MaXXXine: The Story of The Real Murderer From Ti West’s New Film

MaXXXine is one of the most anticipated horror films of the year, and not only because it is the continuation of X and Pearl, which closes Ti West’s trilogy, but because, unlike the previous ones, this one makes a reference to the real case of an infamous serial killer, who is considered one of the most brutal and violent in history. MaXXXine is set in 1980s Los Angeles and follows an adult film actress, named Maxine Minx, who dreams of making the transition to “serious” film, but she gets her big break just as the city is being terrorized by a serial killer, and that complicates everything, making Maxine have to fight a little harder to get what she wants.

The film stars Mia Goth as Maxine, in addition to the singer Halsey and actresses such as Lily Collins from Emily in Paris and Elizabeth Debicki from The Crown, and not only tells the story of Maxine, her ambition, and what is willing to do to get it but, as with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the story takes place within the framework of a brutal event that happened. As we can see in the trailer, the film also explores the story of Richard Ramirez, a man who became known as The Night Stalker.

MaXXXine: Who Was Richard Ramirez, The Night Stalker?

The story of MaXXXine is fiction, but Ti West integrated the real story of a serial killer who terrorized the inhabitants of Los Angeles and San Francisco in the 80s, to explain a little more about the context in which this story takes place and to make it more brutal. During the film’s trailer, we can see scenes of Maxine and her auditions, alternating with scenes discussing a killer known as The Night Stalker and the danger he posed to anyone who encountered him. Richard Ramirez was a serial killer and rapist who claimed several victims in the mid-1980s. Ramirez came from a troubled family in Texas, he was the son of immigrants and his family had trouble making money, so his childhood was complicated and hard.

In addition, it is said that his father beat him and even left him unconscious at the age of 5 after hitting him on the head and that this could have been what led him to develop violent and hypersexual behavior. Over time, Richard became close to one of his cousins, a Vietnam War veteran who was among the first to show violent and sexual images related to his time in Vietnam and the terrible things he had seen and made there. That impressed Ramirez, who also began using drugs like LSD and became interested in Satanism. According to The Independent, Ramirez moved to California in 1982 and attacked his first victim two years later. In 1984, Ramirez raped and murdered a 9-year-old girl named Mei Leung, but it was in 1985 when he committed the second murder in which he established his modus operandi.

“His modus operandi often involved breaking into suburban homes in the dead of night, raping and killing victims before leaving satanic symbols at the scene,” says The Independent.

Ramirez attacked at night, but his victims varied in age and appearance, sometimes he attacked couples, but he also murdered older women, girls, and mothers, and all this made it initially difficult to identify that it was the same murderer, Once the connection was made, he was given the nickname The Night Stalker. What allowed Ramirez to be identified and arrested was that he left several clues at the different crime scenes, such as footprints, and this led the police to find him and hold a press conference in which they revealed this information, both to the public and the murderer himself. Richard Ramirez was recognized in a store in Los Angeles in August 1985 and was eventually detained and arrested. He is believed to have murdered around 14 people, was convicted of murder, robbery, and sexual abuse, and received the death penalty for it.

The Night Stalker killer was sentenced to die in the gas chamber, but died on June 7, 2013, at age 53, from complications related to lymphoma.