MaXXXine

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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Director Ti West continues his homage to horror films with “MaXXXine,” the third installment in his “X” film series. This is a direct sequel to “X” (2022) and a compliment to its prequel “Pearl” (2022).

All three have starred Mia Goth, who seems to be Ti’s muse. Mia Gypsy Mello da Silva Goth is a British actress who made her debut in the erotic art film “Nymphomaniac” (2013). She also appeared in the horror films “High Life” (2018) and “Suspiria” (2018) – those combinations affirming her career trajectory as an actress specializing in erotic horror films. That is to say, a “Scream Queen.”

In “Pearl,” she gives us the backstory of how Pearl became a killer. Aspiring to be a movie star, she winds up killing her family and friends on a Texas farm, then feeding some of them to Thelma, the alligator in a nearby pond.

In “X,” Goth was cast as both Pearl and the “final girl,” Maxine Minx. Here, Maxine and a film crew rent Pearl’s farm to shoot a pornographic movie. Most of them die. Thelma gets fed.

Goth received praise for her roles in both films. Ti West said, “She understood the characters really well, and she understood the duality of Maxine and Pearl.”

Now, in the third film, Mia Goth reprises her role as Maxine Minx, alongside a topnotch cast comprised of Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Halsey, Lily Collins, Simon Prast, Giancarlo Esposito, and the omnipresent Kevin Bacon.

Here, Maxine sets out to achieve fame in 1980s Hollywood while being targeted by a mysterious killer.

We did mention that the X trilogy are slasher films, didn’t we?

It must seem like old home week for Kevin Bacon. His fifth film out of 110 outings thus far was “Friday the 13th.”

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com