The following contains spoilers for MaXXXine, now playing in theaters

MaXXXine has some pretty brutal deaths, but there’s a few that stand out from the rest. The third chapter in Ti West’s X series, MaXXXine brings back Mia Goth’s Maxine Minx from 2022’s X. Set in 1985, the aspiring actress finds her big break at the same time a mysterious investigator finds her. While Maxine tries to deal with the dangers posed by this private investigator and his mysterious client, the people in Maxine’s orbit start getting picked off in brutal fashion. While some deaths that occur by MaXXXine‘s ending aren’t shown, their aftermath highlights the brutal edge to the horror film.

Notably, there’s one potential death in the film that’s left somewhat ambiguous. Michelle Monaghan’s Detective Williams was seriously wounded by Ernest in the climax but rolled down the hill and away from the final battle, meaning she could have potentially survived the ending of the film. This doesn’t detract from the other kills of MaXXXine, even the ones that happened largely off-screen. MaXXXine‘s cast suffers over a dozen deaths, with several of the most brutal relishing in the gruesome gory aftermath of the deaths. Here are all the deaths from MaXXXine, ranked by brutality.

7

Cult Members

The Cult Members Appear At The End Of MaXXXine And Don’t Last Long

The Cult Members who follow Ernest Miller help elevate MaXXXine‘s on-screen kill count, even if their deaths are nowhere near as brutal as the film’s most memorable death scenes. The Cult Members are introduced late in the film, working alongside Ernest in his quest to make a movie that “exposes” the darkness of Hollywood. Their actions along the sidelines of the film’s plot make their deaths acceptable to the audience, especially during the climactic shoot-out that they get into with Detective Torres and Detective Williams. While they do die on-screen, many are simply shot once and removed from the movie.

There are nearly a dozen such cultists who die in this fashion, with Maxine even getting the chance to kill one while they fight against each other in a pool. This is the most graphic of the cultist deaths, but the character’s overall lack of importance and the chaos erupting around them softens the brutal blow compared to the rest of the film around it. The cultist shoot-out is a wild sequence that quickly sets up MaXXXine‘s ending, and underscores the lethal stakes at play in the scene.

6

Detective Torres

Detective Torres Is Played By Bobby Cannavale

Detective Torres is one of the LAPD officers who is investigating the murders at the heart of MaXXXine. In contrast to the more empathetic Detective Williams, Torres prefers a harsher approach to his interrogation of Maxine and her potential connections to the recent deaths. Regardless, he still risks his life to combat the cultists and save Maxine in the film’s third act. While he’s shot off-screen by Ernest during the subsequent scuffle, Maxine finds him shortly after and lingers alongside him as he bleeds out from the wound against the Hollywood sign.

Torres’ death is arguably one of the film’s sadder deaths, as the film remains with him during his final moments. Maxine takes a moment to stay beside Torres as he fades, and initially tries to help stop the bleeding. However, his efforts to speak with her are ultimately futile, and she instead leaves his bloodied corpse to go confront Ernest. It’s a realistic and sad moment. The brutal appearance of Torres’ wound and his final moments set the stage for a surprisingly emotional final confrontation, and help set up Ernest’ later explosive death at the hands of the villain’s daughter.

5

Amber James & Tabby Martin

Amber Is Played By Chloe Farnworth & Tabby Is Played By Halsey

Tabby and Amber are two of Maxine’s friends, whose deaths early in MaXXXine puts her on the radar of Detective Williams and Detective Torres. Although their deaths aren’t seen on-screen, audiences are treated to a brief sequence teasing the terror both women went through after being lured to Ernest’s cult. The two are later found dead with brands burned into their skin, suggesting they had been tortured before their demise. If it’s similar to what Maxine only barely avoided at the end of the film, then they may have received that horrifying abuse while they were still alive.

Amber and Tabby’s deaths are brutal, but take on a far more unsettling quality due to their connection to the film’s ending. Both women were targeted and killed by Ernest because he resented their “sinful” ways, and believed that slaying them was a reasonable response to them refusing to “find God.” The film implies that their demise was particularly painful, and it adds to the tension of the film by teasing how a similar fate could be awaiting Maxine. This gives the brutal state they’re found in a more important role in the story, even if their demise isn’t shown in the film.

4

Molly Bennett

Molly Is Played By Lily Collins

Similar to Amber and Tabby, Molly is killed by Ernest off-screen after being lured to his house in the Hollywood hills. However, Molly’s final fate is different than that of Amber and Tabby. While they definitely died scared and were left with satanic scars as part of the cult’s plans, their bodies were still largely intact. Molly was instead killed in a more brutal fashion, with her body subsequently dismembered and stuffed into a suitcase by Ernest. When Maxine goes to confront the killer, she knocks over the luggage and exposes the severed limbs hidden within.

Molly’s death has a more over-the-top quality to it than Amber and Tabby, who were staged in such a way to try and trick the police into thinking it was the work of the otherwise unconnected serial killer known as the Night Stalker. Molly’s death is almost cartoonish, with her face locked in an eternal scream that suggests her death was sudden and horrifying. However, the way her body is split apart suggests it could have been a more deliberate and slow demise, implying at a potentially far more brutal death.

3

Ernest Miller

Ernest Is Played By Simon Prast

Ernest Miller is the true villain of MaXXXine, and fittingly suffers a pretty brutal death in the film’s climax. The long-estranged father of Maxine, Ernest is a televangelist who has developed a cult following around his views of faith and corruption in Hollywood. He’s responsible for many of the film’s other brutal deaths, targeting the people in Maxine’s orbit and slaying severely innocent people. Although he proves surprisingly durable at first, he’s ultimately shot by Detective Torres and Detective Williams, leaving him wounded enough for Maxine to catch up. Maxine then uses a shotgun to blow his head off.

The gruesome act is fully seen on-screen, with the film taking a second to showcase the gory remnants of his head after the fact. It’s a brutal demise, but one that is relatively quick compared to the brutality of his earlier killings. While Ernest may have been suffering before Maxine finishes him off, there’s no implied lengthy torture or gruesome dismemberment involved in his demise. Instead, Ernest’s death is brutal more because of the gory visuals than anything else, as well as the way it allows the climax of the film to close out in explosive fashion.

2

Leon

Leon Is Played By Moses Sumney

Leon is Maxine’s best friend in MaXXXine, and his death is a major turning point in the film. A sweet video store clerk, Leon is eventually cornered in his store by Ernest and killed with his own knife, which he’d left out. Ernest initially slashes the back of Leon’s neck before cutting him across the eye, slicing it open. When Leon falls to the ground, Ernest continues the attack, stabbing him several times in the back. Leon’s death is all on-screen, making it one of the most overtly gruesome kills in the film.

The audience even gets to see the grisly aftermath, with Maxine witnessing his body being moved the next day. It’s a horrifying and tragic beat in MaXXXine that helps spur Maxine to fight back more overtly against John Labat and his (at this point still unknown) benefactor. Leon’s death, like that of Detective Torres and the other actresses killed by Ernest, are notable for highlighting the terror in the characters as they meet their fates. It adds a more tragic layer to the slasher-style killings, and reinforces the pain felt by Maxine as a result.

1

John Labat

Labat Is Played By Kevin Bacon

John Labat has the most brutal death in MaXXXine. A private investigator hired by Ernest to track down Maxine, Labat is the primary threat to Maxine for much of the film’s first two acts. Growing increasingly dangerous over the film, Labat is eventually captured by Maxine and her agent, Teddy Knight. Loading him into a car and handcuffing him to the steering wheel, Maxine and Teddy use a car compactor in a junkyard to crunch the vehicle with Labat in it. It’s a horrifying and surprisingly slow kill, with Labat growing more frantic as he realizes this isn’t a threat.

Although the actual moment of crushing can’t be seen up close, Labat’s screams as the car is crushed are pretty brutal. What makes it worse is the massive amount of blood and gore that seeps out of the car afterwards, which is then lapped up by dogs. It’s a harrowing sequence that gets a righteous touch thanks to Labat’s earlier actions. It’s also easily the most brutal moment in MaXXXine, and one of the best kills in the entire X series.