October 20: MaXXXine (Pt. 2)

[kinetic_elaboration]

Finished MaXXXine after work. The second half wasn’t as good as the first but in a way that was rather expected: horror movies always have to have their big climactic action sequences and they’re never as good as the tense build-up beforehand, even if the tense build-up does in fact need to lead to something. Also I am yet again tired. Still, it wasn’t a bad second half at all, the Horror Climax wasn’t too long, and I liked the ending.

I’m trying to think of what my overall thoughts are. I think… that it was enjoyable. I probably would watch it again, but I think I’d like to watch it in the context of the other two films. I think I’d kind of like to watch them in chronological order: Pearl, X, and MaXXXIne. MaXXXIne definitely spoke to a lot of the same themes as the other two: the reality and falsehood of the movies; sex and horror; the deranged desperation for fame and in fame eternity/eternal youth and beauty; the final girl/heroine as the one who will do literally anything to try to reach that eternity. I will not accept a life I do not deserve, etc. But the order of the films is really just a coincidence of how they were made. I’m curious to see them in chronological order not necessarily for the chronology but because X is the only film where Pearl and Maxine meet, where they exist as mirrors of each other. And on either side of it, Pearl, a story without Maxine, and MaXXXine, a story that barely has Pearl. Like their stories are spreading out on either side of the night when they met, Pearl’s past behind them and Maxine’s future ahead.

Anyway, other than that. I did see the twist coming (is it a twist? the reveal? the reveal that was not hard to predict?). Who else could the killer be but him? He’s the loaded gun that was set to fire all the way back in X, the only one who had meaning for Maxine, whose reveal would make sense, let alone not be a disappointment. But I didn’t mind because it felt all of a whole and I appreciated the overall pattern of the trilogy.

I really, really enjoyed all the supporting actors/characters, especially Moses Sumney as Leon (not sure why he was killed other than to up the body count lol) and Elizabeth Denicki as the director. Very much that scared or horny meme.