MaXXXine ending explained: How horror movie's final shot links back to Pearl

EntertainmentMoviesHorror MoviesMaXXXineMaXXXine ending explained: How horror movie’s final shot links back to PearlWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works. EntertainmentMoviesHorror MoviesMaXXXineMaXXXine ending explained: How horror movie’s final shot links back to PearlWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Universal Pictures) Warning! This article contains major spoilers forMaXXXine. If you’ve yet to see the movie, and don’t want to know anything that happens, turn back now! MaXXXine director Ti Westhas made no secret of the fact that he purposefully made each installment in his popular horror series, the fan-dubbed X trilogy, feel like entirely different movies. But, as with any franchise, there’s bound to be some connective tissue… The movie’s final sequence sees Maxine reveling in her newfound stardom, having aced her role and taken down the serial killer who’s been terrorizing LA. Though there’s slightly more to it than that, which we dive into below… “I always had in my mind as [her] having made it in Hollywood. That was such a goal for her, was to become a star,” West said of the surprisingly rosy conclusion, before explaining how the slasher’s final shot brings together X and Pearl. (MaXXXine ends with Bender and Maxine watching a monitor on set, as a camera pans into Maxine’s severed head and holds the frame, before the real film’s credits start rolling over the static image). “There’s something about the end of Pearl, about her smiling and trying to keep smiling, that’s representative of the movie as a whole,” he toldUSA Today. “There’s something about this severed head on the bed being photographed that’s representative of the absurdity of it all as well.” So, what actually happened at the end of MaXXXine? (Image credit: A24) Sign up for the Total Film Newsletter Bringing all the latest movie news, features, and reviews to your inbox When her efforts to avoid the chaos wind up interfering with her work, Maxine enlists the help of her agent-turned-lawyer Teddy (Giancarlo Esposito) and her porn director Shephard (Uli Latukefu) to kill Labat. The trio bait Labat into chasing her through a night club, then apprehend him out back and take him to a junkyard. There, they trap Labat inside a car, before flattening the vehicle with him still inside. (Image credit: Universal Pictures) There, she quite literally stumbles on Molly’s dismembered body, and learns that the person behind the killings is her estranged father, Ernest, who couldn’t bear the fact that she’d moved away from the church and succumbed to a life of sin in Hollywood. He’d been disguising his “punishments” as crimes of the Night Stalker’s, who turns out to be nothing more than a red herring. In the hills, Torres is fatally shot, while Williams gets stabbed in the eye, leaving Maxine to finish her pops off. As a police helicopter circles above, its passengers ordering her to drop her weapon, she tells her dad that he’s the reason she’s where she is in life, and that his “divine intervention” set on the path to fame and fortune. During her speech, Maxine imagines herself conducting celebrity interviews, where she’s praised for her work in The Puritan II and for stopping her father, as she’s asked about the biopic of her life that is currently in the works. When she returns to set a month later, Maxine is met with a round of applause from the cast and crew before Bender whisks her away to show her the severed head. As she looks at the prop adoringly, Maxine tells Bender that she “never wants it to end”. MaXXXine is in cinemas now. For more on the movie, check out our interviews withMia GothandTi West. 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