MaXXXine (2024)

In 1985, beautiful Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) is now an actress in Hollywood. Maxine is the only survivor of the 1979 Texas farmhouse massacre, in which her evil lookalike counterpart Pearl (Mia Goth) and Pearl’s husband Howard (Stephen Ure) killed Maxine's friends. Howard died from a heart attack, and Maxine killed Pearl by crushing her head with Howard's truck.
Maxine is now auditioning for the lead role in a horror movie called The Puritan II, directed by Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki). The song "Gimme All Your Lovin'" by ZZ Top plays during the opening scene after Maxine's audition, which she feels she nailed. Maxine’s new friend is a video store employee named Leon (Moses Sumney).

Maxine and Leon learn from a news report that a serial killer known as the Night Stalker is murdering women in Los Angeles at night. The following day, two adult film actresses acquainted with Maxine are found murdered. Detectives Williams (Michelle Monaghan) and Torres (Bobby Cannavale) investigate the case. On her way home, Maxine is questioned by the detectives but quickly retreats into her apartment building.

That night, Maxine receives a police evidence videotape delivered to her door. When she plays it, she realizes it is the adult film she and her friends made in 1979 before her friends were killed by Pearl and Howard. Disturbed, Maxine takes the tape to Leon to figure out who sent it.

On the film set for The Puritan II, a special effects makeup artist (Sophie Thatcher) makes a mold of Maxine’s face. During this process, Maxine has a haunting vision of Pearl, reminding her of the trauma she continues to endure.

Maxine later meets with a sinister private investigator named John Labat (Kevin Bacon), who tells her his boss wants to meet her at his mansion above Hollywood. Maxine refuses, but before she leaves, Labat threatens to ruin her acting career by exposing her past as an adult film star.

That night, the killer enters the video store and murders Leon. Detectives Williams and Torres desperately try to convince Maxine to help them catch the killer, but she still refuses.

The next day, Labat (who is secretly working with the killer) chases Maxine through various Hollywood film sets, including the Bates Motel set from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. A security guard intervenes and escorts Labat out before he can catch her. Outside, Maxine experiences another vision of Pearl, this time watching her from the top window of the Bates Motel set.

Soon after, the killer murders an actress from The Puritan II. Realizing the danger, Maxine enlists the help of her agent, Teddy Knight (Giancarlo Esposito), to capture Labat. Together, they take Labat to a junkyard and kill him by crushing his car with him inside it. Teddy is revealed to be fiercely protective of Maxine.
Maxine pieces together that most of the killer’s victims had been invited to the mansion of Labat's boss before their murders. She finally agrees to help Williams and Torres catch the killer.

At the mansion, the killer is revealed to be Maxine’s estranged father, Ernest Miller (Simon Prast), who is now a televangelist cult leader. Ernest admits to murdering the actresses because he believes Hollywood is full of sin, devil worship, and corruption, despite being hypocritically evil himself. Ernest proclaims he is serving the Lord but is clearly far from righteous.

Ernest orders his cult followers to tie Maxine to a tree. Before he can kill her, Williams and Torres arrive and engage in a shootout with Miller’s followers. The detectives manage to free Maxine but are fatally wounded by Miller as he flees. Maxine chases after her father and ultimately shoots him dead.

In the aftermath, Maxine earns widespread fame for her heroism in taking down her evil father and continues working on The Puritan II. Relishing her success in Hollywood, Maxine hopes her career will never end. The song "Bette Davis Eyes" plays during the end credits.