line with cult classics like Joan Freeman's "Streetwalkin'," Katt Shea's "Stripped to Kill," Gary Sherman's "Vice Squad," and Robert Vincent O'Neil's "Angel." With Ti West capturing the style of films based on the decade, there's a good chance "MaXXXine" will resemble a pastiche of these under-appreciated gems.
"MaXXXine" struts into theaters on July 5, 2024.