Starts strong. Found the last act to be not as strong. Pearl is still my fave of the 3 films.

Mostly agreed. It's disappointing that it never really ties into the previous films. Defeating Pearl made Maxine a badass, and it creates a fun joke when talking about Psycho, but that's about it?

I think that rather be sold as the conclusion of a trilogy, they should have gone the same route as the first. Make a slasher picture, then an absurd origin story for the villain (or even better, Kevin Bacon's character.)

The movie on its own is pretty good though. It has tense kill scenes and victims you feel bad for. The 80s aesthetic is always present but rarely in your face about it. And Maxine's motivations are made clear by a single line "maybe they should help themselves, I did." She will go down as one of the more memorable final girls in the history of horror.

I'll give it a 7/10. In between Pearl and X. Though X does get better after watching Pearl, so maybe it is impossible to rank until after Ti West decides to continue the series?