X, Pearl, MaXXXine…A Trilogy Ruined

Monday is about movies. Sometimes TV. Today the A24 Trilogy that could have been great, but isn’t. All because of one of the films.

Last Friday night, I stayed up until midnight to see the premiere of MaXXXine - I’m not that glad I did. It was a high-risk manoeuvre at my age, leaving the house at 11pm…but I was also really pumped. MaXXXine was promising to be the thrilling conclusion of a trilogy that began two years ago with the movie X, which, at the time I really loved.

X was shot just out of Whanganui during the lockdown, and features Mia Goth — a new Scream Queen, with excellent horror credits. Jenna Ortega was in it too, and of course she was in a couple of new Scream films around the same time, her star rising. And I really enjoyed the movie — it was all at once a throwback to 70s Texas Chainsaw Massacre/Halloween vibes, and then some 80s slashers too; it had a Tarantino-type vibe to some of its dialogue and feel, and I was just 100% there for it. I loved the trailer and had myself all hyped. I attended the preview screening, nervous that it wouldn’t live up to expectations but it damn near blew all of my worries out of the water:

Goth plays a couple of roles in X, which was a bit of stunt-work in itself really, so this set up the second film in the trilogy, a prequel called Pearl. They wrote it in quarantine during the start of their New Zealand stay, and shot the films (X and Pearl) back to back. Pearl is an origin story for that particular character, so the same house is used, but the action takes place many decades earlier. Despite not reviewing it at the time, it is my favourite.

I love Ti West — the writer/director. He’s made some cool horror films, and in particular The House of the Devil, and all-timer for me, and one of the best horror films of recent years as far as I’m concerned. A proper fright. And a great reminder of the power of a dark, religion/cult-based horror film.

On rewatch, X is still fun, but its magic was in that first watch, and particularly on the big screen. Pearl though is extraordinary, particularly because of the way Mia Goth just leaps at the character and goes full bore.

MaXXXine is the sequel to X, allowing Goth to slip back into the character of Maxine from the first film, the porn star who wants to make it big in Hollywood and is sure she can be a star.

The trailer was promising. So, again, I was super pumped. And yeah, a little bit nervous. A bit tired too — with the late start to see what’s what. A stacked cast sits there waiting with not much to do in MaXXXine. Goth delivers a devastatingly good monologue at the start of the film. So it seems strong to begin with...she then gets to do not very much at all beyond saunter for the rest of the film.

I was so angry with what I saw, so disappointed and let-down, that I went old-school and wrote a review:

Obviously I’m sharing that here — now — for all to read, because not many see the reviews (and other things) I post up here on the site in and around the newsletter. But also, it made me reevaluate the whole trilogy. That one film - crash-landing down so terribly — has totally ruined the vibe of the series. I went in heavy, watching both X and Pearl again in the run-up to the midnight premiere. Pearl still felt fantastic, but X was a whole lot weaker than I’d remembered it. Luckily, Pearl really feels like it works as an oddball standalone (as well).

But MaXXXine was just a mess. And it’s now looking like the ‘trilogy’ might add a fourth film. Which will further cheapen the brand, and I won’t bite again. I’ll not watch that. I’ll not offer a chance for redemption, nor bask in the possible absurdity of an extra shark jump (MaXXXine’s botched big reveal/climax is terrible).

I sat shaking my head, wondering how they could have got this so wrong. And I definitely think the pacing is off, the script is not clever enough, and there’s a raft of issues, but the big one was simply that they should have let Mia Goth cook! She is amazing (twice) in the first film of the series. She’s even better in the middle (prequel) offering. She’s been incredible recently in Infinity Pool and before this whole trilogy in the remake of Suspiria and A Cure For Wellness. She’s just wrapped filming for a new version of Frankenstein which promises much given its stellar cast (Jacob Elordi, Oscar Issac, Christoph Waltz, Lars Mikkelsen) and fabulous director (Guillermo del Toro).

And by the looks of the dress-ups on the night I saw the film, as both Maxine and Pearl in the movies X and Pearl, Goth had already left a mark way before MaXXXine was even an idea. So she’ll be fine. Some people might even like the new film for all I know. But I was offended. I took it personally. And I feel the trilogy that might have somehow meant something — having a bit of playful fun within the horror genre while still delivering solid kills and a winning aesthetic — was turned into a clusterfuck due to the absurdities that dominated in the final film.

A damn shame.