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After rewatching Maxxine, I have to talk about what I still think is an amazing plot hole

Online Niel October 28, 2024

One of the most elegant movies to come 2024 film schedulealbeit the dirtiest kind of style, Ti West’s Sequel glorifying Hollywood MaXXXine delivered in a big way satisfying ending to Maxine Minx’s story. Which is obviously a good thing because The filmmaker thinks they blocked the landing with this one and probably won’t be diving back into this universe anytime soon. But what if Mia GothHis Maxine continues her journey, the story has to address what I still think is a huge plot hole even after rewatching.

It should go without saying, but we’ll dig deeper SPOILERS BELOWso be warned if you haven’t checked it out yet MaXXXine streaming with a Maximum subscriptionunless you’re just someone who likes to know about plot holes before you know about the plot itself.

Maxine puts VHS tape into MaXXXine — (Image credit: Max)

Maxine received a copy of a video tagged by the police that linked her to the Texas murders

When Maxine first realizes she’s being targeted, it’s only because her tormentor (later revealed to be her father) has chosen to antagonize her with a VHS tape containing pornographic footage shot on RJ’s camera during the events of of Ti West X. With the words “For Maxine” on the front label, the tape is shown to at least feature Maxine’s big sex scene, proving that she is the sole survivor of Pearl and Howard’s murderous rampage.

Most importantly, perhaps, the video begins with an on-screen notification that the footage has been tagged as evidence by Texas authorities after the camera was seized at the death scene. I mean, it was fully assumed that the cops would know about Maxine’s existence and understand that she fled the scene, even if she wasn’t fully suspected of being the mastermind behind it all.

Screenshot of Maxine talking to Leon in MaXXXine's video store

(Image credit: Max)

Leon probably had the tape nearby when he was killed

Maxine is obviously freaked out knowing that someone out there has knowledge of both her past mistakes and her current whereabouts. So, with no other investigative options to choose from, she entrusts her friend, video store clerk Leon (Moses Sumney), to learn everything he can about the VHS tape. Hours later, Leon is slashed and stabbed to death by Maxine’s estranged father Ernest (Simon Prast), and viewers never get to hear that Leon never found out about the duplicate video.

To be sure, I wouldn’t have expected any amount of VHS-based research to result in useful information for these characters, but the key detail here is that Leon almost certainly had the (probably illegally copied) police evidence tape on or around. the front desk of the video store, from when he worked until closing time that night. Although it is certainly possible that Ernest raised the tape before entering the vehicle with Kevin Baconto John Labat, he was not grasping it in his bloody gloves at that moment.

As such, I have to believe that the tape would have encouraged the looks of both Williams detectives (Michelle Monaghan) and Torres (Bobby Cannavale), even though none of the other officers on the scene paid attention to its importance. And yet…

Screenshot of Detectives Williams and Torres talking to Maxine next to MaXXXine's corpses

(Image credit: Max)

The tape is not mentioned again, despite the fact that it would be a potential bomb for the detectives

Considering Det. Williams makes the brilliant move of lifting the blood-soaked sheet to reveal Leon’s sliced face to Maxine (and so many other viewers who didn’t deserve to have their mornings ruined like this), we immediately assumed they found “For Maxine.” tape, recorded his connections with the Texas police and that he played into their attempt to provoke his emotional response. Even though the detectives have not yet been able to make exact connections between Maxine and the previous murders, they can understand the intent there.

And I still follow that assumption every time Monaghan’s character treats Maxine sympathetically, especially after she refers to being a “survivor.” And when Williams and Torres show up and interrupt the nightmarish exorcism ritual that Ernest Miller is filming, I’m totally thinking that Williams found out what happened in Texas, realized that Maxine escaped a traumatic situation, and decided not to report. them. Kind of like “strong women empowering strong women”.

But none of this is addressed by the time Williams’ death scene happens, with Torres already left for dead by that point. We’re sort of led to believe that Williams intuitively understood that Maxine was in a difficult situation and chose to follow those instincts without knowing anything about her past. I understand that Williams wouldn’t have told Maxine all of this lightly, but the movie could have revealed it in a different way.

Maxine ends the film as a rising star who wants her fame to never end, which already seems like a stretch considering her rise in popularity makes it all the more likely that someone will connect her to the Texas murders. This eventuality would not even require that investigators find the “For Maxine” tape in the video store.

However, it still stands to reason that whoever worked at that video store, or was hired as Leon’s replacement, would have found the VHS and watched it for cataloging purposes only, only to realize that they had found something completely unexpected. So maybe the point IS that Maxine’s celebrity will always be at odds with the threat that anyone who knows unfinished porn can identify her and lead her into a world of bad publicity.

However, the film doesn’t present this directly, so I’m not sure we want to consider this as a takeaway. If only the movie featured a post-credits sequence where the camera slowly zooms in on a large stack of videos stacked on a wall, with the tape “Fox Maxine” somewhere near the bottom. Instead, I sit here, unsure of whether or not this is a plot hole or just a thread for the audience to wonder about at their leisure.

After streaming MaXXXinecheck all upcoming horror movies heading to theaters and streaming in the near and distant future.

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After rewatching Maxxine, I have to talk about what I still think is an amazing plot hole

Maxine received a copy of a video tagged by the police that linked her to the Texas murders

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After rewatching Maxxine, I have to talk about what I still think is an amazing plot hole

Maxine received a copy of a video tagged by the police that linked her to the Texas murders

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