The Mia Goth Oscar campaign starts now. If she can’t win a Best Actress award for playing two people at once in X, or for the best monologue in horror for Pearl, then she surely has to get something for stamping on a guy’s nut sack in a pair of stilettos… Three films into Ti West’s extraordinary trilogy, Goth proves yet again what a force she is to be reckoned with – and West proves that funny, dark, smart schlock horror still has a lot to say.

We first met Maxine Minx (Goth) in West’s 2022 original X – then an aspiring porn star who was stalked through the Texas backwaters by a mad, rake-wielding OAP called Pearl (also played by Goth – here, and in West’s lavish Technicolour prequel, Pearl). Now a survivor with something to prove, Maxine has moved to Hollywood and made a name for herself in the adult film business. Shooting porn by day (alongside best friend Tabby, played by Halsey), working a seedy Sunset Blvd. peep show by night, her real dream is making it as an actress in a “proper” film.

A successful audition with ferocious British director Elizabeth Bender (Tenet‘s Elizabeth Debicki) lands Maxine her big break in a horror sequel – which is terrible timing for her past to come calling. Someone knows what she did down in Texas, and sleazy PI John Labat (Kevin Bacon) isn’t going to let her forget it. There’s a (real-life) serial killer stalking the LA underworld. A moral panic is sweeping America. Ronald Reagan is in The White House. Mötley Crüe are on the radio. Things are about to get serious.

Or not, as West plays MaXXXine as much for laughs as he does for shocks. Getting purposefully silly towards the end – and gloriously overplaying the gore on every sticky murder – West wants the film to feel like a lost VHS cult classic. If X was a 21st century response to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the second instalment took on The Wizard Of Oz – part three is every top-shelf sexploitation flick that fired up horror in the ’80s. It’s Maniac and Hardcore and Brian De Palma. It’s Italian giallo with an American hair-rock soundtrack. Massive piles of coke and buckets of corn-syrup blood.

At the same time, it’s also another few meta layers deep in West’s dissection of film, filth and feminism – with one scene staged in the Psycho house on the Universal Studios backlot feeling like a heavier wink than even Tarantino could manage. Maxine’s first role is in a film that’s “a B-movie with A-list ideas”, and West takes as much pleasure as possible in blurring the lines between high-brow and lo-fi to find beauty in the bargain bin – turning his own trilogy back in on itself at every opportunity.

Lighter and less vital than Pearl though it may be, there’s still a neon richness to MaXXXine that bleeds style. Retro-cool enough to inspire another year of Halloween outfits (you just need big hoops, a lot of red eye makeup and Frankie Goes To Hollywood on repeat), MaXXXine already feels like it needs its own arcade game.

And then there’s Goth. Given slightly less opportunity to impress here (only one role this time, and no monologues), she still outshines everyone else in sight. Just as sweetly unsettling as she was in the other two films, now turned ball-stomping survivor she caps the series with another one of horror’s greatest performances.

Fun on its own but better as the next chapter in the series, MaXXXine is far too good to be the end of the story. West apparently has plans for a fourth entry that are hinging on how well this film performs – which means it’s never been more important to get to the cinema. Besides, it’s no fun watching a high-heel burst a testicle on your own.