Ti West’s latest film “MaXXXine”, the third installment of West’s X film series after “X” (2022) and “Pearl” (2022), is willing to go further from what was modestly but impressively achieved in its two predecessors. It surely has a lot of ambition from the very beginning, but, alas, the movie often fails to surprise me despite having some naughty (and bloody) fun, and the result only ends up being another typical horror film about the dark side of Hollywood.

The story is mainly set in Hollywood in 1985. After surviving what happened to her in “X” several years ago, Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) moved to Hollywood and then became a fairly successful porn movie star, but that is not enough for this ambitious girl at all. As a matter of fact, she wants to be a legitimate Hollywood movie star someday, and the opening scene shows her having an audition for getting the lead role of the upcoming sequel of a certain successful horror flick. While never hiding her porn movie career at all, she shows some confidence and talent during the audition, and she eventually succeeds in impressing the director, who decides to take a chance with Maxine despite some reservation.

When she hears that news from her seedy agent, Maxine cannot possibly be more excited, though she still gets haunted by what happened to her in “X”. When she prepares for her role along with one crew member at one point, she suddenly finds herself overwhelmed by her traumatic memories, and her growing anxiety is soon noticed by the director, who generously shows some encouragement and support but also reminds Maxine that she can be replaced at any point.

Meanwhile, the people of California are terrorized by a certain infamous real-life serial killer, but that is not much of a concern for Maxine at all. When she happens to be cornered by a guy ready to rape her, she surely shows him that he messes with a wrong girl, and you may wince a lot for a good reason if you are male like me. 

However, it soon turns out that there is some other dangerous figure lurking around somewhere in Hollywood. Wearing black leather gloves just like many killer figures of those Italian giallo films, this murderous figure seems to be quite obsessed with Maxine, and Maxine is naturally alarmed as several persons around her are brutally murdered, though she cannot tell anything helpful to the two detectives assigned to this serial murder case.

And then she is approached by John Labat (Kevin Bacon), a sleazy private investigator who is clearly representing that mysterious figure in question. Although Maxine surely shows him that she is not someone he can mess with at all, she certainly needs some extra help, and, what do you know, her agent turns out to be more sympathetic and resourceful than expected.

As its heroine tries to get things under control, West’s screenplay sprinkles a number of goodies to be appreciate by many genre fans out there. In the middle of the story, we see that famous set of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” (1960), and the movie even presents a shot which is clearly a homage to the aftermath shot of that notorious killing scene in “Psycho”. As filling the screen with lots of period mood and style, the movie is often reminiscent of several naughty but stylish thriller films of Brian De Palma, and there is an extended sequence which may take you back to a certain amusing moment in “Body Double” (1984).

However, the movie is somehow less bold and bloody compared to its predecessors, and we become more aware of its lack of substance behind its glitzy surface. Mainly because Maxine has already completed her character arc in “X”, there is not much character development for her in this film, and the hidden connection between her and her mysterious stalker is also not particularly interesting. In the end, we only come to observe her plight from the distance without much care, in addition to noticing how the movie frequently repeats a number of genre clichés and conventions without any fresh variation at all. 

Anyway, Mia Goth, who stunned us with a pair of very different performances in “X” and “Pearl”, is fearless as before, and her distinctive star presence steadily carries the film to the end. Although it does not have something quite memorable like the last scene of “Pearl”, the movie does provide its lead actress lots of juicy elements to play, and Goth is always engaging even when the story stumbles a lot during its last act.

In contrast, many of other cast members of the film are wasted compared to Goth. While Bobby Cannavale and Michelle Monaghan are stuck in their thankless supporting roles, Lily Collins, Giancarlo Esposito, and Elizabeth Debicki manage to leave some impression at least, and Kevin Bacon has a little nasty fun with his villainous supporting character as he recently did in “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” (2024).

Overall, “MaXXXine” is one or two steps down from its two predecessors in addition to being less wild and enjoyable than many other trashy show business movies such as Russ Meyer’s immortal trash “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” (1970). Although I am your average nerdy dude, I can also appreciate those trashy stuffs to some degree, but, sadly, the movie does not tickle or entertain me much on the whole, and that is all, folks.