Brett Jones’s review published on Letterboxd:
This review may contain spoilers.
I really liked this, I do believe it was a beautiful end to a trilogy (I’m unsure on how they’d do a fourth film that’s alleged, not sure if we’d need it but it piqued my interest). I do believe it was the weakest out of the trilogy, which isn’t saying a lot because all three films are great.
I don’t understand the people criticizing it because they thought it was a “slasher”, but the movie was always advertised as this detective-murder-mystery. Which I feel perfectly summarized it as a modern giallo. I saw other critics call it that prior, and it feels right. I think that works nicely for this trilogy as that way each film is a different sub genre of horror.
Now my issue is that since it’s a giallo, the weakest part of this movie is the murder-mystery aspect of it. It was always clear, even from the trailers, that the father was the killer behind the murders. I never thought it was someone else, and the film also makes it feel that it’s only ever the father? I just think it dilutes an important factor of the film, because the third act is just obvious what it’s going to lead to.
Despite that part, the rest of the film encompasses a modern giallo perfectly. I love Mia Goth here. She really brings a different performance each film. It still feels like Maxine, but a more mature “I’ve seen some shit” Maxine. Besides Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Giancarlo Esposito, and Uli Latukefu all do phenomenal jobs & performances. Even the minor characters like Halsey, Lily Collins, Chloe Farnworth, and Sophie Thatcher all do fantastic jobs. I despised the character of Maxine’s dad, Ernest, but man does Simon Prast play a terrifyingly good evangelist. Plus, him in the gloves murdering people was SO GIALLO AND I LOVED IT!! (Not sure it was Prast, kinda doubt it, but I’m including it with Ernest).
On the other hand. I did not like Kevin Bacon here. He felt like he was trying to play a spoof version of Benoit Blanc? I’m not even sure why his character was necessary. He legit added truly nothing, as you remove him, and the movie is still mysterious. Just have the cult members drop the ominous demanding messages.
The kills were great. While they slashed from on-camera to off-camera, it works for the giallo aesthetic and genre. Plus, we always get to see the dead body which is nice because they're gnarly!
So, while this isn’t my favorite from the trilogy, I still loved it. It’s a fun time. The soundtrack rocks! And it never felt like “shoving the 80s in your face” but rather realistic. A great wait to end the story of Maxine fucking Minx (maybe…)
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