The Witch Who Builds Her Own Ladder

*Spoilers if you haven’t seen the movie*

Hear me out: I’m acutely aware that nothing says “mentally healthy” like modeling yourself after a horror character who presses a button to crush Kevin Bacon in a car compressor. Maxine Minx may be the protagonist of the a horror series, but that doesn’t stop her from being a quintessential model of someone who makes their own magic and manifests their own destiny. If that isn’t witch-like behavior, I don’t know what is. I am taking my first post to laud the resilient genius of Maxine Minx—because her brand of resilience is exactly what we need to claim the life we deserve and the type of magic this blog is about.

Before I start us off, I know that the movie Maxxxine, the third movie in the series, wasn’t the strongest one in the X series. I love them all in different ways but Maxxxine speaks to me in a way the others don’t. It isn’t about the movie more so about how Maxine takes agency for her own life to try to reach her dreams. Even in X, you get a hint of her personality before things go side-ways, but in Maxxxine, you see the full scope. She of all people should be beat down by her experiences of life: her situation with her father, her co-workers and boyfriend being murdered by an old lady who was obsessed with her, Reaganism, rural Texas, etc. Maxine isn’t the final girl we’d usually expect, the opposite of virginal; she’s a pornstar who is trying to make it big so she can afford the lifestyle she wants.

By the start of Maxxxine, she’s like a phoenix, radiant and blonde. She has adapted to her situation and used her resourcefulness to work hard. She tell her coworker Amber, “you gotta make hay while the sun shines,” which I’ll admit, is a bumpkin-as-fuck phrase, but she’s not wrong. Sometimes you do have to take advantage of those moments or ups, especially if you battle with lifetime of mental health issues like depression or need to ration our your spoons. Whether you have an idea or maybe the one day you don’t have a depressive episode and can crawl out of bed, you can take a lot out of this lone statement. 

At the end of the first movie, we see her drive away with only the clothes on her back and her life. I don’t know about you, but I have lesser moments where I’ve wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. Not to say that’s what she didn’t do eventually, healthy people release emotions as they come, but I personally know I would definitely be very messed up for a while. That’s not to say she isn’t still haunted by those events, flashbacks of the first movie have Pearl haunt us like a withered ghost.

This isn’t meant to be a comparison of “whose trauma is worse.” I don’t believe in that or that it is ever a comparison of “this persons life is way worse, so could you ever have a bad day?” That mindset can be equally as traumatic and a sacred rule in life is that you shouldn’t compare yourself to anyone besides yourself. What’s important to obtain from this is while Maxine continues to face obstacles to obtain her dream, she doesn’t stop trying. She has a goal that she expressed in the first movie and she has been consistent in finding ways to meet those goals throughout the third.

While she had numerous setbacks from her life experiences, she was able to keep going. Sometimes that’s the hardest thing, to keep swimming in an ocean that’s continuously fighting against you. Fighting against something when all you probably want to do is drown. Even as things get worse in the middle of the movie, she struggles but uses her inner strength to keep going. Whatever the struggle you’re currently facing right now, this is a reminder to continue to be resilient in spite of all of that. Things continuously change, whatever obstacles you’re facing right now are not going to be forever. She reminds us to make it through and keep trying, using her mantra to remind her of the bigger picture and where she wants to be.

I also would like to point out that Maxine is an orphan; in addition to facing these obstacles, she’s mainly facing them alone. Although she her father is still alive, she has no one to depend on when times get tough besides her lawyer and her friend, who is later murdered. To be honest, I can understand why she didn’t initially want to help. There’s a hole when it comes to not having that family support, a hole in your heart that can cause you to feel empty when your life is otherwise full. A coldness inside you that can’t be filled with warmth and satiety. Who was helping her when she was facing things? Sometimes there’s a bitterness that comes with feeling that level of alone that can be hard to shrug off. Like, you can’t trust anyone to be your true self, why would you want to extend that sense of care to someone else?

Even though that feeling can cut deep, you shouldn’t take out your hurt on people who don’t deserve it. She ultimately becomes self serving in going to find the killer and facing her demons to further her fame, but progress isn’t linear. She’s not a perfect Mary Sue-style heroine who is going to never make mistakes. She still did the right thing, albeit for selfish reasons. If she could get through this, maybe there’s hope that everything will come up Milhouse for us too.

Overall, I think Maxine Minx has a lot of qualities that we could learn from her, like her resilience, her unapologetic authenticity, confidence, and resourcefulness. I imagine that Maxine went on to be a successful actress. Someone who probably had her ups and downs in the spotlight, but eventually found what she needed to be happy and whole. It’s the best outcome I can hope for a final girl. 

Luckily, I’ve committed to doing the messy inner work so I can trust again. Maxine shows us the raw, initial willpower required, but our job on this blog is to integrate that survival instinct with self-compassion and conscious design. We are going to use our witch energy to build We can take her resilience, but add healing. We take her ambition, but add community.

Let’s all build our own ladder so we never have to accept a life we don’t deserve. We’ll learn to be well-rounded whores—fierce, authentic, and whole. We all deserve to take up space and life life to the fullest. Even if we don’t feel it, we can take a page out of Maxine’s confidence and fake it until we make it.

What are some lessons we could take from Maxine?

• Do not accept a life you do not deserve.
• Sometimes you have to make your own divine intervention.
• Keep going, even when things seem impossible.