338: MaXXXine (2024)

SPEAKER_01 0:04

It reminds me of the Blair Wench project, which was a childhood traumatic experience. What? Let me tell you.

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Greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hacker Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. You are a vision in this light. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

A total joke? A waste of time.

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Or a slash.

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Totally killer. Pun intended.

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We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're rating these movies with a perspective we've gained from our varying walks of life and the flavors of fear we fancy most. My name is Chris, I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the Superfly Space Guy Mac.

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Mass has ended. Put your hands up.

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The classic horror connoisseur Sean.

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Realistically, porn can only take me so far.

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The Paranormal Paramour Binks.

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Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. It should not be that hard to fuck me.

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And the cowardly creeper.

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It's not show friends, it's show business now, I admit.

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This week we're back in theaters to check out the final entry of a TI West trilogy. Before we get down to business though, we have some follow-up.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Let's follow up on a movie. Specifically, X from 2022. So we hosted a watch party for X along with our preparation for watching this movie. You know, we have these events that we use Discord to get everyone together and have a good time, really get the community going. And we wanted to know what everybody thought about X as well after watching it. We've watched this all in the past, but the poll is pretty conclusive here. 90% of the people slashed it and 10% hacked it. Wow.

SPEAKER_05 1:42

That just goes to show you it's a hit. I recommended it to like four more people just today.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

You know, it's funny. I was actually chatting with someone today about X and Pearl, and I think both of us agreed we preferred Pearl over X, but X was still great. Everyone can have a different preference, but we've got some comments to share with you from our social users here. So an homage to Texas Chainsaw sprinkled with a little sexy and twisted vibe. I love it. It says strange and unusual. Yeah, that fits.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Yeah, for sure. Especially like the setting and the cabin and all that. Like, yeah, it's a vibe.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Vicar Treat says, movie gives me them great 70s horror vibes, great gore as well, and Mia Goth is a badass.

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Always and forever.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

I'm loving these user names though.

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I was just thinking that.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Now to follow up, Jackson Todd says fun slasher with comedy and originality. All the sequels and prequels really build upon X. But I don't know. Well, all the because this is the second of two sequels, right? But yeah, I agree now because we've seen it. They do build upon it. Toast Smasher says, massively overhyped and overrated, in my opinion. It's good, worth watching, but not a life changer.

SPEAKER_05 2:48

Okay. That person got told this is the craziest movie you'll ever see before they saw it, and that's what ruined it for them. No one would ever say that if they went in with no expectations for X.

SPEAKER_04 2:58

I had this confession because I remember loving X when I first saw it, but then I watched it recently with someone who hasn't seen it before, and I realized, wait a second, this doesn't hit quite the same way when you know what's coming. And then when someone else, like I shared with my excitement with her, like, yeah, I cannot wait for you to see this movie, and I'm like, fuck, I overhyped it. The thing that I hate when people do for me, I did for her.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

You know what's funny though is that I actually felt the opposite when we were watching this for the watch party. When I first watched X, I was like, Oh, this is alright. Then I watched it again, I was like, Oh no, this is fun. And I saw the comedy more this time around. So that's kind of where that comment, Jackson. I was like, that's right, it is a little funny, ain't it?

SPEAKER_05 3:39

The joy of the rewatch for X is in experiencing someone else experiencing it for the first time.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

Yeah. All right, one final comment to share here. Uh Spiral Glorious says, This movie is iconic. Total slash. The twist of the whole storyline is epic.

SPEAKER_04 3:53

You know, iconic is certainly a way to describe some of those moments, but I don't know that we're thinking the same thing, Spiral Glorious. I think I'm still cringing about the old people's sex.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:03

We all are.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Iconic.

SPEAKER_05 4:05

I gotta procreate somehow.

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Well, we do have a couple new patrons to welcome to the family. So pull up a seat, sit down, pour yourself a glass, and welcome Marika, Quimby, Mark, Jeff, Simon, Noah, Brandy, RL, I hope it's Stein, Robert, and Daniel. We love you all like our own children.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Hell yeah. I don't have any children, but that's great.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

But yeah, Cullen welcomes you as well.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

But yes. I love you like my dogs, because I love my dogs. Well, that's our follow-up.

SPEAKER_04 4:35

Well, this week we're checking out the long-anticipated sequel to X, and when last we visited the story, a final girl survivor was driving away from the scene of a farmhouse massacre. In this film, though, she's continuing her pursuit of stardom against the backdrop of a gritty Los Angeles in the 1980s, and someone set on ensuring she doesn't forget her past. This week we're talking about Maxine. What were you all expecting going into this?

SPEAKER_00 5:00

This is one of those movies I really was looking forward to because there were two movies leading up to it that I thoroughly enjoyed. And I try to go into some movies with not super high expectations, but I think here I had a lot to build upon. Previous experience told me that the cinematography was gonna be great. The acting, Mia Goth, you knew the acting had to be good. I didn't even look at the cast, to be honest. I knew that she was in it, that's all I needed to know because her performances in the two previous films that was enough to get me hype for this thing. So yeah, my expectations were were pretty high. Yeah, that's fair.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

There's two movies that I've been trying to stay away from and just trying not to watch too much of the trailers, not trying to read too much into them. And it's this one and Long Legs. I will say that I did recently re-watch X just a couple weeks ago because my brother-in-law had never seen it before, so we had to naturally sit down and watch that film. Coming off of that rewatch, I'm really curious to see where the story goes. Obviously, we know that Maxine is trying to get her big break in Hollywood, but what happened since the events of Pearl's Farm? Did she notify the police? Is she dealing with any trauma? We'll have to see. But also knowing that this movie incorporates a serial killer based on real life, the Night Stalker thinks could get really interesting. So there's a lot to this story that I'm just wondering how is it gonna carry on from X and where is it gonna go?

SPEAKER_05 6:27

I expected titties. There it is. That's a fair expectation. I mean, it's all you can expect when you come from X. Pearl didn't have as much, but that's what we wanted. That's what the people are here for. Like Sean said, we know that Mia Goth's gonna have a stellar performance. I think that's the biggest thing I was excited for. And I didn't watch a single trailer. I had no idea what was gonna happen in the story. So I kind of went in with like an open mind and just those high expectations of like what we've had with Pearl and X.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

I wish that I maybe hadn't seen the trailers and looked too into this to kind of go a little bit more blindly. Cause like all the rest of us, yes, those high expectations. I think it's more than just Pearl, just knowing that Mia Goth is a force to be reckoned with. Having seen her in Infinity Pool, we know how I feel about that movie, but regardless of it, her acting is incredible. Even who she is as a person, I've grown to love. So I'm just so excited for this film, really just to see what she brings to the table once again. But then you mentioned it, Sean, when they incorporated Richard Ramirez and this whole Night Stalker thing, I was completely invigorated because I I love True Crime to that extent. And there was more recently like a documentary on the Night Stalker on Netflix, and my mom was like obsessed with that kind of stuff. So I was like, oh wow, what in the hell are they gonna do? And my imagination was running wild, and I was even like bouncing off ideas with a friend of mine about what is this gonna be? What is Maxine gonna do? So, of course, I'm expecting great technical work and high gore and 80s fun, but the unhinged Maxine. So I I feel like all of that hype just continued to like boil over the more that people were talking about the movie, the more anticipation that was building up to, obviously, today.

SPEAKER_04 8:09

I only watched the teaser trailer for Maxine. I don't recall ever watching the full trailer. The excitement of reading about how the Night Stalker was gonna be incorporated into this film really set a particular expectation, but also gave me the sense of wonder and curiosity and the misstep that it could have taken. What degree are you integrating the Night Stalker? Is this gonna be news footage? Is it gonna be a background piece, or are you going to see the Night Stalker, which I believe maybe American Horror Story did semi-recently? And what is are there gonna be creative liberties taken with that? And then thinking about how even some other true crime specials that have treated, I think, the subject matter with some reverence, how does that get received? And how is that always received by the victim's family? So I thought it was there was a potential pitfall there. I was really excited for it to prepare for this. I also re-watched X, but I watched it in our Discord server with the rest of the community, and I really wanted to set the stage for the story. I expected brutality for sure. I expected an elevation. We think about the period pieces that Ty West did before this, he really got the grittiness of the 70s, he got the technicolor wonder of Pearl's era. So then with the 80s, you would expect neon, drugs, sex, and really just discontent and satanic panic. But I also expected, given the prior films, Maxine to be equal parts antagonist and protagonist. I don't know if I did myself a disservice by expecting that, but I found myself at least invested watching this one.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

Yeah, I think while you're watching it, you're kind of waiting for that shoe to drop, right? Because she will do anything, whatever it takes to make it big. And so I think Pearl is really what put that into our brains. After watching Pearl and seeing her portrayal of that character, you're like, oh, that's what's gonna happen to Maxine here. It has to be what she turns into. And I think you kind of go back and forth a little bit as we're figuring out who this character is now while you're watching it, where you just think she could do anything at any point in this movie, and we're either prepared for it or we're not prepared for it, whatever. But like this character is capable of anything.

SPEAKER_04 10:20

I say that I was invested. I wished that I had actually re-watched Pearl in addition to X before going into this movie. I thought X was all I needed because Pearl was the last thing I saw of this trilogy before that, right? In this movie, there were moments that were like dancing on the tip of my tongue and then waving their arms in my periphery like, hey, you remember this? Look at this crazy parallel. I felt like I did myself maybe a disservice by not revisiting Pearl.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Yeah, I mean I I have I did not re-watch either of them, and I wish I had, because I think that the three of them do mesh together really well. What's nice about it while you're watching it is they've just nailed the vibes this time. You know, when you're watching X and you can see the inspiration from 70s horror, the setting, the characters, everything. It doesn't really feel like a 70s movie. When you're watching this, there are so many pieces where you're like, this is an 80s horror movie. Like, not just like making nods to an 80s horror movie. This is an 80s horror movie. Obviously, it's 2024 and you can still feel that it's 2024, but like the story structure, shots, the way that they use characters, the way that they don't show some characters, so much that they do here, you're like, dude, you had to have watched so many 80s horror flicks while you're making or before this or something because the inspiration is so strong, it's beyond inspiration at this point.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Yeah, one of the biggest things that you're describing right now is just that nostalgic feeling. You're getting immersed into the 80s, and it was just this really great feeling that you like, it just really brought you back to this time period, specifically obviously in Hollywood in the 80s, and I think the way that it feels, the way that it looks, they did such a phenomenal job. They really like did the extra work and only used equipment that were available in the 80s, which is why everything just looks so 80s in the film. Like they didn't use any modern trickery or anything, which is why I think they were able to capture that and give you that feeling throughout the film. But I feel like for me it's also the nostalgia, and it's honestly a little homesick because man, I really felt like I have been everywhere in this fucking movie. I don't know if it's like that for everyone that lives or has lived in the valley in and around Hollywood and those hills, but every time I see a movie in this setting, even if we talk about like Terminator 2 when fucking they're being chased through the wash on the motorcycle or whatever, like I lived next to that wash on Devonshire. It it just brings you back to living there. But I've been to like those streets in fucking Hollyweird, I've been to the Hollywood sign, I've been to the Chinese theater, it just brings you back.

SPEAKER_02 12:54

I was thinking of you, Sean, because it's like it's kind of feels so cool being from there, right? And so you experience you're basically like where you grew up, even from the 80s, right? In that era, like reliving that whole thing all over again. Obviously, it's nothing that I can relate to, but at the very least, like I think of that in terms of Miami when they make all of these like cocaine cowboy documentaries and all that stuff. Yeah, that's the Miami that I grew up in.

SPEAKER_04 13:18

I think we can relate when GTA came out with Vice City.

SPEAKER_02 13:22

Yeah, exactly. And I lost my mind. I still lose my mind. And this new GTA with flanagans, are you kidding me? Hell yeah. But want to go back to what you both of you were mentioning in terms of just the visual commitment that Ty West has made with this film. He was fully immersed and bought into I'm gonna give the people what they want. I'm not gonna cheapen it, I'm not going to cut corners, no, I'm gonna give them 80s. And it hits the marks in all fronts on a technical level, soundtrack, score, cinematography, the costume department, makeup, practical effects. Everything was so good. Everything. But the one part that I gotta say unfortunately didn't hit the mark for me was the actual plot, which is funny because he both wrote and directed it. So I love you, Ty, but also it goes back to what I was saying in terms of expectations. I had this big imagination. I thought, holy shit, what is what are we gonna get? What's gonna happen? And everything kind of felt safe for the most part. Everything about this film in terms of plot, what happens to Maxine, everything, the characters involved, the era, it just felt pretty safe. I wrote down the ending of the film. It was the first note I wrote down on my book, and I guessed it correctly. That's not really what I wanted, and that's so different from X and Pearl, where you don't entirely expect what's gonna happen. So I think once I realized that I was going to be right, it was a little bit of a spiral in terms of commitment on the writing front, but visually it definitely helped in terms of buying me into the film and feeling entertained.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

It does suck to guess stuff early on, it's like the whole like malignant syndrome.

SPEAKER_02 15:15

For sure.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

You just gave it to us too early.

SPEAKER_04 15:18

Yeah, but that's the other struggle because I don't think it took any concerted mental effort for Binks to guess it. I also guessed it, like it was just so apparent, and it's a movie that really hands that to you. And maybe that's the bigger intention with Ty West. Maybe that's the point of it all. Maybe if you look at like how this movie rhymes with the previous movies, sure, maybe that's an intention, but it's not an intention that I like.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

I think your comment about the story Binks and and even that whole thought process there, Chris. While I'm watching this, the story itself felt to me like watching an 80s movie. It wasn't just the visuals of it, the choices they made, it was just like it wasn't to a parody level, thankfully, right? The stupid things people would do or or whatever would happen to characters. I'm like, yeah, that's how they would have done it back then. The ending, probably not so much. The rest of the story to me felt like, yeah, that's if somebody were making this movie in in 1985 or something, they probably would have done it that way.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

Or really 80s horror. It's not like a lot of them have such major plot twists, or it's not arthouse in the sense like a lot of the 80s horror films that Ty West was like homaging to. But I don't know. I think it's because they incorporate an element to this story that makes you think that this can go one potential way. And I'd love to dive into it in the spoiler zone. I don't want to get too into it now because it might spoil. But I think that it's that. Once I locked into that particular possibility, it was very hard for me to believe that they wouldn't take that direction when it was very much right there at the palm of his hand.

SPEAKER_05 16:52

I think the question is, sure, it feels authentically 80s. Do we want that? Isn't there a reason we stopped making movies that way?

SPEAKER_01 17:02

There's a market for it. You got the whole Stranger Things shit going on. It's big right now.

SPEAKER_05 17:08

Don't don't name-drop my show like that. Stranger Things is nostalgic and like touches on those elements, but it doesn't read Right.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

This is more immersive. I I think I get what you're saying.

SPEAKER_05 17:18

Stranger Things is 2024 trying to look like the 80s. This movie might be from somebody's shelf from the 80s. And they were just like, we can fix that film. Don't worry about it.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

Fair. To me though, that was a pleasant surprise because while I've really enjoyed X and Pearl, and they were very different films, there was like a common thread there. I don't really know how Pearl kind of fits into that theme. Like if they make another movie in this same vein, it's got to be set in the 90s. Like, make it scream 1996, but in this universe or something. But like going into seeing Maxine's future after X, you don't really know exactly which way it would go. And then for suddenly to be thrust into a movie that feels like you could be watching it on VHS was fun. I th I found that fun. Now I know some people might not, because it's 2024, it's not 1985. And so give us a modern take, just set it back then. But no, I liked it. I liked the look that we get. I don't love VHS, you know, visuals. I feel like it's overused a lot. You know, that, but thankfully there's not too much of that. But like the rest of it, to me, that was a good thing. It was just kind of like, oh, this is a little bit fresher than watching all the other things that we watch that are set in the 80s because we've torn them apart. They're too bright and colorful, they're too fun. Stuff like this didn't actually happen. And whatever. This one went for, I think not reality, it went for the like cinematic reality of like what was shown back then to actually be the real world, you know, people's clothing choices, even. And that's like a different take. Instead of let's go for hyper-realism, let's go for what the movies would have shown. I think that was good.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

I agree. Visually, it looks really good. I think it was more surprising not knowing how many people were actually involved in this movie. I didn't look up the cast, I didn't watch too much of the trailers. I I think I only watched the teaser as well. Obviously, we know Mia Goth great, right? We know that's gonna happen, but you have Kevin fucking bacon who plays a fucking ridiculous role, which I think is great. You have so many other faces that you see and so many other things that I just love, and I think the cast was just a big surprise because I feel like for me, the story I thought was good, but also it was disappointing that it got really convoluted at times. I had these mixed feelings where I was like genuinely surprised that the storyline was more interesting than I thought it was gonna be, but then I also kind of lost me somewhere in the third act of the film where I'm like, what the fuck are we doing?

SPEAKER_05 19:51

I think a big thing that I spent like this entire watch seeking was just like any suspense at all, any fear, anything that made me feel like I was watching a scary movie. And maybe there's other people in the world. There's some things that happened that maybe they felt more fear than me, but I just sat there waiting for it, looking for it for so long. There's nothing, I feel like, even suspenseful about this movie.

SPEAKER_02 20:15

Yeah, and I feel like that's probably one of my disappointments on top of everything else that I've shared. I'll give another surprise though, which ironically is an homage to much more suspenseful movies like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Omen, obviously Psycho. We see that briefly in the trailer. Those are definitely making some prominent Easter eggs in this film. Ty West also makes little homages to 80s film classics in general. Like there's one scene in particular that reminded me a lot of Paris, Texas, which is one of my favorite movies that I've watched more recently. He also does a little bit of an homage to a particular actress who was huge in the silent film era. She was like an early sex symbol. Her name's Thetaba. And I thought that was like a nice little touch because obviously of Maxine and her role in this film. So I think it was kind of nice to see those little bits of Easter eggs and the 80s horror films that he decided to make homages to that are very suspenseful, but ultimately at the end of the day, this one is it frightening? Is it suspenseful? It's not, and that was a pretty big disappointment, too.

SPEAKER_04 21:20

100%. The thing that surprised me most, disappointed me most, was the complete lack of bite in this movie in terms of its suspense. You can't advertise having the Night Stalker being a prominent component of this story, and then do what you did here. There was a moment where I actually in my mind thought, wow, I don't feel any tension whatsoever. There's a big difference in the genre of this film while still being a horror film. And we know that that's gonna be the case because we have X, that was a really big homage to Slashers, a big love letter to Slashers. Then we have Pearl doing something completely. Completely different. And we know that we're going to get something different here. But I thought it would be something that more closely blends those two movies. And I think in some ways it does. But in other ways it feels like a really big departure.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

I think Binks used the word safe earlier. And that that is a really good way to sum up a lot of the things that you experience here. It actually does play it very safe. And we've got some kills here that had promise. We're obviously going to break them down. A couple of them really worked. And then a couple others were just like really safe. And I think they could have amped this up here greatly and drastically increased the amount of suspense we got. We're not going to be afraid. We've seen this all before. We're not going to be actually scared. But I think they could have worked in a little bit more of that.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

Yeah, I don't think anybody's probably going to be super frightened watching this film from a traditional standpoint, anyways. But I do think that the movie does explore obviously some trauma in a really interesting way, and it does show you some really gruesome moments, to your point, Mac, with the kills. Some of those moments can be really hard to watch for some people, but I wouldn't go into this one expecting any type of traditional horror except for like some of the moments of the kills that we get. It barely even feels like a horror movie as you're watching it.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

But it's interesting because it's like a hard thing to pin down, you know. I think when we watch it's sad to say this is technically a period piece, right? But we watch those and you expect certain things, and we've watched a lot of 80s themed movies, and you expect certain things, and you expect it to feel like a lot of other movies. But it didn't, to me, it felt like it fit in with those other movies. Now there's things that you could obviously like point to like other films from that era. You could point to more modern horror films as well, but it had its own place in my mind. It didn't feel necessarily like original because it's the third in the series and we've seen Mia Goth and Entire West like work this magic twice before, so it it felt like it was in line. I like the fact that we've got this returning character, we can kind of see that develop more, but it still felt like its own thing to me.

SPEAKER_05 23:59

I think that this movie gets some originality points for this very unique feeling that I had, which may sound just insane, and forgive me if it does. But there were times during this movie where I like I didn't feel like I was watching a movie. It was like the plot was almost so insignificant that I sat there and I was like, have have I seen movies before? Is this a movie? And I like it's such an odd feeling. Like it truly made me feel like I haven't seen a movie in like 10 years or something, or like I was in a different universe and I don't know what movies are anymore. It definitely didn't make me think of other things except in the and maybe some of the things that it lacked. But it didn't make me think like I know it was pulling a lot of, like, there were a lot of Easter eggs and I know there were a lot of references, but it didn't make me think like, oh, this is just like that movie and just like that one. So we'll give it originality points for being a period piece, especially.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Yeah, I think this movie is interesting because at one instance it feels like it does take from a lot of movies that came before it, trying to capture that time period, trying to capture that vibe. It has a heavy inspiration across all three films from various other movies from the 70s, from the 80s, things like that. But it also doesn't feel like it's unoriginal at the same time. The movie gives you a lot of nostalgia and a lot of callbacks and Easter eggs, but it still delivers its own story, but it's also delivering a story that's like interwoven with shit that's actually happened in real life in that era, in that place. You know what I mean? So it's very interesting and I think original in the way that it kind of like weaves things together.

SPEAKER_04 25:38

I need to reference a movie that I have never seen, but I expect most, if not all of you, have seen this. Because the way that you're describing this is the way I imagine Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to be.

SPEAKER_02 25:50

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_04 25:51

No, not to me.

SPEAKER_02 25:53

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, though, actually fully incorporates what is happening in the city in that time era into the plot. I don't think that Ty West does that entirely here as expected. It is just right above the surface, and that's the part where I struggle because in terms of originality, it could have taken a once upon a time in Hollywood approach and really interwoven the Night Stalker right into what Maxine is about to do or what she's going through, etc. But it he basically just uses that as like setting the scene of where we are, yeah. Which is fine.

SPEAKER_04 26:33

It feels like the distraction that a magician is trying to give you while he's pulling off an illusion or a card trick.

SPEAKER_02 26:39

A thousand percent. And that's where I struggle because it's like to your point, Mac. I I like how you brought up that it's very much like this is exactly how an 80s film is. So now I that I've thought about that, okay, you're you're right for sure. I just wish a part of me wishes that we could have just gone the other way, right? And maybe then at that point we could argue that this movie is just like Quinn Tarantino's Once Upon a Time, right? So who's gonna win? You know, what what you gotta give or take? So it's a tough call. I think I just have to like let go of what could have been and just accept for what is, and perhaps view this film more like a standalone, actually. I think if this film was by itself altogether, wasn't compared so heavily to Pearl or X, perhaps even for me, I can only speak for myself, I would view it very differently than expecting something that a Maxine that's going to be like how she wasn't ex or Pearl when she isn't Pearl. You know, like these kinds of things were too closely together. Maybe just viewing Maxine by itself is a better approach.

SPEAKER_05 27:45

But then would we care? Yeah, I don't know. How much would we care?

SPEAKER_02 27:49

Maybe. Maybe I'm wrong, but it's worth a shot. I almost feel like taking someone, if I could find them, who has never seen any of these films and see if I give them Maxine by itself first and then treat the others like if they're prequels.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

Oh, I think you should watch X before this one, though.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

We haven't spoiled it enough for anyone who's hoping for the Night Stalker, you're not gonna get the Night Stalker on screen. The way that it's brought up, it's literally it's context. It's purely for the setting. And it does make me wonder, though, if they shot a scene that included the Night Stalker, watched it and thought, ooh, this is bad taste.

SPEAKER_05 28:23

They might have shot it both ways.

SPEAKER_00 28:25

Yeah, who knows? Because if they brought him in, right, and then somebody who was alive or somebody who's related or anybody, right, that has an actual real life personal connection could have seen this and been like, what the hell, dude?

SPEAKER_03 28:37

Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 28:38

So I I I really wonder if they thought about it or if they actually did it and then just realized, nah, dude, like that that's crossing the line for us because it's not fake. I think if this movie were truly an 80s movie, it would not have been the Night Stalker, it would have been somebody else. They would have given it a different name, but it would have been a fake serial killer, and everyone would have been fine because it's not real. But I think in this case they chose to use actual real life serial killer information and clips and new stuff, right? And so, like, you can't bring an actor on, pretend to be him on screen, and then have either a character survive that or fight him or something like that. It would have felt, I think, too bad. Like just not good taste.

SPEAKER_04 29:16

I really need to watch more shit because now I'm thinking about Once Upon a Time in Hollywood with fucking Charles Manson and then the Night Stalker in American Horror Story.

SPEAKER_01 29:24

It could have been done a little bit differently for sure. Whether or not we wanted to actually see the Night Stalker, that's up for debate depending on who he was watching and what your opinion is and what you want to get out of the film. But I do think the way that they were able to put real events in and around the film is something that's not always done. It's very rarely done, and it's kind of I feel like hard to do.

SPEAKER_04 29:46

I also want to highlight though something else that I have qualms with, and that's the ending of this movie. There was a reveal in the third act that was super big eye roll energy for me, and I think it's along the lines of what Binks and I predicted instantly when this movie started.

SPEAKER_02 30:02

We literally looked at each other. When it was revealed, we looked at each other and we're like, anyways, back to the movie.

SPEAKER_04 30:08

Exactly. And I've I've come to find now that I really enjoy watching movies with Binks for this very reason. But I found that the more I considered it and the direction or the the tone that it was trying to take, the more I appreciated the idea of it. And overall, it's not in a completely unsatisfying ending. I do want to unpack the ramifications of it because that's where things get a little messy and dicey for me. But let me tell you this, dear listener. For us in our theater, there was no fucking post-credit scene, despite the internet saying there was. So make your own educated decision.

SPEAKER_02 30:41

Let us be the ones that let you know that don't trust Google.

SPEAKER_05 30:45

I just want to note it wouldn't have been authentic because they didn't keep you people in the theaters for 40 extra minutes in the 80s. So they were trying to keep it real and just send you home like normal people after a movie. When the credits roll, you go home. We don't just sit here and just wait.

SPEAKER_02 31:02

Here's what I will say though. It is worth just staying just a smidge for the credits to roll when you're staring at a particular still. Yeah. Because that's like a Ty West staple that's absolutely worth experiencing. So just stay like a little bit, but don't stay for too long because once it goes away, there's nothing else to watch.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

You could have done clips during the credits. That's an 80s thing. They did that several times. Like that would have been okay. I'm glad that we didn't stick around. I texted you all and was like, is there a post-credit scene? You said no. Cool. We can get up and leave now. This is too hot of a theater to stick around and find out on our own. But the inning itself, like, you mentioned a reveal that a pretty big, important reveal that happens that is not surprising. And I'm okay with it because of my earlier statements about this following a formula from movies of the time. To me, it made sense. When we watch those movies, you predict stuff like this and it comes true. And then you watch this and you predict the same thing and it comes true. And I was like, cool, that's fine. I'm here for it. But then we go a little bit further in the ending, and that was kind of silly. Like past this big reveal, past the big climax, we get into a bit of silliness that I was a little bit wishy-washy on, and then we get to the actual ending of the movie, and I was like, okay. So they like took their time. They didn't just like let us fall off right at the end, have this big action, you know, like climax, and then they like we we did this soft landing. I don't know that we needed a soft landing. I would have been fine just getting pushed off a cliff, right? But no, they they gave us a couple extra minutes to to come down slowly.

SPEAKER_05 32:30

Were we even on a cliff?

SPEAKER_00 32:32

Uh that you know, kind of. There was some stuff and it happened, and uh it was a lot, it was building throughout the movie. It's not as bombastic as some other directors would have gone for.

SPEAKER_05 32:42

Other directors such as Ty West.

SPEAKER_00 32:45

Perhaps. Perhaps, but I I think it worked, but it was gentle. It was really kind of a gentle ending. The ending was not bad. It's predictable, but to me that actually adds value because the story, like to me, seems more consistent that way. It was a little bit okay. It's a little bit okay.

SPEAKER_04 33:03

Max really tapped into the meta of it all, and I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

I am tapped into the meta, and that's why I think a 90s version of these characters would be amazing because give me Scream, give me meta. I'm here for that.

SPEAKER_05 33:14

It was so gentle, it was almost undetectable.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

Oh my gosh. I don't think it was like the worst ending in the world, but I do feel like for me, uh gentle maybe took their time. I felt like there were moments that felt a little bit rushed towards the end of the film and that weren't explored heavily enough for us to be just getting spoon-fed this information. I do think it gets a little murky, and there's gonna be some moments that may confuse somebody if you didn't pay close enough attention, or maybe you did and and you just didn't connect the dots, and that's okay. But I I just feel like there's that is a flaw, right? I think that's a flaw if you can't bring everything together at the end and really land the plane perfectly and smoothly without hitting those bumps, you know what I mean? So I I still think the ending was okay. It's not the greatest ending, but I do think it felt like it was just a little bit rushed with the information that we're giving.

SPEAKER_05 34:09

Yeah, I I generally agree. It was a fine ending. I don't feel a lot of feelings about it one way or another. And there were a lot of things where it was just like, let's throw as many cliches as we can into the end of this and just run with that. We're giving up on pulling things together, we're just throwing darts at a board now.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

Yeah, ultimately there were the Easter eggs like the Stepford wives of it all, and I was here for that, and this a couple iconic lines that were repeated way too many times for my liking, but it was good. It was it was an okay ending, a safe landing, as we've been saying. But by the time that we get there, I was very much like, all right, yep, I as predicted, I suppose.

SPEAKER_04 34:53

Well, I can't wait to see if our ratings shake out as predicted, but let's go ahead and start making our way there. Sean, how would you describe the gore score?

SPEAKER_01 35:00

Well, let's just say that this movie definitely delivers the goods in more ways than one. You do have some gnarly kills, I think. There's a few of them for sure. Everything from like massive head trauma to bloody fucking testicles, but we have those few really gnarly kills, and then we have a bunch of stuff that's like either mentioned or you see kind of the aftermath, and you don't see a lot of what actually happened in those moments. This one definitely had a whole lot of potential with the few moments that we get to be like solidified into high territory, but I think because of everything else, it's really just giving like a medium high.

SPEAKER_02 35:36

And what about the animal report? Animals are safe in this movie, but they actually do something that's a little gross at one point, so I guess brace yourself for that short scene.

SPEAKER_04 35:45

Well, let's go ahead and get into our ratings then. Maxine now showing in theaters from 2024. Is it a hack or a slash? I think I want to kick it off just to get mine out of the way. This is fun, and it's a good movie. I struggle with how much of it is horror though, and how much of it is like noir true crime thriller. Being sure mentioned earlier that it's lackluster, and I think I can relate because of this one specific area, which is there's plenty of gore to land it in the horror genre, but there's this air about it that lends itself well to mix company if you're with folks who wouldn't usually give horror movies a chance. But then it's problematic because even with its most brutal moments, it really does still manage to feel safe, but it's inconsistent in the way that it's unraveling its own story. So I would struggle even watching this with or showing this with someone who hasn't seen the prior films. I'm curious to see if you ever get to live out that experiment and see how that goes for you. But ultimately, there's a quote from this movie that I think sums it up really well, which is beneath the technical machine of the 1950s, things were as rotten then as they are now. And that is the spirit of this movie, and I can appreciate and respect that. So for me, it's still a slash, but it's not as good as X for me.

SPEAKER_00 37:05

I think that's a honestly like a really fair way of thinking about Maxine. You know, I I had a very different experience. Like you mentioned, I was really bought into the fun of it all. There were just so many times while watching this that I felt like Michael Fassbender playing Magneto, talking to Mystique, saying simply perfection. I think Ty West just worked some magic here. It's full on basking in the glory of 80s horror, but in 2024. The cinematography, phenomenal. The set, fantastic. The wardrobe is on point, and the acting is pure bliss. We even got camp, like a lot of camp, I think. And that was a fun little addition. I just really enjoyed this and I think it's absolutely a slash.

SPEAKER_05 37:44

I am gonna just have to disagree with you there, Mac. Now you're not wrong. We did get camp. But literally, who asked for that? You know how I feel. I was watching it and I was like, just so everyone knows, I I do get the camp here. And in my opinion, if we're gonna do camp, this might be the right way to do it, but I'm still not a fan of it. To me, it does bask in the 80s, but it doesn't bask in 80s horror. It just basks in the 80s. Like I can watch the news from the 80s if I want to, and I don't want to. When I finished watching this movie, I felt like I was left out of a joke. Like everyone else experienced something and I was missing parts. And, you know, I've never been shy about the fact that I haven't seen all the movies in the world. And I think that that's part of it. I haven't seen a hundred eighties movies, or even 10 maybe. I don't know. I don't know how many I've seen at this point, but it just felt like I wasn't a part of the audience that Ty West was like really trying to hit, and that is people who existed in the 80s and Sean, maybe more specifically, people who were in California. Mac, you keep mentioning, like, this is so fun, and you were in the fun. It felt way less fun to me than X felt, way less fun than Pearl felt, which was still a step below X. I didn't feel fun at all. I felt like I spent the whole entire movie looking for the fun. And I think the best way to describe it is actually also a reference from the movie. The director says that Maxine looks like she's right out of a Rockwell painting. And to me, this movie is like a Norman Rockwell painting. It's perfect technique, but the final product has nothing exciting. Like it's just people at a dinner table. The beauty of the painting is lost for me. So obviously it's a hack for me.

SPEAKER_01 39:22

I'm gonna be honest. I will start by saying I think X is the better movie of the trilogy, if you will. Like I'll just throw that out there and start there. But I do think at the same time, when we're looking at this film, there is a lot to enjoy in this movie. I genuinely think there is something for everyone in this movie. I think that you can uniquely be into horror films and like this movie. I think that you cannot be into horror films and still find yourself liking this movie. As convoluted as it may be, there is a pretty good story in there somewhere. You know what I mean? Especially if you have watched the other two installments in this franchise or trilogy. There is this sort of continuity or similarity between Pearl and Maxine as characters that I think is really interesting to see develop across all of the movies and that still carries into this movie, even though this movie feels like, to your point, Chris, a departure from X, right? There is something for the 80s nostalgia nerds like myself that absolutely love anything that can depict that time period and make it fun and horror and interesting. And there's something for all of the gore lovers and even B-movie horror fans out there. I think this film does a pretty good job at creating its story while cleverly trying to integrate some stuff that did happen in that time period in that specific city. And I think that it's, you know, even though it gets convoluted perhaps, but still it finds itself being able to be interesting enough to be engaging. And overall, I love the way that they shot the film, the way it immerses you into Hollywood in the 80s, how it gives you a great story with good acting while still being able to deliver the goods and the kills and the gore. So Maxine said it in the movie, right? She fucking nailed it, and I think she did. I would really love to sit here and preach it like I mean it and say it's a fucking slash, but it's really just a slash. I'm gonna give it a slash. It's not an over-the-top slash, but it still deserves a slash.

SPEAKER_05 41:29

I forgot how nice you guys are here.

SPEAKER_02 41:32

Oh boy. Well, I guess I'll go last. And just like this movie, we've reached the conclusion. And I gotta relate to a character in the movie that says that they too want this to last forever because I also would love for this franchise to last forever. That's mostly because I love Maxine as a character, but ultimately I'd be lying if I told you that this movie doesn't leave a lot to be desired. I think there was an opportunity to do something really wild here, like I've preached. And ultimately the plot and what unfolds did not feel remotely out of the box for me. And on top of that, like we've shared, there's very little suspense and fright to make up for that. Like I mentioned, it's safe. And I felt like this franchise, specifically X and Pearl, were known to be the opposite of that. Ty West was trying to not be safe. So when you get here, you're like, wait, what? Now, despite that, I feel like it is a good conclusion for Maxine in the whole saga that really questions what you're willing to do for fame. It's definitely 80s camp, like you guys mentioned, for sure. And I'm also not one that's very big on camp, but it this is the kind of camp that I'll allow and I can have a good time with. It's got some great kills, a great fucking soundtrack, that's for damn sure. And Mia Goth has really solidified her place in being one of my favorite actors from modern day, that's for fucking sure. I do have my disappointments and what-ifs though, and they are very fucking big. But you know what? You did say that we're nice here, and I'm going to be a little nice. Ryan, I'm I'm like on the fucking fence because I'm almost tipping over with you. The only reason that this is gonna get into slash territory tonight is because the movie visually and on the technical aspect of things is so my fucking shit. Like, I could probably even watch this on mute and just bask in a lot of the stills and a lot of the technical work and enjoy it. But that's like the film nerd in me, right? That's like the arthouse girly in me that will allow it. Love your Norman Rockwell reference though, because that's not a point reference. But we'll see how I feel. Maybe I've finally gotten my film for the year that I'm gonna question and maybe change sides on at the end of the year.

SPEAKER_04 43:44

Who knows? Well, that certainly went a direction, but for now, there you have a folks Maxine from 2024 has earned one hack and four slashes. Now you can find this movie in theaters. If you're checking this out, post its theatrical run. Check the link in our show notes to see where you can find it streamed. Right now, but go watch it, then join us in the second half so we can debate all this together. We'll see you in a bit.

SPEAKER_00 44:14

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SPEAKER_04 45:19

Welcome back, folks. You're now entering the spoiler zone for Maxine, which has earned one hack and four slashes. Now we have a lot to unpack here, but before we get into the specifics of our ratings, let's go through those kills.

SPEAKER_01 45:30

Yeah, we have 23 fucking kills in this movie, which I know that sounds like a handful more than you may have seen. That's because some deaths were actually mentioned throughout the film on TV and on the radio. So we're gonna add those into this kill count with a grand total of 23, plus the honorable mention for you know the whole testicles of it all and how many possible babies could have come from that. Please. It's up for debate.

SPEAKER_05 46:01

Millions. They refresh.

SPEAKER_00 46:04

I don't think that guy's gonna refresh his his uh Yeah, I don't think he can command our ball sack at that point.

SPEAKER_04 46:11

You know what I mean? Like it doesn't exist anymore. Depends.

SPEAKER_05 46:13

Are we keeping the medical care authentic to the 80s as well?

SPEAKER_01 46:16

Yeah. That is toast. What were your favorite kills?

SPEAKER_02 46:19

Well, I really was hoping that you were gonna count his ball sack as a kill.

SPEAKER_01 46:23

We can. Alright, throw it in there.

SPEAKER_02 46:25

Thank you, benevolent Sean. I just wanna say it was a fantastic kill for the simple fact that I wrote down specifically, I wrote balls off. I wanna show the camera if I may, because I think it's worth it. Balls off. And then I also wrote this punk bitch a killer? LOL. Because truly, in that fit, sir. Who the fuck were you kidding? Not me.

SPEAKER_01 46:48

He really is so tough at first, and then as soon as things didn't go his way, he was such a little bitch.

SPEAKER_05 46:54

Didn't he have a little beret also? Like, sir. He didn't put up enough of a fight about sucking a gun off.

SPEAKER_01 47:02

Oh, yeah, he got into it.

SPEAKER_05 47:03

He fucking got into it. He was like, Well, if you say so, I guess I'll do that. Give me a second, I'll warm up.

SPEAKER_02 47:09

Yeah, he gagged. I loved it. I was here for it. I thought it was fantastic. Maxine is such a boss ass bitch in that scene specifically, so I really needed to highlight it. But okay, actual kills. Molly being chopped into little bits in that suitcase, tumbling down, was so funny to me. It was such a great scene because she's just tumbling and tumbling and initially I didn't even know who the fuck it was, to be honest. I thought it might have been the assistant of the entertainment lawyer. So I wasn't too too sure until you finally just see her face at the end on the floor, and I was like, oh fuck yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:40

So good.

SPEAKER_04 47:41

I love it because it reminds me of a kill from Halloween Resurrection when there's a decapitation and then it just topples down the stairs. Which obviously we've seen in a many more horror movies, but the quality of the scream on her face also reminds me of Sleepaway Camp. Classic 80s slasher.

SPEAKER_01 48:00

100%. It was just such a good visual, just having the suitcase tumbling down the stairs and frickin' limbs falling out of it.

SPEAKER_04 48:06

And you know, speaking of 80s slashers, my favorite kill is absolutely Kevin Bacon. And I feel like if this man just out here having iconic deaths in horror movies, we think about Friday the 13th, we think about this. This man getting crushed in a compactor, it feels like the classic mob boss death. I know a guy who can make someone disappear. This is the kind of shit I imagine.

SPEAKER_01 48:30

It did.

SPEAKER_04 48:31

The fact that he had his hands bound to the steering wheel and was begging for his life like a little bitch. Say it with your whole spine, man. You said this wasn't about money for you, and now you're saying you can be bot? No, sir.

SPEAKER_01 48:44

No, sir.

SPEAKER_04 48:45

To get the crushing while he's an atheist, but then suddenly praying. There we go. And then to see the blood trickle down. Disgusting move by the dogs to eat it, but I guess good thinking.

SPEAKER_01 48:57

It was the dogs for me. It was the dogs like enough for me.

SPEAKER_02 49:10

I saw you look at her and I was like, I wanted to actually whisper into your ear, being like, what does she say? Is that actual a fucking thing? Because that was disturbing. I couldn't that couldn't be, right? Like they were hungry as fuck. They were ready for that blood. And I'm like, uh animal report? Question mark? I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 49:27

Descendants of wolves, my friends. They're animals. They're hungry. But like domesticated.

SPEAKER_01 49:33

I'm not saying it was wrong. I'm just saying it was just that moment of the kill that solidified it for me. Just to cap it off. Not only did this dude go through that, get crushed, and it was just a waterfall of blood onto the floor, that wasn't enough. They're like, don't worry, we'll take care of this. And then the dude's dogs are just licking it up. Okay, buddy, that's great.

SPEAKER_04 49:54

Literally licking the the fucking plate clean is what they were doing.

SPEAKER_00 49:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 49:59

Finger looking good, but for dogs.

SPEAKER_00 50:01

Yeah, exactly. You have to hope those dog actors don't develop, you know, not a taste because it's not real human blood, but like, you know, and in their own life. You don't want them to see blood and think, hmm, I'm hungry now.

SPEAKER_04 50:12

I can't fucking tell what color that shit is. They were just eating steak.

SPEAKER_00 50:16

That's true. It all looks the same. That was also my favorite kill. And it's so weird because his character is the camp in this movie. There's other moments of it, but he is 100% camp. While watching it, he's gotta go. How is he gonna go out? We don't quite know yet. Did he have to go in the end? Like, was he a real contributor? Yeah, he had to go. It's just as a character. And to get completely squashed, the most demolished of almost any character in this movie, I wonder if Kevin Bacon just wanted to have fun with this. If he was like, yo, obliterate me, like turn me into nothing.

SPEAKER_02 50:50

At this point, he probably like has that written in his contract. You know what I mean? Like, if I'm in this movie, I want you to fuck me up.

SPEAKER_00 50:57

Yeah. It's like Sean Bean having to die in every role that he ever plays. That's basically what Kevin Bacon wanted here. He was like, take me out. The other one, subtle kill, small one, in the pool, something getting stabbed into your nose, though. Oh yeah. That moment felt like the sinus stuff that I have dealt with during seasonal allergy issues. Just that boop and you're dead. I was like, oh yep, there's the feeling on screen right there for anyone who doesn't know what it's like to have bad uh allergies.

SPEAKER_02 51:25

Bit dramatic. You felt represented and seen in this house.

SPEAKER_00 51:28

I felt very seen.

SPEAKER_05 51:29

Love that. Well, Mac, you mentioned an obliteration and obviously daddy's head getting blown up. And what I can only assume was all practical effects. That explosion is so good. And there was a moment where you felt like maybe she wasn't maybe she was gonna spare him. But one thing about Maxine, Maxine's always looking out for Maxine, okay? Maxine's always looking out for the spotlight. She felt that spotlight, she said, one second, dad, I have a plan. And that head explosion was what we needed. And I feel like we uh have hardly any gore in this movie, and I needed it, and it still didn't scratch my itch, but I'll I'll take what I can get. A full screen brain explosion, she does it for me.

SPEAKER_02 52:11

You brought up such a good point because for a moment there, if she didn't kill her dad, I was going to be furious. That for sure would have solidified the a hack a thousand and twenty percent. I was like, as we're getting that whole sequence of her, like, you know, getting out of the car and such, I was like, Oh, this is a dream sequence. It has to be has to be like praying, lighting the prayer candles, like, take me back, she better do something with that gun. Blowing up his head was everything and more. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 52:39

The explosive head, 10 out of 10. Can I tell you how I expected it to end? Well, I would say not necessarily an expectation, but more so like a hope. A, I think it's really fucking dumb that she still pulled that trigger when the cops are literally looking at her, and then this fucking guy is just sitting here on the floor defenseless, right? So I thought there were other possibilities. One, cops were gonna shoot her because we know what LA PD is like.

SPEAKER_01 53:06

I had that thought.

SPEAKER_04 53:07

That's a potential. Two, does she kill him? They don't shoot her, but then she becomes famous, not for being a star, but for being a serial or a mass murderer, and everything gets pinned on her.

SPEAKER_03 53:20

Right.

SPEAKER_04 53:21

There are other directions I think it could have gone versus her just being the victim and escaping.

SPEAKER_02 53:25

Please let's circle back to what you last said there, because that was the imagination that my friend Christopher had with what he thought this movie was gonna be that we were like going back and forth about in terms of her being a serial killer. So absolutely. I did have that thought too because I was like, well, if she shoots him in front of the cops, obviously are there gonna be repercussions, but we ultimately see that she doesn't get any like it's Gucci. Makes no fucking sense. The math isn't entirely math, but whatever, fuck it all, I guess. Doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_04 53:57

It's all that cocaine.

SPEAKER_02 53:59

Ultimately at the end of the day, though, we see a whole ass other one detective who s sir, Detective Torres. I almost said it in Spanish, like to shut the fuck up. I honestly give him zero lines. I I love I love that actor. He's pretty funny in most things. In this movie, I was like, oh god damn it, they did you no service here because you needed to be quiet. You have five lines and they're the same lines throughout the whole movie. Yeah. Detective Williams, on the other hand, being stabbed in the eye and rolling down the hill gave me Kung Pao Enter the Fist vibes.

SPEAKER_01 54:30

It was, it was good for sure.

SPEAKER_02 54:32

It was fantastic. I was cracking up.

SPEAKER_04 54:34

Detective Williams that whole time. One of the first things she's saying in the when we meet her as a character, Maxine storms off inside. She's like, You fucked that up, not me.

SPEAKER_01 54:43

Yeah. Nah, I love that. That was good. I I do want to mention Leon's kill because I thought Leon's kill was really good. I think, you know, we get a couple moments that didn't, I don't make sense of it. Like, why did we slice the back of his neck open just for fun and then he turns around? But I did like the whole he got sliced up, hacked, and but my the moment that solidified the kill for me was just a quick snippet that I really enjoyed, and it was the blood splatter onto the VHS tapes. That's why I think the kill is worth mentioning, because that moment it's a perfect slasher moment.

SPEAKER_02 55:17

Well, I thought that entire kill was the first signal to me that this was giving a little bit camp because it's her reading this script, and as she's reading the script, it's going into this kill and the dramatics of it all.

SPEAKER_03 55:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:30

Maybe I that's where I'm misunderstanding camp, but it that's what I wrote down. I was like, ooh, the campy vibes.

SPEAKER_05 55:37

There is no understanding camp. It is simply something people say. I'm really trying. It means nothing to anyone, nobody can define it. It's just one of those things. Everybody treats it like porn, you know it when you see it, but then some people can't see it. There is no camp.

SPEAKER_04 55:51

I want to point out that we have an entire bonus episode with Rodon Aurora, and it's literally all about understanding camp. Sure. I'll drop a link in the show notes.

SPEAKER_00 56:01

It made of it might have been camp, right? But that kill was the most 80s horror movie kill of this entire movie. For sure. And it was a great kill. And when I saw that, I felt bad for the character because he's great. But this is the type of kill we needed more of, and the type of killer using a big knife, the gloved hands were so perfect. And that's it was kind of upsetting that we didn't get more kills from that perspective where we don't see too much. Yeah. The leather gloves. Every time those gloves showed up, it felt like an 80s horror movie. And I just I needed more of that.

SPEAKER_04 56:35

Every single time I saw those fucking gloves, I thought of student bodies.

SPEAKER_00 56:39

Oh, perfect. A hundred percent. That's why I think I loved it.

SPEAKER_04 56:42

But also the second you see those gloves, it's obviously there's gonna be a tie with her father as soon as the movie starts, and they're going back to this, and you remember that it's revealed who her father is as she's driving away from Pearl's house. But the second he fucking has these gloves on and he's watching her live striptease, there's only one man on the planet who would be that angry looking at her, and it's her Jesus daddy.

SPEAKER_02 57:07

Which by the way, that's the Paris, Texas reference. I would recommend watching the movie. It's very good, and that's like a very prominent, famous scene from the movie. So I was like, ooh, that was a nice little touch there, a nice little ditty. But a hundred percent. Right off the bat, when we see the opening scene, that's when I wrote daddy issues, this is the plot. Fuck it all.

SPEAKER_03 57:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:25

So it's unfortunate that we don't even get more kills with the glove perspective just to kind of feed into the curiosity a bit. I will say Amber and Tabby's kills also were really fun. Again, evidence of the glove perspective being from the camera. It gave a little bit sinister in a way bec at times because I liked how we were seeing the perspective from the camera footage, not so much live.

SPEAKER_01 57:48

I kind of wish Yeah, it was like some weird snuff film.

SPEAKER_02 57:51

I wish that we had gotten just that and not revealed like back and forth reality snuff film perspective, that whole bit, but it was cool.

SPEAKER_04 58:00

It was giving Poughkeepsie tapes. We did just see that, didn't we?

SPEAKER_02 58:04

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_05 58:05

But since you mentioned that, I just have to say that whole like scene when we started to see that there's other people involved because they were carrying the girls, and then someone's filming, and then it just started to bring in too many elements. Like that to me was when too many things were going on at once, and like we're already dealing with the serial killer, and then who's this guy, and who's the guy in the car that keeps talking her? And now there's people carrying these girls and helping kill them. That was the moment that too many things started to come together that didn't make sense in the story, and I was like, I have no idea who we're hunting, who we're looking for. I don't care enough, honestly. But it was just a lot. Why are we carrying these girls? Who are we? And then it's just her dad. Nothing more fun. Yes, yes. Her dad killing other people's kids, evidently, and then asking them to come help him because he was like, Remember who was here when all your kids disappeared? Like, yeah, it was you.

SPEAKER_04 58:57

Well, that was a weird moment for me because A, he's just killing the people close to her, so he's not killing the literally their kids. But my worry, and this is where I was like, Oh fuck, I hope this isn't what they're doing. My worry was that he was nodding to victims of the Night Stalker or things like that. When in reality, I think he's just saying, Oh, yeah, you lost your child to sin and partying and cocaine in Hollywood. Correct. But man, that can be problematic.

SPEAKER_02 59:25

So this is where I think that ultimately Ty West probably shouldn't have even bothered incorporating the Night Stalker to begin with, because that's where it gets extremely convoluted. That perspective alone. Because yeah, ultimately, you in the whole monologue that he gives, it's that their kids were like given into the sin of Hollywood and whatnot, and it's not because they lost their kids to the Night Stalker specifically. So then why incorporate them? And then we've got these bits of victims that are mentioned on the radio, and they're like, every time we go to the news, it's talking about the Night Stalker, and it's like, are we not gonna is the news not talking about Maxine and the actual other serial killer that's going around? Like, no one gives a f well, it just goes to show you that no one gives a fuck about prostitutes and you know, or like lower class citizens or just give what a damn about whatever's more famous in terms of the perspective of a famous serial killer, not other when you don't know the name of what's going on or you don't have a name for the killer, you just forget.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:21

I just feel like they could have talked about the Night Stalker for context of the 80s, and then it could have just been something there, and I just don't like the way it was emphasized. It made it seem like that was a significant part of the story that was happening. Because I think we've seen plenty of movies before that are set in a time and then they show like relevant news stories that were real things that were going on. But for it to feel so like inherently part of this story and then also be completely not relevant to the story at all, it's just a big letdown.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:50

I see that for sure. If you watch like the teaser or what have you, like the trailers and stuff, they do put an emphasis on that this is gonna be a big part of the story. The way that I interpret it or the way that I took this aspect of it, was like it's putting this, it's putting you in this time period. This is what's happening in this time period in the 80s in Hollywood, and then the story is now interwoven into this thing that's actually happened in real life in this time period where you know Maxine's dad, who's killing these people essentially, right? And then it's being perceived by maybe the media and the police that that's kind of like part of the night stalker's victims, but it's kind of getting mixed up or confused with that, and you have the detectives that are looking for that killer, but end up finding this into this whatever thing, and then the at the by the end of it, the citizens are the ones that found the night stalker. So, like it's two different stories that kind of met in the middle and then went this way. And I'm not I I'm not saying it was the perfect way to do it, I'm just saying that maybe we're just a little bit more salty because we wanted to see the Night Stalker and we didn't, and less about how it inter w intertwines to the story.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:09

It's not a bad perspective. I think where this started to grow on me when we got more into just who her father is and the bullshit that he's pulling. I appreciated that I was just flipping satanic panic.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:24

And literally saying, okay, you have this guy who's literally murdering people. So the night soccer is real, they say he's a Satanist, etc. You have this this entire widespread fear in America, in Los Angeles, Dungeons and Dragons gets brought up about how it's like converting kids into sin, all this shit, right? But then it's literally a preacher manipulating people and turning them to God. And that is, I think, the duality of the story that I can really, really get behind and appreciate. So the context there for the Night Stalker does make sense, but I do think, like, to Binks' point, when you start slipping in lines like, Oh, remember your children when they disappeared, it's like, well, fuck, dude, what? What are you doing?

SPEAKER_05 1:03:12

What are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:13

What's he's over here chopping up bodies going, but the they're bad.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:17

And why did we all have shotguns?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:18

That's true.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:19

It was giving Waco.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:20

That's why.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:21

That was the campiness that I enjoy. I get it, I appreciate it, but it's just an insane story.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:28

Everybody had heavy fire armor, didn't know how the hell to use it because two detectives frickin' John wicked all of them, and yet somehow the priest is what does one in with a fucking cross in her eye. I don't know. It's all for the fun and games of it all. But can I briefly you know, just to kind of put a bow on, I guess, the Night Stalker for now, but I wanted to mention what idea my friend had for the plot, and I would love to hear your guys' thoughts. Because I think in some ways it would definitely toe the line of like, mm, how acceptable is this in terms of families of these victims and whatnot? But but tell me that Maxine wouldn't do this shit. When we heard of the Night Stalker being incorporated, we thought that what was gonna happen, and my friend specifically, he thought that what was gonna happen was Maxine was going to basically start killing people to use utilize the fame of being a serial killer to some extent, or like kind of ride the coattails, killing like people that were getting in her way that were preventing her from being famous, to then ultimately get her claim to fame. And I guess to some extent, I thought that maybe that was going to be the approach when she started to mention like this is not my problem, like people need to fend for themselves type thing. But then I as you kind of go along, it's like, oh no, it's just oh no, there really is going to be no like revenge element on her part. She's not gonna go out there and like start killing people from the church or you know what I mean, and kind of staging it to make it seem like it's the night stalker. Like, no, she's not an assassin either. She's just gonna kill one guy, essentially, that gets in her way, and then ultimately her dad. The rest, like, she doesn't really do anything.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:08

Yeah, I think if they had done that, it would have been in super poor taste, and I would have hated that.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:13

Right. It but it but exactly, because then it's like it's definitely extreme and fucked up, but then it's like oof. Don't do that. Don't do that with like an actual serial killer. You know what I mean? We've definitely seen that with like a movie where people would kind of maybe take over a the a a copycat killer, right? Of a fake serial killer, but not necessarily a real one, obviously.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:34

They the way that they integrated the news clips, I think, throughout the film, really kept bringing it back up. And it's like, okay, we get it, it's just setting. We're not gonna see him like we kind of can do without it. But when it first comes up at the beginning of the movie where we get that amazing, like opening credits sequence, it's just fun. I didn't like the VHS effect with the text like that I could do without, but the rest of that was was just so much fun, and it was it made me think of what was that movie Late Night with. The devil, where I just blasted them for giving us 35 minutes of exposition. And here it was just like, cool, we're gonna just knock this out real quick while we're throwing some names on the screen, and then we can move on with the story. And I just had that thought watching that. This is what they should have done. This is what late what the devil should have done was this right here. Get out of the way real quick, just enough clips for you to get the idea of like what we're dealing with as a society, as a culture in that time, and then move on with the story. And I think that part was actually well done. The fact that they can't bring it up, that I think was a misfire. That was, you know, wait wasted opportunity or just on honestly unnecessary. But at least in the beginning, it was like, here's what you're dealing with with these people, with all of us here in the 1980s, and now, you know, cue the scene. There's so much other stuff that you can like really love about the film production-wise. I mentioned earlier in my slash that I gave it that basically every part of this film is fantastic. We mentioned so much about the visuals, but I I really want to focus on that soundtrack because I think you mentioned this earlier as well. But the soundtrack is phenomenal. The soundtrack is good, but they used it well. They used songs that match what's going on with scenes really well. The song they picked to lead us into the credits was just perfect and stuck in my head for a while. The fact that we got Obsession made me think of Fresh. And when we watched Fresh and I heard Obsession, I played it like 50 times afterwards because it just like gets you in that in that weird kind of mood, kind of like goodbye horses. You know, it's just like, I don't know, something about it takes you to this other universe. And yeah, every every song they picked was great, except for one, which is when she's riding with the director and they have the most like gentle, friendly, calming sound playing. And I was like, that one's a little bit weird. It's throwing me off a little bit, but every other choice was was fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:42

Yes, and Pleasure Dome at the club, like everything was fantastic. Not only the soundtrack, but the score, specifically when she is being chased by John, you know, like the detective. I loved how it changed depending on where they were in the studio in that set. I loved how at the obviously at the beginning they're at this western-themed cowboy setting, so the score matches that, but then we go into what would be like, you know, the regular town or city, and then it seamlessly changes as well. Like I thought that was really brilliant to kind of set the tone, and then ultimately at the Bates Motel, I thought it was just really, really technical touch that was necessary to kind of keep me enthralled, to keep me feeling like, okay, shit, like Maxine Hall ass, you know, it kept me going for sure. So that was that was a really, really good thing. Also, I would quite literally murder for the entire wardrobe that is Maxine's. Every single outfit was so my shit. I was like, oh, in love, especially at the beginning. That whole gene outfit, the gene corset, which is very in right now. I worship at the house that is this costume designer.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:50

For me, it was the teal that she like ended the drama in. She does kill it. The wardrobe in this movie, I feel like, is very realistic. And it's kind of the same thing we were talking about with like the setting and everything. It's like not like 80s neon, it's like 80s real. Like, even like her apartment that she's in, they show a few things around. She doesn't have like a neon light on her wall or something, because that wouldn't have been realistic. She has like a couch that looks like it might be a little bit scratchy. That's 80s for me. And I mean, I think it carries through a few decades, but her outfit and the rest of the wardrobes through the whole movie have that same thing where it's very realistic and not like overdone. Like, look at us, it's the 80s, just it's legit the 80s, like to the cars, all of those little details were beautiful.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:34

Absolutely. I actually really love the wardrobe as well. There are so many little details baked into this movie that are subtle touches. Binx, you mentioned the score. I never would have even noticed that score had you not consciously mentioned it right here in this moment because it's one of those things that's done with a deaf hand, but done so well that it's not a distraction from it. And there's actually a small detail, even outside of the wardrobe, that really did it for me. And it was the voice of Casey Caseum. Did you all hear Casey Coast to Coast playing on the radio?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:07

Yes, and I loved every second. I think we got three seconds of it, and it was just it brought me back.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:12

I heard his voice, and I was like, oh my gosh, I remember hearing this in the 90s growing up. It really scratched the itch for me because we have I know what you did last summer and I still know what you did last summer coming up. We have Sarah Michelle Geller, we have Freddie Prince Jr., we have the whole fucking Scooby-Doo gang out here, and Casey Kasom originally voiced Shaggy in Scooby-Doo.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:31

Mmm. Nice.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:33

Everything's a mystery machine, baby.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:35

Nice. Swanks. I think what you're all describing, wardrobe and you just the score and the way the movie looks, I think it's really just that. It's just the way the movie looks. Mac, you mentioned it earlier. It just feels like you are watching an 80s movie. Like it was just made in the 80s, not trying to be the 80s. And we talked about it earlier as well. I mean, that's because of what they did intentionally to make that feel that way. The the conscious choice to only use the equipment that would have been available at that time is pretty cool. It's a pretty cool idea to try to really capture the essence of that time period and not use uh too many, if any at all, of like any kind of modern trickery that you would get in newer movies. And so I think whether that goes to the set design, the wardrobe, the costume design, the cinematography, whatever, I think it's all of it because everyone had a place in that, everyone had their part in that, but man, it's just the way they made this look.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:38

Oh, yeah, even when it comes to the way that they pan and move the camera when the characters are moving through the frame felt 80s when she's running through the buildings and she kind of almost trips or stumbles. I was like, ooh, the way that camera moved is I feel like the way they would have done it in an 80s movie as well.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:55

We got a shot of the side of the killer's face, and it almost t told you who it was. There was a second where you were like, wait, I fully saw that person's face, and I feel like that is very 80s. Like it wasn't as much of a secret who the killer was. We're gonna tell you pretty early, you're gonna be miserable about it.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:11

And miserable I was, but let me tell you where I was not miserable, and that was my favorite scene. Holy shit. The application of the mold on her face, having to sit for 10 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:23

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:24

Oh my gosh. The idea of this goopiness on her, first off, Mia Goth Infinity Pool. I was just thinking about, damn, I feel like she's about to like have another fucking twin split off from this bullshit. To have her sitting there breathing and then remembering what was happening. And this is where I struggled because I don't love the flashbacks in this movie. I love the purpose of them. I love the purpose that they serve as a memory for her, and it's haunting her and tormenting her. Stylistically, I don't love it because it applies this film effect on it and adjusts it as if we're watching it through a camera. But what I loved in this scene was Pearl escaping from her memory and coming into her surrounding. It was her hands on her chest. And when you go through such a traumatic experience and you're having a panic attack, it's like you can feel these things, and it's all encompassing, it's all surrounding. So yeah, it's not only just the claustrophobia of having this shit on her where she can't see or really perceive anything, but it's her having this moment of silence to be alone with her thoughts, and her memories are winning. Her trauma is winning, and she can feel that touch again. But it was so well done.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:48

That was an insane scene. My favorite scene is much more fun and less stressful. And it was the dramatic chase through the sound stages. The sound of the footsteps could not have been more loud and intentional, and I can just see like have you guys seen the videos of like a sound engineer just like slapping shoes on wood to like, you know, make the sounds for a movie. That's exactly what it sounded like, and it was just so goofy. And in that moment, I was like, Yeah, maybe we're just supposed to have some fun. And I didn't feel the fun as much as I wanted to, but in that scene, just literally the suit, the size of the suit he was wearing and running in. He was running like his like he was doing like high knee running. It was hilarious, it was a great time.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:33

It was so good.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:35

If that had been the spirit of Moore, I would have been happier. But that scene is golden and goofy and fun, and that's what we needed. High knee running.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:43

I can't it was though.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:46

He was. I mean, he was literally running like honestly, the the thing that I have in my head is like Dr. Doofin Schmerz, but I don't even know if he like runs, but like the way he was running was like his legs were like four times longer than the rest of his body.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:58

Yeah. Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:00

You brought up the the massive suit, and I want to give another shout-out to the costume designer because in this time I looked her up, and she is the costume designer for the 2006 Friday the 13th movie. Nice, the remake of The Nightmare on Elm Street, and she also did Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the one in the early 2000s, also.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:19

Sweet.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:20

She's a horror queen, she gets it. Now, are those movies good? I don't know, that's a different story, but the point is that the costumes are she gets it.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:26

Two out of those three movies are great.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:29

I I do love the fact that they gave this guy from the the south and from the gulf like a linen or seersucker suit, and he's still wearing it out in Cali. Right. It just looks like it's been sweated in for weeks. Fantastic choice. My favorite scene, I'm gonna go back to the audition scene. The audition scene, we just get Mia Goth being just being a great actor, being an actor inside of a film, delivering good acting. So she's playing a character who's playing a character, and yet somehow it works really well. And the the when we get that extension of that scene later, that also I think adds to it even more because it just shows more of her character.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:06

What a phenomenal parallel to Pearl.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:09

Oh, yeah. There is a lot of that.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:11

And the full circle moment for Mia Goth channeling both of these characters to see in the Great Depression era, Pearl going to her audition with all this confidence and falling apart, but then Maxine realizing that potential decades later. Fucking incredible.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:32

And that's a great, I guess, segue for my favorite scene because it also has to do with really like Mia Goth playing an actress that is an actress. It's this dream sequence that I was talking about earlier. I guess we don't actually know if it happened or didn't happen when she's going to the Chinese theater, she's doing that runway for the premiere. There's another like Stepford Wives homage there with the poster. And it was just so elegant and beautiful. But to me, it felt like we were witnessing like Mia Goth's fame. Like that was Mia Goth getting out of that, you know, car. She was going down that runway because she's also just become so fucking famous. Like she is a staple, her name alone, just her place in horror. So I don't know. I I felt like that was a moment to appreciate Mia Goth, but also obviously seeing Maxine as well at the same time.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:26

I don't know if I'm just an idiot dumb blonde, but I didn't read that as a dream scene, and I was so confused because obviously the timeline didn't make sense. And then we went a month forward. So glad it was a dream scene. It was one of the things that I really disliked about the ending of the movie, but maybe I blinked. I didn't read a dream, I read real life.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:46

It was hard to tell because of again the editing and like the way it was, it had this like hazy filter over it. Obviously, it's happening as she's like holding the gun. I'm sure she's the way I I guess interpreted it was that she's envisioning herself in the future. She's envisioning what would happen. You know what I mean? And that's what that looks like.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:04

It's like in her mind, like this is what she feels is gonna be her fame.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:08

Hence why she says, You gave me what I need. Exactly. And ultimately she was right. You know, like that weird interview that she does is also part of that whole sequence as well. Like using the fact that she took him down as a way to propel her career.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:22

Yeah, God really orchestrated that one for sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:25

But yeah, it's the way they deliver it too, because even yeah, my wife Ari also was like, I I think that that was something, it was just a flash forward. Like she genuinely thought when we debated on the way home, and I was like, no, that was made up, and she's like, No, I don't think so. And we just went, but it's just the delivery, it's just the way they pieced it together. It just didn't work out super well. I am gonna use it. Like, my favorite scene is the moment that we see Maxine notice the ghost of Pearl in the house behind the Bates Motel, because one, it's it's a very cool shot, but two, it's unique because you're in the back lots of Hollywood on the old set of Psycho, giving a direct nod to Psycho, being able to see the ghost of his mom in the window, but also being a direct nod to X when Maxine first notices Pearl in the window upstairs of that house on the farm. And I was just like, wow, the more I think about it, the more I unpack it, the more this scene becomes my favorite scene.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:27

It's so layered in a really great way.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:30

And so and so is Maxine. Maxine is very layered and really diverse, and so I think that's what makes her really unpredictable throughout the film, to where we're trying to figure out is she going to become the antagonist by the end of this movie? Is she gonna be the killer? Thankfully not. I think what they did was good. It does take the bite out, you know, because she's not really afraid. She's not scared.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:52

Everyone had to have that thought of her potentially being the antagonist somehow going into the movie. Every everyone had to have had at least one possibility thought of that direction. Yeah, thanks, Pearl.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:05

Absolutely, because I think it's this whole premise that she's willing to do whatever it takes. But I don't necessarily know if this film entirely explores that, you know. I think she's willing to do whatever it takes in the specific instance of being presented with an obstacle that is evidently her dad, you know. But even then, she just really leverages her resources to handle that situation. It's not like she fully handles it herself until she's faced with her father and shoots him in the fucking head, you know?

SPEAKER_01 1:20:38

Would this have been better if instead of the daddy angle, it was really just the night stalker that just became infatuated with her and she had to fend off the night stalker? Would that have been a better direction?

SPEAKER_02 1:20:53

Again, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:54

Then we could have got the night stalker on camera.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:57

That's where again we're towing the line of like maybe incorporating, I guess, a real life serial killer and you know, and and whatnot. But I gotta be honest, that's kind of what I also thought the movie was gonna be, and I'd be kind of here for it because again, the whole premise of like, how dare this man be more famous than me? It's fucked up.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:14

Right. Maxine's time to shine is when she taps into her ego. Like when Maxine decides she's gonna defend herself and she's gonna stand up for other people at the end of this movie, that's when we start to care about her again. Like you start to feel those feelings. There's really no dull moment for Maxine here, but her ego and her like insanity is what makes us love her. Like, the more she screams, I will not accept a life I do not deserve, the more she says that, that's the Maxine that we love, the Mia goth that we love, honestly. That's what we just needed more of. If she had the chance to fight the Night Stalker herself, we would have been locked in. There would have been so many fun things going on. Can you imagine what she would have done to him? It would have been great.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:55

All of a sudden you realize she's one of the citizens that helped arrest him.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:58

It would have been two inglorious bastards, though, had that happened.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:01

So here's my thing. I don't really care about Maxine. At least I didn't in X. This movie made her grow on me significantly, and I can appreciate the direction that she's gone in. I think I appreciate Maxine in her 30s more than mid to late 20s in X. And there's a layer of experience that just is worn in her eyes this entire movie. And I guess that's just trauma seeing trauma. I guess.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:27

You do love a trauma. Let's be for real.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:30

I I do. I do yeah, I I get that now. I I understand that. I'll work on that in myself. But what kills me about this is Maxine, I guess in a way, not painted as the perfect hero, which we don't need her to be. That's great. But then it's almost as if this story builds up her strength and then just takes it away when she decides to shoot her dad at the last possible second when he's just laying there flat on his back, helpless, defenseless. I think it's one of those things where it's like, would it have been better for him to rot in prison? Or should she have just killed him before he had this whole fucking monologue? Because I really don't want to hear anything about how he was just trying to be a good dad to her. I don't give a fuck, man. You should have had the exploding head m like much sooner, much quicker.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:18

Yeah, like before the cult shit, because the cult shit was just weird.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:22

The cult shit was weird, but it's like she says she's ruthless, and I don't believe it in this movie. And that's the real problem. She hesitated. She hesitated, and we got a long fucking span of time with the LAPD right over her, then she shot him at a weird fucking moment, and that is my my struggle. It also is weird because this is ending with Maxine realizing the fame in stardom that Pearl never did, but she's at the beginning of the end. And so it does introduce this really interesting cyclical pattern where in the early 2000s she could be the next Pearl. We're gonna get an emo starlet played by Mia Goth, and Mia Goth is gonna be Maxine, and Maxine's gonna say, I used to be beautiful.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:07

I mean, that is kind of like the through line of the series. It is all about being cyclical.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:13

Fun fact for everyone. Apparently, Ty West actually said that if this movie does well, he already has an idea for a fourth film.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:22

Oh, really? I thought this was gonna be the final one.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:25

I thought so too, but apparently probably needs to be Yeah, but you know what?

SPEAKER_04 1:24:30

Goth has haunted this town for 40 years. Exactly. We will not accept a life we do not deserve.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:35

Yeah. Give me mid-90s West Craven. Okay, if you're gonna make a fourth one, mid-90s West Craven is what is what I want from that. And I want her to be a retired actress by that point. Because by that point, she's only gonna be like in her 40s.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:48

She's gonna come back and hit the Lang camp that bitch.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:51

Make it happen.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:51

If she comes back, what I want is better dialogue between characters. That's like the bane of my existence in this movie, what they talk about. Like, I the whole time I'm looking for a quote in this movie, and I'm like, no one's saying anything that's worth anything. There's a whole chunk where Mia Goth doesn't say anything. Maxine just keeps listening to people and looking at them. There's just something about the dialogue here that I hate. I don't care about anyone except I do care about the video store guy. He's the only person that meant meant anything to me in any form. And he only said like three words too. And he mostly only said, I'm not trying to fuck you. But the dialogue here was rough for me. And the the actors, all excellent acting. I didn't like what they were saying.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:34

I mean, it was fun to see Giancarlo though.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:37

Oh, my favorite. Yeah. Also the makeup. Oh my god, the makeup of like the fake hair on purpose. With the eyebrows and like the very shiny, like made up face. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:49

I need someone like Teddy Knight Esquire in my corner. I need to have a lawyer that I can go to with some confidentiality.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:58

Yeah, that guy was legit.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:00

I need him to see me on the street, put me in the movies, and then have my back and like crush a fucking private investigator in a car and just be cool with that.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:09

Mega ride or die. Nobody cares about your career more than me.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:13

And and it seemed like an empty statement that agents would just say and like, nah, dude, he'll literally demolish a body for you. What a guy.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:21

He said he would go to jail, and I was like, surely he doesn't mean it. This motherfucker killed someone. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:26

He meant it.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:27

He knew he wasn't going to jail. Turns out he meant it.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:30

I want more of his character. You know, it's like when they had Breaking Bad and we had a spin-off from Breaking Bad. I want a spin-off from this with his character. And the friendly neighborhood porn director, slash dog owner, slash does he run the junkyard? I don't even know. But that dude also, the two of them I think would make a fun movie together as well. These side characters were great.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:52

I think the scene is in Breaking Bad.

unknown 1:26:54

Oh, probably.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:55

They've done this before. Yeah, that's true. I I loved that. I mean, even the sleazy like private eye was fun for the camp of it. When we got that like Matthew McConaughey moment, 34 floors up in the air, whatever, it it it read very sleazy, and I'm like, he had to have fun with this role. For sure. And it was fun to watch him in this role.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:16

It felt like Kevin Bacon having fun. Like it was the perfect amount of camp.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:21

Yeah, like that if they're having a good time, I'm probably having a good time as well.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:25

You know, I was having a good time most of the time, but I was not having a good time with those fucking flashbacks, and I still stand behind that being the worst part of this movie.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:33

Yeah, they were weak. They caught me off guard. I didn't think that Ty West would do that. When it hit us, I was like, oh, bad form. No, sir. Like that's we don't need that from you.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:41

The first time it happened, I was like, okay, that's not bad. And then it kept happening with the same filtering on it. I'm like, oh, what are we doing? Stop.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:50

Or lean into it then. Go full just madness and give us that like uh vignette whitewash effects and make it seem like a true to form flashback. Not this like subtle flashback. That's he went too subtle here. He needed to go just like crazy.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:05

Give me this star wipe.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:07

I think I was actually more bothered by the strobes in the club scene. Oh yeah, that was hard. I actually looked away because I was like, if you've ever had uh testing done for C shirts and they have to like you have to close your eyes and they have to flash these crazy lights, and you start seeing the trippiest shapes on earth like through your own eyelids, and it brought me back to that moment. And I was like, nah, this is too much because it lasted more than like three seconds. It lasted way too long.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:29

Oh, but how much do I want to be maxiing for Halloween? Oh my god, that makeup in that club scene and like the hair, I could just do the hair. Like my hair, if I took my hair out of ponytail right now, it is.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:40

Oh my god, Ryan, you really could. Holy shit.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:43

That would be so good. Honestly, she was killing it, and I was like, in that moment, she's wearing this insane makeup, and I go, I need to do my makeup more.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:52

I saw that scene and I was like, why do I want to go clubbing? And that's scary for me to say. Right. For me to say that? Holy shit.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:00

Why am I not wearing blue and purple makeup and going to a club? For real. And and and getting some sleazy guy to follow me there.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:10

Oh man. Please don't do that.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:12

Fuck it. You don't have to worry about me.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:14

YOLO.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:15

I know I have to pick a worse part, but first, I'm just gonna tell you what the best part of this movie is, and that was the little clippet that we got in the newspaper with the headline Texas Porn Star Massacre, because now that needs to be a fucking movie.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:29

It reminds me of the Blair Wench Project, which was a childhood traumatic experience. Let me tell you. Yeah, I told you this story. I literally went with my friend as a child and tried to rent the Blair Witch Project and ended up accidentally renting the Blair Wench project, and watching that at my friend's house with his parents in the room became really uncomfortable really fast.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:55

Oh God. The Texas Porn Store Massacre, best headline I've ever seen in any movie ever. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:01

It's so good. But worst part, it's really just the highlighter sound as Maxine is fucking highlighting her lines because that screeching sound made me shiver every fucking time, and I didn't want it at all. Didn't even think about that until now, and now I remember being bothered by it.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:17

So that we end on a low note, just so that you guys remember that there is some bad parts of this movie. I'm gonna share my best part. And it's obviously the ball stomping scene. The whole scene start to finish is beautiful. I mean, from his corny outfit to pulling out the switchblade, her seeming like she might not know how to handle it, her playing it just right so that he thinks he has the upper hand. She pulls out the gun, he's apologetic, once again doesn't put up much of fight for sucking a gun off, and gets on his knees. We got butt cheeks from the sky. I mean, all of it. I wasn't expecting a ball stomp. How could you ever expect a ball stomp? That was really the surprising part of it. It was just lovely. And that's the Maxine I love. I want her to run things, I want her to handle business, I want her to remind everyone who she is because she's a star, and that's what we all need to remember.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:08

Absolutely. A hundred percent. You know, it's great that you bring up that scene because when I first saw him, I gotta be honest, at initially I thought it was David Delsmachian, and I was like, you gotta be kidding me. This man once again is making a cameo in a little beret, and then I realized no, that guy's way too skinny and a little bitch to be David Delsmachion. Do better. But you bring up such a good point because that is for me like the worst part. It's take the Night Starker thing out of it. I've talked about it at Agnause. The worst part for me is I think that Maxine comes off a little too vanilla. You know, I wanted more of the ball stomping, I wanted more of the badass, and I feel like we just did not get enough of that, not even remotely. So it's a shame. But I guess if the movie does well enough, turns out we might have an opportunity to see more. Maybe my dream of continuing to see Maxine in all her glory will continue. I can light a prayer candle and only hope for the best.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:02

And if it does, like I look forward to that if it does. I already my hopes are up. If they make a movie, I'm already gonna be here for it. But just these three movies alone, I think, are are worthy of watching again. You know, I think having all of them released when they're out on streaming or for purchase or whatever is gonna be a very different experience from watching them separated. You know, I did not do the rewatch before watching this, and I'm I'm like the entire movie thinking about the other two movies. Put them all together, and I think that's gonna be just a really fun, what is that, like seven hours of your life to spend on it.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:34

Yeah, I agree. I think that these three films are solid in general. When you put them together, it's a great unit, it's a great trilogy. That's ultimately what led me to lean more in the slash territory because I would re-watch this one again. It's visual eye candy. Maybe I won't mute it, maybe I will mute it. I don't care. I'll throw it on in the background. It wasn't entirely what I hoped for, but as a unit, it's a great trilogy. And so if it continues on, then I would definitely revisit this again to prepare.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:03

Yeah, I think I'm waiting for this to come to streaming, right? Because I feel like I'll definitely be revisiting this, especially probably just watching the trilogy back to back. I think that sounds like the next venture I'll have when I do re-watch this movie. I I think that the continuity across the films and the and the story, I think is enough to be able to revisit this again.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:26

I definitely want to at some point in the future, but I think I'm absolutely gonna watch it in the order of Pearl, then X, then this, to get one continuous timeline versus the X jump to the prequel, then return for the sequel treatment.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:41

Yeah, I don't think it's a waste of time to watch this movie. I think it's worth seeing again outside of a horror context, actually. I think just watching the movie to enjoy it and all of its Easter eggs and references and all those things is probably worth doing. And I will say though, as far as future movies go, I think I've come to expect too much from this franchise. And it might just be time to leave her in a little box and move forward with some other form of oddly sexual old people can start over something, some new life for us or something. But I just think X X delivered something so much higher than what I ever expected, and then Pearl tried to do it again and got closed, and this one is just another step below for me. So I'm good on the franchise, but I would re-watch Maxine as just a cool movie.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:29

Well, I'm curious to see if that perspective changes at all over time after you watch it as a standalone film. But for now, there you have it, folks. Maxine from 2024 has earned one hack and four slashes. We've certainly had a robust discussion here, but the conversation about this movie and its pitfalls does not end here by any means.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:47

We definitely want to know what you think. Will you accept a life you do not deserve? Let us know. You can join in on the conversation by hanging out with us for free in our Discord. Click the link in our show notes to sign up.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:57

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SPEAKER_04 1:35:07

We'll see you next time, folks. And remember, y'all might as well go home because I fucking nailed that.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:12

You're so desperate to become famous.