MaXXXine concludes Ti West’s ambitious, genre-defying trilogy. We chat to the director about returning to horror and crafting an unexpected slasher with his trilogy closing film.
Ti West’s filmography is an eclectic one. He made a mockumentary with The Sacrament, a traditional ghost story with The Innkeepers, a western with In A Valley Of Violence and his breakout film House Of The Devil managed to recreate the distinct feel and style of 80s horror films to a tee.
But it was 2022’s X that really made West’s name with a gruesome, 70s-set slasher. It was followed by the equally flamboyant Pearl which took inspiration from Technicolor films of Old Hollywood.
The trilogy now comes to a close with MaXXXine, which is an unusual slasher. In fact, in our review of Ti West’s latest film, we suggested it isn’t one.
To get to the bottom of it, we caught up with West in a posh London hotel to chat about his X trilogy, returning to horror films and whether MaXXXine is a slasher or not.
You’ve released three films in just over two years. How are you doing?
It’s been basically four and a half years of seven days a week, 12 hours a day. In about a week and a half, I will wake up for the first time in nearly five years and not have something looming over me about this X universe that now exists.
Why do you think both X and Pearl resonated with audiences?
I think it’s several things. I think [it’s] the theme of the character, her ambition. Everyone can relate to feeling like you’re in a place in your life, that maybe you were born into, that you wish was different, and if it was different, you would feel better. I think everybody has some desire to want to have more significance and be somebody more than you’re perceived as.
I also think that with X, horror movies had maybe gotten a little soft, so to come back with a movie that was violent in a traditional sense and in an audience-reactionary sense… We’ve been a little careful with horror movies and X let some of the air out of the room a little bit.
Pearl, having made the movies back to back, was a fun thing that nobody saw coming and to have that movie be so different [to X] and Mia give such a tremendous performance in both movies. Mia was someone who was ready for her day [and] to be seen like that. It all just came together in a way that people were like, ‘Oh, here’s a new thing.’ We’re just fortunate to be on the other side of that to say, ‘Today, the thing that we made is the new thing.’
Before doing X, you took some time off from making horror films. Do you think audiences were also a bit tired of the genre in general? I can’t help but think how elevated horror fits into this.
Elevated horror has become the term that means well, but it’s also kind of worn out its welcome. Now it’s become kind of an eye roll. There’s a lot of great movies that are labelled that way, but the label itself is too reductive for a certain kind of movie. Maybe people were ready for something that was just a fun time at the movies. There is subtext in the [X] films but it is not as heavy as some of the other movies in dealing with dark traumatic issues in such a confronting way. Maybe it was just a change of pace.
Read more: Ti West has plans for another entry in his A24 horror series
Are there any specific horror films that inspired you while you took that break?
I don’t know if, when I was taking that break, I was thinking about horror movies in that way. I quite liked Hereditary, Raw was really good. I was probably seeing everything that everybody else was seeing and enjoying it in the way that most people were enjoying things in the genre, but I wasn’t thinking about that.
I was happily directing episodes of TV. Even when I came back to make a horror film, I was trying to think like, ‘Why do I want to do it?’ Some of it was [because it’s] horror, some of it was just [because] I really like movies, and I wanted something that was craft focused, and that the craft of filmmaking would be on display, whether that’s performance or someone playing two characters with special effects makeup, or music or sound or the cinematography.
It was all meant to be like, let’s tell the story about people making the movies so that way people can appreciate moviemaking and maybe they’ll appreciate some of the moviemaking I’m doing while doing it. And that’s kind of a celebration of movies. That’s where the real drive to like, ‘Alright, get off the couch and go make another horror movie’ came from and then it just snowballed into this bizarre trilogy.
Like the films in this trilogy, all your previous films are really different in style. Was it easy to adapt to TV where you’re coming into a project and have to adapt that project’s style?
TV is a very different job. I quite like it, because I’m there to help them make their show. I don’t feel like I need to have my voice heavily represented, I think it ends up being that way, because, oddly enough, TV is more hands off than you would think it would be. I’m just there to be like, tell me about what you’re trying to do and then let me try to bring whatever skill set I have to help you make your thing, not turn it into my thing.
As far as doing all different kinds of movies, most of that is because to make a movie is at best two years. That’s the minimum commitment to making a movie. That’s a lot to ask, because you have to be as inspired by the idea on day one as you are at the end of two years, or in the case of these movies, nearly five years.
I just love movies and all kinds of movies. The last thing on Earth I want to do is spend two years doing something that’s like something I already did. Because then there’s no discovery and there’s no real exciting inspiration or unpredictability. I’ve made enough movies to know that if I really want to do a scene where someone walks into a bathroom and opens a mirror and closes the mirror, and you’re gonna get a jumpscare behind it, I am technically competent enough to do that, so I don’t really ever want to do that. I want to try to do something different.
You’re always trying to move the goalposts and push yourself to do different things. And so stylistically, with these films, they’re very style focused. Big part of it was to embrace different eras and different kinds of filmmaking. Not as much homage them as people think. I mean, they are [an homage], but it was more just for me to have those experiences of making different kinds of movies and be responsible for all of the decisions that are in front of the lens.
Is MaXXXine a slasher?
Yeah, I think so. Labels are funny, because I don’t want to be like ‘Oooh, labels’ but it is hard because they’re limited. Just like how elevated horror means well, but it’s limited.
Yes, there is a person [in MaXXXine] and they are actually technically slashing people in this movie, but it’s also kind of a film noir and kind of a whodunnit. And it’s also an LA plays itself kind of thing. It falls into a lot of subgenres in a way, but I think it’s fair to call it a slasher.
With those labels and specific genres comes audience expectations, so people might come into this film presuming it’s a straightforward slasher movie. Do you then want to play with those expectations, and maybe take them outside of that comfort zone?
To some degree, yes. I’m always trying to come up with a fresh angle for [the audience] to see. For some people, it will be disappointing because they’re coming to see an archetype [that] they’re hoping to be more in line with what they’re familiar with and for some, it’ll be a real breath of fresh air.
I’m just trying to, in many ways, entertain myself and try to find an angle that feels fresh to me and a movie that I would like to see, that’s missing from the marketplace, for lack of a better term. If I can make a movie that holds up to that standard, I’m just hopeful that there’s enough of an audience out there that’s looking for the same kind of movie that I am. For me, just to make a slasher movie that’s by the numbers, is like the thing I was saying about the ghost in the mirror. I could do it, I’m technically competent enough to do it, but is it what I want to do every day? Would it feel like going to work rather than being creative?
Do you think this will be a trilogy that follows you for the rest of your career? Will it be the thing that people know you from?
I’m sure. House Of The Devil is for me… As many movies as I made, that movie for whatever reason just connected with people. I was always quite grateful for it, it never bothered me. But as many movies [as I’ve made] now, to have it still be like, 'Well, it’s no House Of The Devil' is one of those things where you’re like, ‘Okay, fine, but at least there’s House Of The Devil'.
Now, with these movies, you still get the ‘They’re no House Of The Devil' or you get people that now [think] these movies are eclipsing those movies, in their opinion of my filmography. It’s nice to have the diversity throughout it. I’m grateful to have a movie like House Of The Devil connect with so many people. The Innkeepers has hardcore fans and then there’s people who are like, ‘The Sacrament is the only good movie he’s ever made’.
It’s part of why as a filmmaker, you can’t take the compliments. Because if you take the compliments, then you have to take the [negatives]. If you get a review of the movie that’s like, ‘Oh, you’re brilliant’, you can’t really ride too high on that. If you take that credit, then you have to give credit to the person that completely dislikes the movie.
I’m grateful if anyone is connected to anything I’ve done. From a career standpoint, I don’t know how I will not be thought of as the guy that made the X universe trilogy, but that’s a pretty good problem to have.
MaXXXine shares a little bit of DNA with The Innkeepers and The Sacrament because there’s shades of real life, in this case, the Night Stalker. What does that give you a storyteller, bringing in those realistic elements while still crafting a fictional story around them?
Setting this movie in the 80s, in particular the summer of 1985, you have a lot of moral outrage and media and political impacts [showing] in movies, music and pop culture. And there was a serial killer in Los Angeles.
I think for a trilogy, where the connective tissue is cinema, [it brings] a sense of authenticity with the real backdrop. I think to set a slasher movie in the 80s, during the backdrop of a highly publicised media story, it just ups the stakes, and it creates an interesting dynamic about what’s real and what’s not real.
Now that you’ve returned to horror, are you gonna stay in horror? Is there another genre that you’re really keen on trying? Are we going to see a Ti West musical?
What was fun about these three movies is there’s a little bit of a musical, there’s a little bit of everything in them and that’s been great. I have at least one more horror movie in me, but I would love to make all different movies. Like I said before, it’s two years [to make a movie], so it has to be an idea that is something I want to be thinking about for two years straight, minimum. Maybe it’s a horror movie, maybe it’s not, but I don’t think I would make a horror movie just to do it. It has to be an idea that I feel very inspired by or I feel like I have a perspective on it. Otherwise, I could do better things with my time. Making movies derails your life.
Would you bring Mia Goth back?
Oh, for sure. People keep asking us what it’s like to be done and it’s very bittersweet. It’s very unclear what it’s like to be done because we’re almost done. Having been on the inside of the experience, I don’t really know what to make of it all. We met at a really good time in our lives to be able to have this collaboration and we’re very fortunate that it’s gone the way that it has.
MaXXXine is in cinemas now
