A fun time and not much more. It wants to be a love letter to 80s horror, on top of the many other things it wants to be, but it doesn’t truly sing. The third act is limp, the black gay best friend is defined by not wanting to fuck Maxine and dies (in one of the surprisingly few kills) for her development. As a character piece it’s not nearly in the level of Pearl, though Maxine is fun and engaging enough to root for. This could’ve been more. What gets it to three stars, let alone two and a half? Giancarlo Esposito. He steals the damn show doing a better Alex Baldwin than Alex Baldwin could ever hope to do. Almost gave it five stars just for him. Him, Bacon, and satisfying vibes make it a pretty entertaining if shallow flick.

You know what I was gonna give it three just for him but then I remembered how the messy third act is facilitated by a huge gap in logic. When you have the private eye begging for his life and that he’ll dj anything to live, why don’t you stop the crusher and get the name of his employer? You can kill him anyway after! It’ll be an even bigger girlboss moment! I can forgive things like that if it results in something good, but instead it’s to drag out a mystery that’s exactly what you think it is. And if it’s established she can bring Teddy and his muscle as backup, why go alone? After he’s told her and proven to her that he should be called for all this stuff? If you’re gonna ask me fo suspend my disbelief for that Maxine’s big hero moment and arc, and the third act, has to be a lot stronger. Two and a half stars.