Editors note: mention of violence, violence against sex workers, serial killers, and serial killer by name, also contains Spoilers for X, Pearl, and Maxxxine
I am a slut for horror movies. My love for the genre spawned in my early teenage years when I felt like an outcast amongst my peers. For many of us who belong to marginalised communities, we are often drawn to media that explores the idea of the other. We see ourselves in the monsters that the horror movie genre explores, whether the portrayal is a commentary on our otherness or a gross exploitation of it. As I’ve grown and joined more marginalized groups, including the sex work community, my relationship with horror has matured. I still adore the genre, but I now watch it with a more critical eye. When I first heard that A24 made a slasher movie about adult entertainers, I was as hesitant as much as I was morbidly curious. Let’s unpack what I liked and disliked during my watch of The X Series.
Written and directed by Ti West, the series is made up of three films; X (2022), Pearl (2022) and Maxxxine (2024). I want to focus on X and Maxxxine, because they portray sex workers. Starting off with X, which is set in 1979 Texas, the film echoes much of what fans have come to expect from Grindhouse slasher horror. However X does subvert one of the most famous tropes of the genre. A common motif used in slashers is the concept of the “final girl.” She is the sole survivor of the narrative who typically has a final showdown with the killer. She is the personification of purity, the down-to-earth girl-next-door who is hesitant to indulge in her sexual desires.
In horror, sex equals death. The audience has come to expect that any characters we see having sex, or understand to be sexually promiscuous, are doomed to be killed off. This is especially true for women. Horror loves to portray breasts, and the characters whose breasts are seen are some of the first to be killed off, often being slain while topless. Where X subverts this trope is that the final girl is a stripper and aspiring pornstar. We even witness final girl Maxine (Mia Goth) having sex while filming a porno, as well as seeing her breasts.
However, it is still a slasher movie at the end of the day, which means that we do watch a bunch of sex workers being brutally murdered. One of the killers of X is Pearl (also portrayed by Mia Goth), an elderly woman who lives with her husband Howard (Stephen Ure). Pearl isn’t killing the film's protagonists as punishment for being sex workers, her motive behind her killings is to punish the protagonists for not wanting to have sex with her. In fact, the film strongly hints that Pearl is envious of the two female porn stars' sexual freedom and attractiveness. She secretly watches Maxine as she films her sex scene, fantasising about being in Maxine’s position. We learn in Pearl (2022) that in her youth she aspired to be a famous movie star, but her dream of being in the spotlight would be given to her blonde hair and blue eyed sister-in-law.
It is still a slasher movie at the end of the day, which means that we do watch a bunch of sex workers being brutally murdered.
Pearl attempts to kill Maxine, but fails. Pearl calls her a whore and shouts about how Maxine will end up just like her. One of Pearl’s victims is Bobby-Lynn (Brittany Snow), a blonde bombshell and adult entertainer who reminds Pearl of her sister-in-law. Prior to killing her, Pearl says to Bobby-Lynn, “Why should you get to have it all? What have you ever done except be a whore?”
I feel that a large chunk of the women who hate sex workers are secretly jealous of the way we are able to unapologetically own our sexuality. This internalised misogyny turns into whorephobia, and I’d argue that Pearl’s exchanges with Maxine and Bobby-Lynn reflect this.
Something else I like about X is that it is the kindness of the characters that lead to their deaths, as opposed to it being a result of their adult entertainer status. Aspiring porn director and strip club owner Wayne (Martin Henderson) agrees to help Lorraine (Jenna Ortega) look for her boyfriend in the middle of the night. He wanders into a barn, attempting to offer advice—albeit very misogynistic advice—to the boyfriend, only to be killed by Pearl. Jackson (Kid Cudi) is an ex-marine turned adult entertainer who empathises with war veteran Howard. He offers to help Howard look for his lost wife, only to end up being killed by him. Howard, like Pearl, is jealous of the youth and sexual appeal of the group. He believes Jackson wants to sleep with Pearl not because he does porn, but because, “once a marine, always a marine.” Prior to her death, Bobby-Lynn tries to help what she assumes is a confused and senile Pearl, placing a blanket on her and recalling how her Grandma used to have similar struggles. And finally, Howard preys upon Lorraine’s kindhearted nature. He asks her to go down to the basement to locate his torch so they can both search for their missing partners, but instead locks her inside. She is later shot by Howard after Maxine helps her to escape.
Jackson and Bobby-Lynn appear to be fan favourites. They aren’t reduced to negative stereotypes, instead they are portrayed as being intelligent, ambitious, and compassionate. They are extremely likeable characters. Arguably more so than Lorraine’s boyfriend RJ (Owen Campbell), a civilian who is more than happy to film a porno in order to further his career, until his girlfriend decides she wants to be in it. As a result of his jealousy, he attempts to leave in the middle of the night with the only transport they have. He is then killed by Pearl for rejecting her sexual advances.
Unfortunately, I think the average civilian viewer would still take joy in watching a group of adult entertainers being brutally murdered, but by humanising the characters through making them so relatable, it takes much of that satisfaction away. Whether this was intentional on West’s part or not, it is hard to deny the likeability of the characters.
Moving on to Maxxxine (2024), this film shifts away from the slasher-horror genre and takes on a crime-horror angle. Set six years after X, Maxine is now a famous porn star who hopes to be the next big thing in Hollywood. During an audition, a female producer patronisingly asks if she had always wanted to work in the adult industry. Maxine talks about how she’s always wanted to be famous, and that realistically porn can only take her so far. She doesn’t express any regret about being in the adult industry, she just isn’t where she wants to be yet in terms of her “larger vision of myself.” She notes that being 33 in porn is a downfall, so it’s time to transition to Hollywood and make it big. In her words “acting is acting.” Is porn really so different from Hollywood? The hypocrisy of Hollywood’s judgement towards the adult industry is soon made an example of when one of the producers asks, “do you mind taking your top off so we can see your breasts?” This is the producers' way of asserting their power and testing how far she is willing to go to please the higher ups, a common experience for actresses trying to make it in Hollywood. They’ll judge Maxine for being a porn star, but still ask her to show them her breasts.
They’ll judge Maxine for being a porn star, but still ask her to show them her breasts.
Unfortunately, Maxxxine does not do as good a job at humanising the sex workers as X did. Tabby Martin (Halsey) and Amber James (Chloe Farnworth) work with Maxine at a live peep show. We only interact with the characters briefly before they are murdered, their naked bodies discovered with a pentagram burned into their flesh. Their torture scene is difficult to watch, and they are very much reduced to the stereotype of the dead sex worker trope so present across media. This is a painful reflection of reality, as many serial killers have been known to target street-based workers because they know the police will not properly investigate their deaths. In fact, in America there is a term used in law enforcement, NHI (No Human Involved), referring to crimes where the victims are gang members, migrants, people of colour, sex workers, and anyone else they deem unworthy. This disturbing phrase was so prominent during the 70’s and 80’s that it’s the reason serial killer Richard Cottingham got away with his crimes for so long and so many women’s lives were stolen. This is something I wish the film had touched on, showcasing how corrupt the police truly are. Instead, the sex workers are treated as disposable props.
In the climax of the film we learn that the killer is Maxine’s father, Reverend Ernest Miller (Simon Prast), a televangelist who is creating a snuff movie to showcase to the public how Hollywood is corrupting the youth through sex. This plays into the overall commentary seen throughout the film, and I do appreciate how Maxxxine showcases the hypocrisy of puritanical Evangelists. Reverend Ernest Miller insists he is a God-fearing man who wants to rid the world of evil and sin, despite the fact that he is a violent murderer. According to his logic, sex is a worse sin than murder, therefore murder is ok as long as it happens to “sinners” - AKA women who engage in sex work. No humans involved, right? The film also offers some commentary on the very patriarchal rhetoric that every father’s worst fear is his daughter's sexuality. The Reverend believes he has lost his daughter to the devil through her association with sex work and hopes to exercise this evil from her. He spent so long worrying about his daughter being an adult entertainer when what he should have feared in her is that she is capable of cold blooded murder, just as he is. She ends up killing her father by shooting him in the face. Could Maxine’s murderous tendencies have been inherited from her father?
Maxxxine certainly could have offered more in terms of its commentary on how sex workers are treated in society. X made minor attempts at this through the dialogue exchanged between its sex working characters, allowing them to showcase their sexual empowerment despite living in 1970’s conservative America. I think overall the films are offering commentary on the hypocrisy of society's love for sex, yet our demonisation of those who are sexually autonomous. This is a topic I am deeply fascinated by, so I will always be critical of male writers and directors who attempt to make this commentary in terms of women’s sexuality. I will admit that Maxine is without a doubt one of my favourite fictional characters. She is a sex worker final girl turned ruthless killer, a sexually autonomous woman who doesn’t give a fuck what anyone thinks, a calculated bad ass willing to do whatever it takes to achieve her goals, and I can’t help but love a flawed female lead.
Sex worker deaths are grossly exploited for entertainment in Hollywood. The horror movie genre is far from perfect when it comes to its brutal misogyny, so I wouldn’t blame any sex worker for being anti these movies. As a horror fanatic, I am a fan of The X Series. But as a sex worker, I find Maxxxine especially to be distasteful in its treatment of sex workers. As long as sex workers are being murdered in real life whilst referred to as No Human Involved, it can be difficult not to be disturbed by films that portray our deaths in such violent ways.
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