Ambition, entertainment, porno and horror! X recounts the story of a low-budget pioneering porno shoot gone wrong in rural Texas with some Chainsaw Massacre vibes seeing as how it's set in rural Texas in the 70s. But instead of just being crazy, the hillbillies are crazy horny. And also crazy. Pearl is the origin story of the horny grandma in X, who after watching a porno with a horny projectionist starts down the path of horny murder. Maxxxine picks the story back up in the 80s with the sole, titular (not what it means, yes they were great) returning character.
I feel like maybe Pearl and Maxxxine were also supposed to be evoking other slasher movies like X was, but my horror knowledge is not deep enough to say what. But what was obvious to me was how the "porn to horror actor pipeline" plot in the third installment invites the comparison of the two genres: both the center of moral panics, both seen as less legitimate forms of entertainment, perhaps because of the visceral nature of those genres. The actors in films of both genres are also generally seen as less skilled than "legitimate" screen actors, which is definitely not something you can say about Mia Goth who is fantastic in all of these horror movies (and also the porno they shoot in X).
My one regret with how I viewed these movies is that I knew too much going in (that the third one is called Maxxxine) because it would have a) not been obvious who was going to live in X and b) the meta themes would be a little less apparent and more of a slow-burn if I wasn't specifically paying attention to what was up with Maxine/Pearl's obsession with fame/infamy: "I will not accept a life I do not deserve" goes from Maxine's mantra and motivation for doing porn as the beginning of X to something we hear on the TV in Pearl's house (which is also weird, because if Pearl is a devoted viewer of Maxine's dad's show, she's also definitely seen Maxine on there as a child, right?) since it's still playing after the cops show up and everyone is corpses. Speaking of, are we supposed to be believe that camera was running the whole time? Or maybe the opening scene was just what was in the viewfinder... where was I?
Oh right so by Pearl the mantra becomes the main theme of the movie instead of one character out of several's motivation. Pearl is living a bleak life caring for her severely disabled father under the stern glare of her bitchtastic mother while her husband is off fighting Jerry in the war. And ostensibly she would have continued her bleak existence until becoming compost for the potatoes but she is lured by the siren song of the silver screen into having all the sex and killing all the people that stand in the way of her californication. So then Maxxxine is the culmination of Maxine's own pursuit of this dream, which her crazy-ass preacher dad also seems to have the taste for (probably why he started preaching on TV and exposed Maxine to the demon screens in the first place).
In summary: points for having some themes and also for killing some mimbos in their panties #GenderEquality