Part Two - X

In X, Maxine, a few other sex workers, a videographer, and the owner of the strip club she worked at go out to Pearl’s Texas farm in 1979 to film a porno, renting a building on the property. As the VHS is a new technology, a new industry for home-filmed pornography is rising, and Maxine Minx sees this as a faster way to fame for herself (Blackwood). Pearl and her husband, Howard, have settled down here over the years and aren’t too keen on the strangers’ company. As they set out to film, an elderly Pearl catches on to their sinful behavior and decides to pay retribution to the crew for their sins. She engages in bloody murder akin to her actions in the first film with the aid of her husband. This murderous action takes form with pitchforks, guns, nails, and alligators alarming the viewer. Luckily Maxine is able to escape, running over the head of Pearl and exploding her onto the road. Unfortunately this violence follows Maxine into the finale of the trilogy, MaXXXine.
In X, full exposure to sex scenes is given to the viewer, something that is often not shown in movies. This shock from seeing sex, which is not often fully depicted in films, is sublime in itself, but there is another level. Maxine’s fellow adult actress Bobby-Lynne (played by Brittany Snow) says in the movie,”We turn folks on, and that scares ‘em.” This statement despite being a passing remark by the character is a philosophical argument on what makes the movie and its subject sublime. The taboo of pornography gives power to the movie. It is something that can ruin one’s life, exposing them as a pervert. This is the sublime power of the trilogy, and the characters in the movie. Not only is it seeing and finding attraction to the taboo focus of the film that makes it sublime, but also fear of retribution. All of Maxine’s co-workers in the adult film industry are murdered in creative explicit ways as retribution. This inflicts a sublime fear within the viewer. It draws them in, as if they were complicit to the wrongdoings of the actresses.