The horror movies X and Pearl were surprise indie hits in 2022, with Pearl – a prequel to X – being a literal surprise as its production was conceived of and approved during the waning days of the shooting of the first film. Director Ti West and star/producer Mia Goth have now teamed up for a third film in the series, the suggestively named MaXXXine.

Goth reprises her role as Maxine, an adult film actress who, after surviving the events in X, has made her way to Hollywood circa 1985 in hopes of finding roles in mainstream films. An audition for a horror film directed by Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki) seems to lead to a great opportunity, but a serial killer on the loose named The Night Stalker starts to interfere with her life.

Not only do Maxine and others around her have to fear for their lives, but she also gets hounded by private detective John Labat (Kevin Bacon) and police detectives Williams (Michelle Monaghan) and Torres (Bobby Cannavale). Determined and more than capable of taking care of herself, Maxine tries her best to push forward with her big break while avoiding the distractions and deaths piling up around her.

West had specific goals with the first two films in the series, as X was an homage to classic slasher movies, and Pearl as much a Technicolor melodrama as a horror film. MaXXXine seems to be almost a loving tribute to the seediness of 1980s Los Angeles and the film industry. The way in which West shoots the movie makes it feel like there’s a layer of grime over the camera, with the whole story feeling dirty, and not in the X-rated way.

However, for a film that seems to want to entice with sex and depravity, it actually contains relatively little of either. West does go for shock value in a few scenes, but overall the movie has a curious lack of momentum. When deaths do come, they seem to happen haphazardly, both at the hands of the serial killer and otherwise. West always had a storytelling purpose for the killings in the first two films, but he lost the thread in that respect for this film.

The story of the film entails Maxine going Hollywood, and there’s the feeling that West may have overstepped by including a bunch of well-known actors this time around. Individually, Bacon, Debicki, Monaghan, Cannavale, and Giancarlo Esposito as Maxine’s agent give fun and interesting performances, but the cumulative effect is distracting. It doesn’t help that most of their arcs, save for that of Debicki, are underwhelming.

Goth, though, delivers another compelling performance even when the story seems to meander. Her distinctive look and personality serve the character well, making her a person who’s equal parts appealing, conniving, and scary. She’s the clear star of the show, and everyone and everything revolves around her, although special notice should be made of Moses Sumney as her friend Leon, who gets a few scene-stealing moments.

MaXXXine needed to have a much more consistent story to be considered as good as the first two films in the series. The presence of Goth, who knows exactly how she wants to play her character, automatically elevates the film, which is a necessity since little else keeps it that interesting.

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MaXXXine opens in theaters on July 5.