Tag Archives: Ti West

Saturday is Horror Day #174 – MaXXXine

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Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

MaXXXine

Maxine Miller (Mia Goth) has dreamed of becoming ever star ever since she was a small girl, coached by her preacher father Ernest (Simon Prast). She began her journey to stardom by acting in porm films, determined to do whatever it took to get to the top. No matter what. She put the unfortunate events that occurred in Texas in 1979 behind her and she was Hollywood-bound!

It seems she’s about to get her big break, as she reads for a part in Puritan II, the sequel to a film which has

the Christian community up in arms. Los Angeles is currently being terrified by a serial killer dubbed the Night Stalker. But when Maxine’s friends and co-workers start to turn up dead, the police arrive at her door to question her as to what she knows. But she refuses to talk to them, having no wish to be in their radar, or to give them cause to check into her background. A mysterious VHS tape arrives for her, showing scenes of the ill-fated porn film that was never finished. She asks her best friend Frankie (Brad Swanick), who owns the video store next to her apartment, to see what he can find out.

A private detective turns up, John Labat (Kevin Bacon), and tells her that his employer wants to talk to her, although he won’t name him. Reveals that they know things about her past she wouldn’t want revealed as they might harm her image and her career. Maxine turns to her agent Teddy Night (Giancarlo Esposito) for help. Good thing he is also her lawyer.

Maxine lands the role, but she learns that her new director, Elaine Casting (Deborah Geffner) is not

easy to deal with. But Maxine doesn’t mind. Her dream is about to come true, and besides, she’s a tough woman herself. But more people are dying and the two police officers are putting pressure on Maxine to work with them. How can she take care of this situation once and for all?

MaXXXine is the third part of the Ti West trilogy that began with X and then went on to the prequel Pearl. I actually got to see this in the theater, as it just opened, and I am glad that I did. West has come a long way since X and even Pearl. Clearly a bigger budget. Lots of recognizable 80s music. He got composer Tyler Bates on board. And Giancarlo Esposito and Kevin Bacon! How often do you find yourself rooting for a serial killer? At least, not since Hannibal Lecter stole our hearts lol As the titular character, Mia Goth is awesome, and it’s hard not to cheer for her to succeed – both in her film career and in taking care of certain bad people. I liked this one almost as much as Pearl, which is my favorite film of the trilogy. I highly recommend seeing it, but only after watching the first two. I give this film 4.5 Stars.

Saturday is Horror Day #172 – X

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Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

X

A group of young people want to make a porn film. It’s 1979, and they can’t exactly do this anywhere, as those types of films are more underground than acceptable. So they rent a cabin in Texas from an elderly couple. Wayne (Martin Henderson) is the director and his girlfriend Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow is the star). Jackson (Kid Cudi) is the lead male, and RJ (Owen Campbell) is cameraman while his rather naive girlfriend Lorraine (Jenna Ortega) holds the boom mic. Maxine (Mia Goth) is the other female actress.

The old man who owns the farm, Howard (Stephen Ure) lives at the main house with his wife. They find him creepy, and they are determined he not figure out what they’re doing, sure he wouldn’t like it. Yet they go so far as to shoot scenes in his barn, taking a chance on being caught. In their downtime, they discuss porn and why there is nothing wrong with it, and Lorraine decides she wants to be part of it, to RJ’s dismay. That’s about the time when everything takes a turn for the worse.

X is the first film in Ti West’s trilogy. I reviewed Pearl last week which, although being made second, comes first chronologically.  Where Pearl was very psychological, X is more of your standard slasher film. But that isn’t to say that it’s not worth watching. Having seen Pearl already, I anticipated different things, but you can watch them in either order.  Again, Mia Goth is outstanding as Maxine. The third part of the trilogy is Maxxxine, which comes out July 5 and picks up where X left off. I am looking forward to that. I’ll give X 4 Stars.

Saturday is Horror Day #171 – A Nightmare Wakes, Pearl

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Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

A Nightmare Wakes

A very pregnant Mary Godwin and her lover, Percy Shelley, arrive for a summer visit to their friend Lord Byron, along with Mary’s stepsister Claire and the renowned physician Dr. John Polidori. Byron demands to be entertained. He wants to hear ghost stories, and comes up with the idea of a competition to see who can tell the best one. This becomes the birthplace for Mary (who will become Mary Shelley) to write her masterpiece Frankenstein.

This should have been an interesting story, but bad acting and bad writing and an acute case of boredom caused me to give up after about fifteen or twenty minutes. I advise you avoid this film entirely.

Pearl

It’s 1918. The world is a scary place. The Spanish flu is rampant, and the first World War, known then as the Great War, rages on. Pearl (Mia Goth) has gone back to live on the farm with her parents as her husband Howard (Alistair Sewell) has gone off to fight. Life on the farm is hard. Her mother Ruth (Tandi Wright) is harsh and demanding. Pearl has to look after her infirm father (Matthew Sunderland) who sits helplessly in his wheelchair. Pearl dreams of being a famous dancer, and practices whenever she can. But her mother catches her and belittles her and tells her to forget such foolishness.

Pearl’s sister-in-law Mitsy (Emma Jenkins-Purro) tells her of a dance competition that will be held in a

nearby church. The winner will get to dance with the group through several cities! She doesn’t want to go alone, so has Pearl promise to get away from the farm and come with her. Pearl sees this as her big chance, her first step to stardom.

Pearl loves the animals on the farm. Even the crocodile she has befriended and whom she fees. It’s people she has trouble with, never feeling quite right around them. One day, her mother sends her to town to pick up her father’s prescription of morphine and she decides to go to the movies to see a film called Palace Follies which has a lot of dancing. Afterward, reluctant to return to the farm, she is standing in the alley behind the theater when a man comes out and strikes up a conversation with her. Turns out he is the projectionist (David Corenswet) and he invites her inside. They talk and he offers to let her see another film, but she has to go. He tells her to come back sometime.

Pearl is the story of a young woman on the verge of madness, who has dreams and aspirations she desperately wants to achieve but her life is very bleak. She can’t relate to the people around her and her mother doesn’t understand, while her father is beyond reaching. The dance audition is her breaking point, but even before that there was something off about her and she had a cold, cruel nature of her own, perhaps verging on being narcissistic.

Pearl is like a twisted, dark version of The Wizard of Oz. When I saw Pearl on her bike, I was reminded of Elmira Gulch (Wicked Witch of the West). The scene with the scarecrow in the field and the scene where Pearl throws water on her mother are also reminiscent of the classic film.  In Oz, Dorothy too wanted to get away from the farm and see the world, as she tells the traveling salesman. In Pearl, he is the projectionist, who tells her he can take her to Europe. Of course, he has his own agenda but she is too naive to see that. There is even a character named Dorothy in Pearl. Some found the scene with the scarecrow disturbing, but I did not. I wonder what those people thought of the explicit (for that time) movie the projectionist showed Pearl.

Pearl was directed and co-written by Ti West (Mia Goth is also listed as a writer), who brought us The House of the Devil, which I reviewed previously. Whereas I found that film forgettable (in fact, I started to watch it again, having actually forgotten I’d seen it), Pearl is a masterpiece. a veritable tour de force of a horror film. Engrossing from beginning to end, I could not even imagine what was going to happen. Mia Goth’s performance is brilliant. It is both criminal and not surprising that she was not nominated for an Oscar. I have come to disregard those as being far too political and having little to do with actual excellence. The best actress Oscar that year went to Jessica Chastain for The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Go figure. I highly recommend Pearl and I give it a rare 5 Stars. Pearl is actually the prequel to X, but you can watch Pearl first. After X comes Maxxine. I look forward to reviewing both.