Do you need to watch Pearl and X to enjoy MaXXXine?

Maxine Minx is back and ready to take 1980s Los Angeles by storm in MaXXXine, the third film in Ti West's acclaimed horror trilogy. Released theatrically in July, the latest West and Mia Goth collaboration is now available to stream at home via Max. Considering preceding films, X and Pearl, received significant praise and have become beloved in the horror community in the two years since they were released, MaXXXine had a lot to live up to and has become the trilogy's most polarizing film.

However, it's also the culmination of Maxine's story, which started in X. Set about six years after the Texas homestead massacre that left Maxine as the sole survivor out of her group of friends, MaXXXine picks up with the titular heroine landing a horror movie role in 1985. Since the character Maxine was first introduced in X and MaXXXine is a direct sequel, you should watch it before you open your Max app.

You need to watch X before MaXXXine, and you should watch Pearl anyway

Strictly speaking, you would only need to watch X before MaXXXine because Pearl is a prequel film set in 1918 that takes place chronologically before either. And while Goth does play young Pearl in that movie (and older Pearl in X), she's not actually directly related to Maxine.

But X and Pearl are both excellent films boasting phenomenal performances from Goth. And part of what makes the trilogy so fun is that each entry has its own unique style. X pays direct homage to the 1974 classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, while Pearl takes inspiration from the era of technicolor, specifically The Wizard of Oz. MaXXXine is a nod to Giallo. Yet the trilogy still feels cohesive, primarily because Goth anchors each film with fantastic work.

X sets up Maxine's backstory and the reason why she's in LA, plus there are hints in X that pay off in MaXXXine. You could probably enjoy MaXXXine well enough without watching X, but it will be far more rewarding if you watch X first.

Pearl is also excellent and I recommend watching the trilogy in release order: X -> Pearl -> MaXXXine. But you don't have to watch Pearl, since it's the prequel of an antagonist in X who isn't in MaXXXine. Still, thematically, the movies are built as a trilogy for a reason, so you might feel like you're missing a piece if you jump into MaXXXine without having watched both previous films.

MaXXXine and X are both currently streaming on Max, Pearl is on Netflix.