The trailer for the upcoming sequel film MaXXXine reveals how the infamous Bates Motel could play a part by having it be the potential film the protagonist is auditioning for and working on throughout the narrative. MaXXXine is the sequel to 2022’s X, following Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) after the massacre at the farm. Maxine has left the adult film industry and has gotten her big break in 1985 Hollywood, but she soon learns that the past will not stay buried as a killer stalks through the streets.
The film is written and directed by Ti West, who announced his intent to create a third and final installment to the A24 slasher film series in 2022. X and its prequel Pearl were both released that year to critical acclaim, as both films played with the classic slasher formula. MaXXXine’s trailer was released by A24 on their YouTube channel and is scheduled to be released later in 2024.
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Ti West’s horror movie for A24, Pearl, is packed with references and Easter Eggs to X and other classic films like Psycho and The Wizard of Oz.
MaXXXine’s Bates Motel Suggests Maxine Stars In An ’80s Psycho Movie
Hitchcock’s original Psycho was released in 1960.
The Bates Motel could play a role in MaXXXine by having the story focus on her audition and work on the real-life 1987 version of the Hitchcock thriller, blurring the lines between fiction and reality. Maxine mentions in the trailer that many famous actors got their big break in a horror movie, with the Bates Motel being seen later in the trailer, adding suspense as audiences know the story of the hotel. There was a horror comedy that depicted the infamous hotel in 1987, which could add a layer of history and could raise more questions in MaXXXine’s narrative.
How Psycho Oddly Mirrors Maxine’s X Role
Psycho’s Normal Bates and Maxine share a few similarities, adding another element of horror as Maxine gets caught up in both a real and fictitious plot, and the line between victim and killer begins to blur. Both Bates and Maxine were dreamers who felt stifled by circumstances. Bates, in a similar vein to Maxine’s attacker Pearl in the movie X, targeted people who stayed on his property, hiding his true nature until he could no longer do so.
These parallels to Psycho could do one of two things for MaXXXine’s story: they could demonstrate how Maxine will hide her identity as the killer and her victims or could give clues to the real killer as fantasy becomes reality. If Maxine is the killer, she could hide behind her dreamer facade and target those who threaten to upstage her like Pearl, using The Night Stalker as a red herring for the police. Conversely, these homages could point to the real killer, who is targeting Maxine and using these beats to further frighten her and call her sanity into question.
