The star-studded finale to a beloved horror trilogy is coming. This Delawarean is behind it

He's from Wilmington.

He made his first two films in Delaware.

And nearly two decades later, he's one of the top horror directors in Hollywood and about to drop the most anticipated fright films of the year.

Wilmington's own Ti West is about to close out his beloved horror trilogy ("Pearl," "X") with the nationwide release of "MaXXXine" on Friday, July 5.

The film's first trailer dropped last month, officially kicking off the publicity push for the movie, West's 10th full-length production in 19 years.

The Tatnall School graduate recently teased the film ― "a big, sprawling Los Angeles ensemble movie" ― in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

It stars the returning Mia Goth as Maxine Minx, an actress who survived a massacre in his previous films. "MaXXXine" has added star power, including Kevin Bacon, singer/actress Halsey, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale and Giancarlo Esposito.

"If you're expecting it to be part of this X movie and people will be killed, yeah, I'm going to deliver on all those things," he told the magazine. "But it's going to zig instead of zag in a lot of places that people aren't expecting. It's a very decadent world that she lives in, and it's a very aggressive world that she lives in, but the threat shows up in an unexpected way."

First State roots

West grew up near Wilmington Friends School in Alapocas, son of Don and Noreen West.

He told Delaware Online/The News Journal in 2012 that he really didn't know what he wanted to do with his life as a Tatnall School student.

"I wasn't interested in that much stuff," he said. But then he took a film class offered by the school's theater head Bruce Chipman, who retired from the program in 2020 at the age of 73 after 47 years at the school.

"Taking that made me realize I could do this job," West said.

Even back in 2012, Chipman was not surprised by West's success, which has only grown since: "What he's doing is totally predictable to me, meaning I saw those elements and those talents in him way back in high school."

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He left Delaware to attend New York School of Visual Arts after Tatnall. And after graduating from college, he returned to The First State to make his first two films.

His films that led to this moment

He kicked off his career when he began filming "The Roost" in 2003, a $50,000 movie he shot in Wilmington, along with Pennsylvania's Kennett Square and Unionville. The 2005 release is a film within a film about bats that attack people and was sold at South by Southwest for $375,000.

He followed it up with with an even smaller budget film, "Trigger Man," filmed around Wilmington and released in 2007 for $15,000.

West followed his Delaware-made films with "Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever," a sequel to the hit film by horror maestro Eli Roth, and then smaller films "The House of the Devil," "The Innkeepers" and "The Sacrament." In 2016, he wrote and directed the Western film "In a Valley of Violence" starring Ethan Hawke.

After that is when West really broke through by releasing both "X" and its sequel "Pearl" in 2022, wowing film critics and horror fans alike. Each were made for about $1 million with "X" taking in $15 million at the box office and "Pearl" earning $10 million.

Two years later, "MaXXXine" will close out the the tale, which has been released by the much-buzzed-about film studio A24.

“In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break. But as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Hollywood, a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past," reads the film's official synopsis.

If you can't wait until July for some new work by West, check out his director's cut of Justin Timberlake's new music video for the song "No Angels."

Have a story idea? Contact Ryan Cormier of Delaware Online/The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier) and X (@ryancormier).

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: 'MaXXXine' will be released July 5, closing Ti West's beloved trilogy