After the appetizer X and intermezzo Pearl, filmmaker Ti West will conclude his porn-star horror trilogy with the main course, MaXXXine, out July 5. A couple of months after the flick’s first trailer, a new trailer for the film showcases the anxious tension and gallons of blood West is known for.
It opens with a trailer for a fake 1985 film called The Puritan II, which shows a puritanical woman biting into an apple – and it breaks away to show the Biblical knowledge that follows. The star of X, adult actress Maxine Minx (played by actual actress Mia Goth), looks on at the Puritan actress as production assistants douse her face with stage blood. Then there’s Kevin Bacon, who appears to be a letchy filmmaker, a shot of the Bates Motel on a stage set, and Minx stares at the dummy of Mother Bates in the mansion’s window, likely remembering her tussle with Pearl (also Goth) in X.
Then, it pivots to a slasher flick. The film’s synopsis describes MaXXXine as picking up Minx’s story in the Eighties, when she’s just about to get her Hollywood break, but then, of course, a stalker starts slaughtering actresses and threatens to expose (eXXXpose?) Minx’s past.
“Maxine, what are you hiding?” asks Bobby Cannavale as Minx loads a VHS containing “police evidence” into a VCR. From there, it’s only about 10 seconds until you see Minx suffocated by a plastic bag and blood splattered across a stack of videotapes, and all hell breaks loose.
“It’s America’s new Scream Queen,” says one voice.
“Maxine Fucking Minx,” Ms. Minx declares.
West is promising a longer look at MaXXXine when X returns to theaters for one night only on June 18. MaXXXine also features Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Halsey, Lily Collins, and Giancarlo Esposito.