When 70s-set slasher X graced theaters in 2022, writer/director Ti West created a new Final Girl in Mia Goth and managed to craft a thrilling film that also commented on the pervasive misogyny in both the horror genre and the porn industry. Just six months later, West and Goth delivered a surprising treat in Pearl, the silent film-era prequel they had secretly filmed immediately after finishing principle photography on X. A trilogy was inevitable.

And now, two years later they bring us Maxxxine, a sequel to X which finds Mia Goth’s Maxine living in 1985 Los Angeles. She has managed to create a career and name for herself in porn, but the transition to legitimate film work eludes her. In the opening sequence, Maxine is brought into a soundstage on the Paramount lot for an audition. It is a studio movie audition for a big sequel and she is asked a few pointed questions about her X-rated filmography before the casting director asks her — without a hint of irony — to remove her clothes.

Maxine leaves the audition with the swagger of a woman who knows she’s on the verge of her big break. After everything she has seen and done in the last few years, there are only two things she could be at this point: a fragile flower or an unstoppable force. For Maxine, who sees stardom within reach, she will not let anything get in her way. Goth brings confidence and ferocity to this third film, refusing to be a scream queen and choosing instead to be unstoppable.

It’s the summer of 1985 in Los Angeles. The Night Stalker prowls the streets. Satanic Panic is on everyone’s mind. And a mysterious private investigator named John Labat (Kevin Bacon) arrives to stir up trouble. Where many 80s-set films and shows relish in the fun and neon and excess of the decade, Maxxxine shows the seedier, grimier reality of a crumbling, crime-ridden Tinseltown. We get tours of the Universal backlot, including a fun but mostly pointless trip to the Bates Motel and the Psycho house; the Hollywood Forever Cemetery; the Hollywood sign; and a mansion in the hills only accessible by gondola. It should add to a growing sense of horror and doom, but strangely, this third film in a horror trilogy never delivers on any real horror, choosing to leave most of the violence off screen and telling a story that is frustratingly predictable.

There were a lot of missed opportunities. Bacon’s Labat, a deliberately ridiculous character with a funny accent and a cartoonish, flashy wardrobe knows Maxine’s secrets and he’s prepared to share on behalf of his supposed mystery client. It’s too easy to guess the secret, leaving a third act reveal that falls flat. But Bacon relishes his role and it’s impossible not to enjoy his silliness.

Far less entertaining and more annoying are Bobby Cannavale and Michelle Monaghan as a pair of bickering LAPD homicide detectives who arrive at very weird times and have nothing to add to the movie. They aren’t enough to become foils or allies for Maxine and seem to be present for little more than a reminder that she could be in danger, even if she refuses to acknowledge it.

There are other interesting characters and great performers including Halsey, Moses Sumney, Elizabeth Debicki, and Giancarlo Esposito. But most feel incidental to the story rather than fully part of it. West attempts interesting points about Debicki’s film director Elizabeth Bender, or Lily Collins’ starlet Molly Bennett. But he doesn’t give enough time to anyone to really develop his commentary on Hollywood or women’s places in it. West has so much he wants to fit in that none of it gets the chance to breathe.

By the time we reach the third act, the part where the bad guy is revealed and all the answers finally come to light, nothing feels surprising or new. It also leads to a a big moment that may tell us a lot about Maxine Minx, but is not as cathartic as it should be because it was not built up as much as it deserves.

Maxxxine is an okay thriller. It is not terrible. But it is not a horror movie, and it is not a satisfying final chapter in the trilogy.

Maxxxine is now playing in theaters nationwide.