Writer/director Ti West’s one-two punch of X and Pearl back in 2022 shot him straight to the top of the list of exciting directors working in the horror genre today. Two very different films – X, a genre throwback to ‘70s slasher horror, and Pearl, a tribute to the technicolor wonder of movies from the 1930s and 1940s. Pearl was also a my favorite film of 2022, a more quiet character study which serves as an origin story for the villain of X, and also a continuation of his work with the great Mia Goth, who played dual roles previously in X. In the end credits of Pearl, we’re promised a third film in this series, MaXXXine, which would follow X’s final girl in a sequel to that film. We weren’t given any more details at that time, but as a fan of what these movies have done, I was anxious and a little worried to see if MaXXXine could live up to X and Pearl. Big sigh of relief here.

The year is 1985, and Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) is an adult film actress living in seedy, grimy, sleazy Reagan-era Los Angeles. Maxine has achieved a comfortable level of stardom in adult films, but she has bigger dreams. And after she lands what could be her big break, the lead actress in a horror movie, her life becomes something of a horror movie. Los Angeles is on edge due to the serial killer known as the Night Stalker being on the loose, and suddenly a bunch of Maxine’s friends start dying. Two police officers (Bobby Cannavale and Michelle Monaghan) question her, but once it becomes clear Maxine can no longer avoid this problem, she aims to solve this mystery herself.

This trilogy of films is the most delicious exercise in vividly stylish horror movies, and they are all very different from each other. Like I said, X is a throwback to 1970s Texas Chainsaw Massacre type slashers. Pearl is very inspired by the Turner Classic Movies set, with at least three clear callbacks to The Wizard of Oz. And MaXXXine feels very influenced by 1980s seedy, pulpy noir thrillers. From a story perspective, it never feels like Ti West is trying to milk this thing for all it’s worth, and it does feel like everything that happens here is germane with everything that’s come before it, but the main thing that makes these movies fun is the way they play around with the style they are going for. And MaXXXine is a thrilling movie to look at from beginning to end.

Mia Goth is once again, spectacular here, and this trilogy feels like the culmination of everything that’s great about her as a performer. I will say the character of Maxine is less interesting than the Pearl character, and this movie has a hard time reaching that level of greatness, in my opinion. But that’s such a difficult level on which to judge it, because I think Pearl is a masterpiece. And this one has to settle for just being very good, but I think that’s okay. We have a bigger scope here, and lots of bigger names, and clearly a higher budget, but these movies have not lost the distinct style and gruesome brutality present in the films which preceded it.

In our supporting cast, we have Elizabeth Debicki playing the director Maxine is working for, and she’s got lots of monologues about the nature of art in cinema. It’s a bit of a thankless role but she’s got a cool haircut and wears a bunch of power pantsuits, and Debicki seems to be having a good time. We also have Moses Sumney and Halsey playing friends of Maxine, Lily Collins as a vapid costar on the movie set, Giancarlo Esposito as her ruthless agent, and Kevin Bacon as a sleazy private detective hunting Maxine down, and he’s having the time of his life in cheesy villain mode.

MaXXXine might be a lot of style and a debatable amount of substance, but where it might fall a bit short is drastically overshadowed by the fact that Mia Goth is, like her character, a (bleep) movie star. She is giving so much to every moment we spend with this character, and of course we do care what happens to her. Not by much, but Maxine is a less interesting character than Pearl, but Mia Goth is so exciting to watch, it hardly even matters. The big reveal of the killer is a little expected, but you definitely leave the theater satisfied. I think there’s a strong chance this will go down as one of the great horror trilogies. Each film is exciting on a number of different levels, and each film is doing something drastically different from the others before it. I know I’ll continue to enjoy all three of these films in future rewatches down the line.