MaXXXine Cast, Director Explain Decision to Feature the Night Stalker
is the upcoming third film in Ti West’s fictional slasher trilogy. Unlike X and Pearl, MaXXXine incorporates a factual person, the Night Stalker, into the story. Richard Ramirez, better known as the Night Stalker, was a notorious serial killer in the Los Angeles area during the 1980s. Why was MaXXXine the right vehicle to combine fact with fiction?
“It sets out a breadcrumb trail back to reality,” Mia Goth, who plays Maxine Minx, explained to Total Film. “It’s not just some big sweeping horror movie that’s purely for entertainment value. It’s rooted in something.”
“I won’t give anything away,” Goth’s co-star, Elizabeth Debicki, added when asked about the Night Stalker’s role in MaXXXine. “The joy of [the film] is there are so many threads at play.”
Will MaXXXine alter history like Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood? West cited a 1990s crime drama featuring another serial killer as a better comparison for his slasher.
“It has more in common with Summer of Sam, the Spike Lee movie, than it does Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood,” West said. “It does play a significant role in the story, but in its own particular way.”
A24’s synopsis reads: “In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break. But as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Hollywood, a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past.”
In MaXXXine, Goth reprises her role as Maxine from X, the lone survivor of the massacre in Texas. MaXXXine’s cast also stars Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Halsey, Lily Collins, Giancarlo Esposito, and Kevin Bacon.
MaXXXine is written and directed by West, who also produces alongside Goth, Jacob Jaffke, Kevin Turen, and Harrison Kreiss.
MaXXXine arrives in theaters from A24 on July 5, 2024.
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