Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for MaXXXine (2024)

Summary

• MaXXXine avoids exploiting real-life crimes by barely mentioning the Night Stalker, focusing on its own unique villain.
• The Night Stalker references add to the movie's sense of paranoia without crossing the line into tastelessness.
• MaXXXine's villain embodies the trilogy's themes better than a fictionalized Night Stalker could.

While I was shocked to discover that Pearl, didn’t center around the Night Stalker, I was also deeply relieved by this revelation. It is tough for horror movies to reference real-life crimes. On the one hand, a lot of effective horror is rooted in reality and nothing scares audiences as much as a believable story. This explains why hits like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Blair Witch Project claimed to be based on true stories in their promotional materials. On the other hand, adapting true stories into horror movies can be tacky and exploitative.

This is why, after MaXXXine’s big twist ending rolled around, my fears were assuaged. However, this was only because a big chunk of MaXXXine’s advertising centered on a misleading promise.

The Night Stalker Isn't Part Of MaXXXine’s Plot

Richard Ramirez’s Killing Spree Is Mentioned In ing

Richard Ramirez was a real-life serial killer whose crime spree terrorized residents of Los Angeles in the ‘80s. Nicknamed the “Night Stalker” by the media, Ramirez was a burglar, rapist, and murderer who claimed at least 13 lives during his months-long crime spree. These events were alluded to in almost all the trailers and promo clips for MaXXXine, making it seem like the movie’s villain would be a fictionalized version of this real-life killer. This would have been hard to pull off for numerous reasons, not least because some of the survivors of the real Ramirez’s spree are alive to this day.

The Night Stalker is addressed a handful of times in dialogue and is seen in brief new flashes that appear throughout the movie.

Fortunately, MaXXXine’s depiction of Richard Ramirez isn’t tasteless, primarily because it barely exits. The Night Stalker is barely even mentioned in MaXXXine despite his outsized roles in its trailers. He is addressed a handful of times in dialogue and is seen in brief new flashes that appear throughout the movie. That is the extent of Ramirez’s role in MaXXXine, and his prominence in advertising turns out to be a red herring to distract from the movie’s real villain. Anyone who has seen X has a reasonable chance of successfully guessing the identity of MaXXXine’s central antagonist, but Ramirez's presence makes that harder.

MaXXXine’s Night Stalker Story Could Never Have Worked

Ti West’s Trilogy Is A Campy Slasher Series

West’s X was a campy slasher movie that, although violent, dark, and complex, never lost sight of its sense of humor. MaXXXine is a much goofier, more over-the-top horror movie, trading in the grim nihilism of ‘70s horror for the gory, blackly comic excesses of the ‘80s slasher boom. For this twist to work, MaXXXine would need to recreate Tarantino’s ambitious Once Upon A Time In Hollywood twist and have its titular heroine successfully defeat the Night Stalker. However, this could have come across as tasteless since the real Ramirez was a severely disturbed individual who died in prison.

MaXXXine making Ramirez its villain would never have succeeded since Pearl’s entire story was predicated on viewers sympathizing with a mentally unwell killer. Turning Ramirez into a cartoonish monster after revealing the depths of Pearl’s tragic humanity would have been a disservice to Goth’s iconic character, and a more empathetic portrayal of the killer would run another risk. MaXXXine’s story could inadvertently glamorize or romanticize a real-life murderer, something American Horror Story 1984 did with Ramirez in 2019. When that controversial horror anthology series made Ramirez one of the villains of its ‘80s-set slasher story, the choice was deservedly panned.

MaXXXine’s Night Stalker References Work Perfectly

The Killer’s Presence Makes Mia Goth’s Heroine More Paranoid

I was certain that West’s movie would either depict Ramirez in a way that made the troubled murderer seem charismatic or turn the real-life figure into a ludicrous caricature. As such, I was delighted when any mention of the Night Stalker turned out to be just that. These throwaway references deepened the movie’s sense of paranoia and discomfort without straying too far into exploitation. I can see why West wanted to remind viewers of the fear and unease that permeated Los Angeles during Ramirez’s killing spree and I thought occasional news flashes were a clever way to achieve this.

MaXXXine’s villain was a perfect embodiment of the trilogy’s themes.

I’m also relieved that MaXXXine didn’t ruin Pearl’s heartbreaking story by using another serial killer as a historical in-joke. Instead, MaXXXine’s villain was a perfect embodiment of the trilogy’s themes. A mirror image of Goth’s ambitious, vicious heroine, MaXXXine’s real villain is a more effective encapsulation of West’s overarching message than any fictionalized take on the Night Stalker. Thus, MaXXXine did X and Pearl justice by subverting my expectations and ignoring the promises of its own trailers.