Second Sight, out now

In 1985 Los Angeles, Maxxxine Minx, a survivor of a horrific murder spree years previously, has just got her big break. Hollywood isn’t going to know what hit it.

Ti West’s X trilogy is regarded as one of the benchmarks of modern western horror and it’s easy to see why. Starting with X, the movie depicting the incident Maxine survives and shifting backwards to its prequel Pearl, then forwards to Maxxxine, the trilogy puts Mia Goth front and centre as two women united by their frantic desire for fame. I’ve never seen them until now, so when Second Sight added them to their rereleases of West’s movies I jumped at the chance. Especially as it was an opportunity to move backwards through the trilogy and see what that shakes out.

What strikes you right away about Maxxxine is tone and style. West’s previous work has excelled at low tech and retro and this is no exception. 1985 Los Angeles feels sticky and humid, the movie’s wide-eyed reckless approach a neat mirror to Maxine’s own. There’s a recurrent beat about her driving that tells you everything about how well she’s dealing with events and her panic and trauma fits right in. So much so that one of the movie’s best sequences, and arcs, involves her being fitted for a prosthetic head and battling to stay calm as she flashes back to the events of X.

Everything here serves a purpose, and everything here feels in lockstep with the time. Elizabeth Debicki’s director, with her impossibly wide shoulder pads feel like a Duran Duran Virgin Mary, descended from heaven to drag Maxine into the light. An early clash with a mugger gives the movie its first shocking piece of gore and also a welcome status check on Maxine and the time she lives in. A secondary plot about Leon, Maxine’s video store clerk close friend, is both a piece of nostalgia and a clever lens to view the artificiality of Maxine’s life through.

The cast is great,  rammed full of familiar faces and carefully and deliberately skewed female. Debicki is excellent as director Elizabeth Bender, while singer Halsey also impresses as Max’s friend. Giancarlo Esposito is typically great as possibly the only good agent in Hollywood and Kevin Bacon is magnificently tacky as a PI as incompetent as he is dangerous. Bobby Canavale and Michelle Monaghan are standouts too as the cops working the case who feel like they’ve stepped in from their own movie. Everyone serves a purpose; everyone gets a moment and most of them get covered in blood along the way. There’s some fun metatextual stuff too, especially a chase which finishes at the Bates Motel. Art and artifice, Maxxxine and X, all in constant conversation.  It’s a heady, confident and brutal mix and Goth’s unapologetic survivor is impossible to look away from. She’s awful, determined, sympathetic, courageous all at once.

The one problem is she’s largely alone. The characters are all enormously well played and the movie’s stylishly shot but there’s not terribly much heart here. That makes sense, art and artifice once again, but it means the movie rings a little hollow. Again, on brand, but it’s a different type of watching experience to the likes of The Innkeepers and you should adjust accordingly.

Verdict: Rounded out with a typically excellent array of extras this is absolutely the version of the movie you should pick up if you’re a fan or if you’ve wanted to watch it. But Maxine’s LA is a cold place for all the sunny weather. Dress accordingly. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart