5 Movies to Watch Before MaXXXine

MaXXXine, the hotly anticipated third film in Ti West’s X series, came out on Friday. Set in Hollywood in 1985, the film follows its titular star-to-be out of the porn industry (where she got her start in X, the series’ first installment) and onto a low-budget slasher set–– where a very real murderer follows her every move. The franchise’s fascination with sex and stardom has taken viewers on a tour of the seedier sides of the Hollywood dream machine, teasing fans with a mountain of movie references in the process: X started the series off with a raunchy homage to the soft-core of the ‘70s by way of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, before Pearl, traveled back in time to give The Wizard of Oz a grisly, similarly country-fried update, full of technicolor musical numbers, creepy scarecrows, and ax-wielding farmgirls. In each case West has been eager to share his love of the artform.

MaXXXine provides West and his perennial star, Mia Goth, the opportunity to leave the farm. A journey into Los Angeles at the height of the VHS boom (one of the biggest shifts Hollywood has ever faced) provides a wealth of new inspiration to draw on for this creative team. Based on the trailer, they took full advantage, reveling in the aesthetics of the slashers of the Reagan-era with typical panache, winkingly deconstructing the familiar tropes of the decade’s horror in the process. Where Pearl was taking its cues from the likes of Douglas Sirk, this film draws on big budget auteurs like Brian De Palma and horror veterans like Wes Craven–– here are some films to set the tone before catching the final film in the trilogy.

5. Wes Craven’s New Nightmare 

Even though New Nightmare is the seventh installment in this long-running ‘80s franchise, it speaks for itself. Taking the series’ nightmare logic further than any other, this film takes place on the set of a Nightmare on Elm Street reboot and stars the series’ leading actress, Heather Langenkamp, as herself. As she contends with the series’ impact on her life, Freddy Krueger, the fictional character, escapes into the real world and forces Heather to truly become Nancy, the final girl, for the first time. Presaging the meta-horror trend begun by Scream two years later, New Nightmare plays with one of the most iconic villains of the 80s slasher explosion in a way that was both innovative and fresh–– a character Maxine consciously emulates in West’s latest film, holding her keys between her fingers like Krueger’s infamous claws. New Nightmare is bloody, funny, and playfully mind-bending, commenting on the films of the 80s from a not-so-comfortable distance to poke fun at scares around the real-world impact of on-screen violence. 

4. Strange Days

Directed by Katherine Bigelow, this neo-noir is set in the “near future” of 1999, exploring Y2K anxieties around technology, witness, sex and racism. Like MaXXXine, it takes the sleazy denizens of the porn industry as its subjects, following hard-core video dealer Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes), as he investigates the murders of several sex workers, killed while wearing virtual reality headsets designed to record their wearer’s perspectives for future viewing. Probing video-culture at the dawn of the age of the cell phone and dial-up porn, this deliberately scuzzy take on the murder mystery is loaded with political punch, commenting on police brutality as well as the 24-hour news cycle. These elements, plus the film’s neon-soaked style and meta-narrative structure have made this box office flop into a cult classic, and Juliet Lewis’ turn as a sultry grunge-punk femme fatale would feel right at home in the world of MaXXXine. 

3. Inland Empire 

David Lynch is one of Hollywood’s best Freudian biographers, taking his oddball characters on twisting journeys down the city’s darkest–– and weirdest–– streets. Inland Empire, the last feature film Lynch has directed, is in many ways his most ambitious. Shot without a completed script and set, like MaXXXine, on a film set and shot on a camcorder, this film’s fevered and ominous dream-logic takes hold of aspiring starlet Nikki Grace (Laura Dern) and brings her and her castmates down a (literal) rabbit hole of murder on their “cursed” film set. This film’s layered structure is bound to keep even the most diligent viewer guessing what’s real and what’s fake, populated with a sprawling cast of Russian grandmothers, it-girls, and hustlers. Its tagline, “A Woman in Trouble,” more than suits Ti West’s trilogy. 

2. Boogie Nights

Paul Thomas Anderson’s classic tragicomedy epic on the porn industry’s transition from its ‘70s “Golden Age” to the rough-and-tumble world of videotape is a great primer for those curious about the years between when X ends and MaXXXine begins. A young Mark Wahlberg stars as another up-and-comer hungry for stardom, hustling his way up the ladder of the adult entertainment industry. This sprawling tale of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll is considered one of the best movies of all time. It’s also hysterically funny, raunchy, and endlessly stylish; the unmistakable aura of coked-up menace in its later passages (not to mention the fabulous outfits) almost certainly served as an inspiration for Ti West’s bloody showbiz trilogy.  

1. Body Double

Probably the movie MaXXXine feels most inspired by, De Palma’s controversial and bloody romp through LA nightlife is a tale of obsession and desire. In it, Craig Wasson plays a down-on-his-luck horror actor who couch surfs his way into witnessing a thoroughly sordid murder. To understand what happened, he dives into the city’s porn scene, falling madly in lust with a mysterious starlet (a fabulous Melanie Griffith) in the process, and slowly losing his grip on reality. Though it, like Strange Days, was a box office bomb upon release (tragically competing with The Terminator for its opening weekend gross), this X-rated neo-noir has become a cult classic. Replete with doubled characters, scenes-within-scenes, and plenty of intrigue, this sharply intellectual erotic thriller is a perfectly sultry summer watch to get in the spirit of MaXXXine.