Writer and Director Ti West is back with another X film, continuing Mia Goth’s bloodlust from Pearl and X. Here she’s Maxine Minx, a 1980s porn actor looking to make the move into the mainstream. Double denim and ZZ Top, it’s unashamedly stylish in West’s heavy on the style way. 80s American is much like today’s, with puritanical rhetoric from the evangelist right and unhinged danger from the disenfranchised proles. There’s a satanic serial killer ‘The Nightstalker’ on the loose in LA… but it’s okay as the victims aren’t the clean cut type that the Reagan era wants to protect. It’s more of a slow burn, there’s plenty of sleaze in the set up, but this doesn’t have the same immediacy of its predecessors. Don’t worry though, horror and gore is coming and it’ll be no surprise to learn that Maxine is not to be trifled with. The nods to her past though (and the fun flashback threads to Pearl and X) are to catch up with her. I’ve always found VHS home recordings a disturbing medium and this leans heavy on the jump cuts and suggested horror. It wanders a little too close to torture porn in places, but this is West’s thing. The story isn’t lacking, but he does rely a lot on visually arresting shock scenes. I know Goth isn’t everyone’s cup of tea either, but for my money she’s every bit the powerhouse star. When Maxine’s world is interrupted by John Labat (Kevin Bacon), her deadeye stare and calm delivery is an easy match for anything that Bacon’s southern styled menace can bring. He’s a P.I. delivering a message, a cog, a pawn. Maxine, well she’s the apex predator. Not even Giancarlo Esposito in a wig can upstage her… although he’s still pretty dangerous. Liz Bender (Elizabeth Debicki) sees Maxine’s promise. She’s the director on the horror film that Maxine hopes is going to be her big break. It’s all very meta and self referential and might make the cinephile in you roll your eyes, but it’s still a compelling plot of the hunter and the hunted. I didn’t enjoy it as much as what’s gone before and there doesn’t feel any need for more with this ever-shifting character, I doubt this will be the end though. It’s a screwed up story for a screwed up country. One with plenty of bloodlust and I doubt West will pass up the chance to twist this further.
6/10
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