This Halloween I finally dressed up as one of my favorite film characters of all time. What better way to celebrate horror movie season than as everyone’s favorite farmhouse-slasher, pornstar protagonist, Maxine Minx from the X trilogy.
Upon rewatching the trilogy of movies, (X, Pearl and Maxxxine) that explain Maxine’s life and the backstory of the infamous “PLEASE I’M A STAR” villain, Pearl, I remembered how much love I have for these horror movies. The antagonist of X and Pearl is Pearl. The protagonist of X and Maxxxine is Maxine. However, through the course of these movies, we come to find out that Pearl and Maxine have more in common than you might think. Both characters being played by the same actress, Mia Goth, is a nod to how these women seem different but have core similarities. Despite all three movies being slasher-horror films, X, Pearl and Maxxxine touch on ideas of female experiences such as sexuality, fame and abusive family life. The movie’s director, Ti West, adds so many artistic touches such as similar wardrobe, dialogue and makeup between the two characters to create an explicit bridge between the two.
Now let’s unpack what happens in each movie. Warning: Spoilers ahead!
X: “Dying to Show you a Good Time”
In 1979 rural Texas, a group of young adults traveled to a secluded cabin on a farm, setting out to produce an amateur adult film. The team consisted of six characters: Wayne, the owner of a Burlesque club; Bobby-Lynne and Jackson, pornstars; RJ, filmmaker; Lorraine, RJ’s reserved girlfriend; and Maxine, Wayne’s girlfriend and aspiring actress. Upon arriving on the farm, Wayne meets the owners who live in the main house on the property. The old couple that occupy the home seem harmless though a little odd. The group continues to film their movie throughout the day, but as we follow Maxine we can see she is being watched by the wife of the home who we soon learn is Pearl. Pearl even invites Maxine in for lemonade, where Maxine has a very creepy encounter and now has a bad feeling about the couple.
Pearl is secretly spying on the group. She grows increasingly jealous of the three women’s sexuality and youth, especially Maxine. When night falls, Pearl and her husband Howard rampage upon the group. Killing each character one by one, Pearl also kills Howard in the process. The only character to make it out alive is Maxine after she runs over Pearl with a truck and drives off the farm.
Pearl: “The X-traordinary origin story”
In Pearl, we explore the origin story of everyone’s favorite killer grandma. The movie is set in 1918 on the same farm as X. Pearl, a young woman living with her wheelchair-bound father and strict German mother. Pearl is forced to tend to the farm and take care of her father under the watchful eye of her mother while her husband, Howard, is off fighting in the war. Every now and then, Pearl will sneak out and go to the movies, where her lust for stardom develops. Over time, she develops a romantic relationship with the projectionist of the movie house, who shows her a very early version of a pornographic film.
As the movie continues, we watch Pearl slowly slip into madness as her responsibilities to her family repress her fantasies of sexuality and celebrity status. At first, she starts to take her frustrations out on the farm animals, slaughtering them needlessly. Her antisocial tendencies come to a head when she kills her mother, father and the projectionist once he breaks up with her, delivering her famous line ,”Why are you leaving me if I ain’t done nothing wrong, I don’t understand I thought you liked me!!!”. Pearl then goes to an audition for a traveling women’s show group, hoping to leave behind the farm and start a new life of fame. During the audition, she screams the infamous “PLEASE I’M A STAR!!” line. However, it was no use. Pearl doesn’t get the part and she goes back to the farm where the consequences of her own actions require her to give up her life-long dreams and stay anonymous for eternity.
Maxxxine: “Hollywood is a Killer”
Maxxxine takes place after the events of X. The movie is set in 1985 in Los Angeles. Maxine is starting a new life in Hollywood as a budding actress beyond the adult film industry, just as she always dreamed. Recently booking a lead role in the horror movie The Puritan II, Maxine is ready to use the traumatic experiences she witnessed six years before to make herself a better actress and propel herself into stardom. However, Maxine is once again being watched, this time instead of a decrepit old woman in a torn nightgown, it’s a male leather-wearing figure spying on her in the shadows.
The Night Stalker is on the loose in Los Angeles, and Maxine seems to be next. Almost all of her closest friends and colleagues are murdered and marked with the symbol of the Night Stalker. Maxine begins to receive messages from an unknown sender, one of which is the porn tape that her group filmed on the farm years prior. Eventually, Maxine is led to a mansion in Hollywood Hills where the Night Stalker reveals himself to her. The murderer at large is Maxine’s father, a televangelist pastor who was referenced in X. Her father and his followers attempt to perform an exorcism on Maxine, claiming that she has been taken by the devil due to the lifestyle she has chosen. After an intense escape scene, Maxine ends up armed with a shotgun looking down at her father who cannot escape. She has a powerful monologue before shooting her father and attributing her choices to something she believed he needed all along – “divine intervention.”
Now that we have a rundown of each movie’s plot, let’s dissect the parallels between the two characters and the common themes that follow through all three of these movies.
Sexuality: “The whole world’s gonna know my name”
Sex and the expression of sexuality are a huge part of the trilogy. No character in the entire trilogy, except Pearl, is ever seen having sex for pure pleasure, only money. I think that the sexual aspect of these movies is very off-putting for some people, but I find a deeper meaning in how it is presented to the audience. Most of the women who use sex as a “job” in the movies seem disinterested and detached from sex in general. However, in Pearl’s case, her sexuality was repressed, only making her desires and attachment to the men she loved grow stronger and ultimately causing her to kill both of them. The only time we ever see Pearl actually have sex is in X, and honestly, it’s one of the scariest parts of the movie. Nobody wanted to see grandma have sex, nobody. But it showed that Pearl’s desire to be loved was never satisfied. That is why she is so jealous of Maxine. Pearl sees Maxine as a young woman who has everything she has ever wanted, sex and fame, at her fingertips.
When relating Pearl and Maxine, their relationships with sex are opposite, and almost another way to show that Pearl is the villain of her own story. Taking away the fact that Pearl is a psychopath, she’s a deeply insecure individual, which is the reason she goes on a killing spree in X. Maxine is secure in herself, her sexuality and her abilities, a trait we see benefit her throughout the trilogy.
Fame: “Please I’m a Star!”
Fame is what both Pearl and Maxine ultimately chase. Ti West draws similarities (and differences) to the two characters and their relation to fame through two of the most notable lines in the entire series. In X, Maxine says to herself in the mirror “I’m a f*ing star, the whole world’s gonna know my name,” representing Maxine’s confidence and devotion to creating the life she wants for herself. In Pearl, Pearl hysterically screams at the judges of her audition “Please I’m a Star!!!!” once they tell her she isn’t what they’re looking for. Pearl craves the validation of others through her search for fame.
Pearl’s continuous rejection and crushed dreams fuel her thirst to kill. She actively gets in her own way and doesn’t even know it. The reason why she is one of my favorite villains is you’re positive she is purely evil. You don’t root for her at all, but the reason she kills is for problems that all women have. She wants to be loved, desired, noticed and beautiful. She feels she can’t achieve any of these things without eliminating anyone who gets in her way but the real issue is herself.
Maxine on the other hand is exactly what Pearl wishes she was. Maxine is confident, but she’s also mean and unlikable sometimes. I love her because she’s not your typical hero. She’s not a great person and she doesn’t really care about others. A big parallel between her and Pearl is they would both do, in their mind, “whatever it takes” to be famous. In Pearl’s mind that is killing, but in Maxine’s that is working whatever acting jobs she can get, even if that is in porn, until she can make it to where she wants to go.
Abusive family life: “I will not accept a life I do not deserve”
It is revealed that both Pearl and Maxine had to deal with abusive family life. Maxine’s family life is only hinted at in the first movie through a tele-preacher that Pearl and Howard have on the TV in their house. At the beginning of X, we see police officers walking into the farmhouse after the murders have already occurred. On the tv, there is a program of a preacher having a sermon. He asks the audience to pray for his daughter because she has been taken by the devil, and he shows a picture of Maxine. Nearing the end of the movie, after Pearl has killed everyone on the farm and it is just her and Maxine left, before Maxine attempts to shoot Pearl (with a gun that has no bullets), she hears her father preaching on the tv. Right before Maxine pulls the trigger, her and her father on the tv simultaneously say, “I will not accept a life I do not deserve!” That is the first introduction we have to Maxine’s father.
In Maxxxine, we learn that Maxine’s father has always wanted her to follow in his footsteps and believes that her thirst for fame has made her unholy. Maxine escaped her father years ago and continued with her dream. It wasn’t until he sought her out (and killed all her friends) years later that they met again. Pearl was in a similar controlling situation with her parents. Her mother did support her dream but instead of finding her own way in life, she brutally killed her mom and dad. This is another similarity between the two characters, as West highlighted how differently the characters acted in their family situations.
Final Thoughts
I am not a huge horror movie fan, but the X Trilogy has always spoken to me. I love how creatively crafted the characters and movies are. They are not your typical slasher. There is so much to unpack in all the movies. Maxine and Pearl have become some of my favorite characters of all time. Every single time I watch the movies, I always find something new that I missed before.I highly recommend and invite you to grab some popcorn and your laptop and have an X Trilogy movie night. You can watch X and Maxxxine on Prime, Hulu or Max and Pearl on Prime, Hulu or Netflix.