“MaXXXine” is the third in Ti West’s lovingly retro trilogy of horror films that began with “X” and “Pearl” (both 2022). Sadly, it’s the first to disappoint. Even by the meta-standards of the past decade’s horror renaissance, those initial two movies were special — gory, funny, smart, unnerving.
With its tale of a low-budget rural porn shoot that turns into a bloodbath, “X” aped the faded 16mm film stock of the 1970s and the gritty shock of Me Decade drive-in classics like “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.” “Pearl” was even more striking: The backstory of the first film’s elderly psycho killer, it takes place in 1918, at the dawn of Hollywood and our culture’s delusional dreams of stardom — of being seen . Both films raised actress Mia Goth — who co-wrote “Pearl” with West and co-produced “Pearl” and “MaXXXine” — to a new level of pop visibility, and for good reason: She’s the body, brains and subversive soul of the series.
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