MaXXXine - An attempt once again (Movie Review)

Cheers to those movies that succeed in pulling us out of dreadful movie slumps. The feeling of wanting to watch a movie but not being able to bring yourself to watch one for fear of it being disappointing, is downright awful and sadly, I’ve had to live like that in the weeks gone by. A friend of mine talked about this movie she’d recently seen, and although she didn’t hype it, she mentioned how dark the plot was. I wasn’t intrigued but last night, the urge to watch a movie came finally, and I chose to watch it. Disregarding the fact that it was late at night, and I had barely five hours to sleep before my alarm started blaring.

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MaXXXine is a 2024 psychological horror film that tells the story of Maxxine Minx. The movie opens with a clip of little Maxxine on stage, being interrogated by a voice she calls dad. In that clip, she expresses her ambitions with childlike innocence and tells us of how she will never accept to live a life she doesn’t deserve.

Twenty-something years later, Maxxine is all grown, and now a porn actress. Still driven by that line from her childhood, she decides to go into Hollywood and is chosen for a role in a horror movie. Not sooner does she get into a role, does she realize the deaths of many people around her. Not only are these people murdered gruesomely. They all have the mark of the devil imprinted on them at their deaths. Although it’s disturbing, Maxxine has her own fair share of demons to face. Those from her past, and this man who seems to be stalking her. Which would she rather face?

I watched this movie without a trace of sleep between my eyes because the story line had me so engrossed that I couldn’t care less about what went on around me - time inclusive. All I wanted was answers to everything I’d been promised from the start. Answers I didn’t end up getting. The storyline was pretty unique. Maxxine continued to unravel every now and then, into a more fiery character and it made me like her better. Here, she wasn’t portrayed as another helpless character in a horror movie. She was portrayed as one who ruled her fears, one who fought, notwithstanding the demons tearing at her from within. I liked that.

One other thing I liked about this movie were the soundtracks. From actual songs to just beats, they captured moments in this movie. Making your emotions run deeper than they already did. For instance, there was a scene where a character i was beginning to like died, and although Maxxine embodied the role, moving me close to tears, the soundtrack did it for me. At the sound of the instrumental, I couldn’t help the tears running down my cheeks.

For horror as a genre, there is no standing in between. It is either it goes all the way to make an impact, or it just flops. It’s never in-between and unfortunately, finding movies that fall into the category of the former proves a hassle sometimes. I expected a lot from this movie, to be very honest. It started out with high hopes, like a classic horror movie should, but so many things were missing that made the movie feel incomplete at the end.

There were flashbacks of a traumatic past our main character had survived from that were never visited. We only saw flashes of them, and while I thought we’d be given an actual story to connect the dots, we weren’t. I was disturbed by this because that seemed like a crucial part of our main character, it seemed like that was what made her Maxxine and it was left out like that? Unfair, in my opinion.

As unsatisfying as this movie ended up being, it’s a good thing I’m back to watching movies, seeing that I already watched two films in the span of twenty hours. This fast paced movie isn’t one I’d recommend to people, that’s because no matter how your state of mind was clarified before starting, you’d be left confused in the end. I’ll rate this movie a 5.5/10. Bonus points to its ability to keep you engrossed while watching.

Thanks for reading

Unsourced image is a screenshot taken by me while watching.

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