Evan Maggit’s review published on Letterboxd:
It’s clear that this movie was not made for everyone, but it damn sure was made for me. This film is not a horror movie, but rather a neo-noir detective thriller, and it has the ‘80s B-movie vibes of the live action Ninja Turtles films and Big Trouble In Little China, while being a solid conclusion to the X trilogy that is truly a delightfully goofy character piece for the one and only, Maxine Minx.
I genuinely want to congratulate Ti West for successfully making the best “horror” trilogy since Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy. Each film has its own distinct and crisp style thanks to his extremely detailed direction, and they all connect in different ways that make for a great marathon. With this one in particular, the cinematography and the editing is fuckin’ perfection. The use of split-screen could’ve been really hokey, but it actually works with the film’s pacing and plot. The locations and production design was absolutely marvelous, and it all made it feel like a VHS tape of a canceled murder mystery.
Mia Goth further proves why she’s born for the big screen, and she’s magnetically beautiful and fantastic as the super confident and rootable Maxine. Even though she doesn’t do a lot of crazy things like the previous two films, she still manages to make this role so damn iconic. Kevin Bacon is having a lot of fun playing a corrupt and sleazy private investigator, Moses Sumney was a great standout, and Giancarlo Esposito steals the show for me as Maxine’s agent. The rest of the supporting cast was solid, though I would’ve liked to see more from most of them. One actor, that I won’t spoil, was phenomenal in the final act of the film since he played a super goofy character flawlessly. I also think that the song choices were pretty awesome as well, and I’d love to see them make an official soundtrack of them all one day.
The pacing of this was slower than I expected, but I think it worked for me really well. I also think the writing is very tongue-in-cheek in all the right places, especially with Bacon’s character. The use of Tarantino-like ketchup blood was effective enough for both cringey moments and laughably ridiculous deaths, and I also loved the hair and makeup on everyone. The issues I have the film is that the ending was a little underwhelming, the sound mixing was pretty bad at times, and the lighting was very messy. There are times where the characters aren’t even seen for an awkwardly long time due to the super moody lighting.
Overall, this is the type of movie that if it had actually come out in the ‘80s, it would be a nerdy cult classic that would be played at L.A. midnight screenings where film geeks can kick their feet up and laugh at all the cheesy parts. I wouldn’t mind watching it again in theaters, because I had a blast.
