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“Kevin Bacon is even in it?” I thought when I watched the official trailer for MaXXXine, which dropped last week.
Well, actually, my first thought was, “It’s finally coming out? Jeez. That was a painful wait.”
Torturous, really, especially considering we were spoiled by X and Pearl, both of which came out mere months apart in 2022, and Ti West had said as much around the time X was released. And A24 announced the third movie’s title when Pearl was released. They also said that West would once again write and direct it as he had with the first two.
But 2023 came and went without the third movie. I was starting to doubt it would happen, but thankfully it is. It releases in theaters on July 5, and if it’s as good as it looks, it might make this year one of the best horror movie summers in a while. (Thanks to other offerings like The Strangers: Chapter 1, The Watchers, and A Quiet Place: Day One.)
As far as being good, if it’s anything like the first two, MaXXXine may be the best yet. Which as you’re well aware, is a very rare thing to say for franchises, which mostly erode over time. But the X trilogy has done what so many of us horror fans crave: take old tropes and breathe new life into them. Refreshing, emphasis on the “fresh,” but also surprising.
For instance, we knew early on that MaXXXine would follow Maxine Minx into the 1980s. We also knew Mia Goth would reprise her role as the titular character. But I never wondered who else might be in it. Turns out, some big—and unexpected—names are joining Goth, like Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Lily Collins, Halsey, Giancarlo Esposito, and, of course, Kevin Bacon.
Bacon Numbers
I never even knew Halsey had a Bacon number until I looked it up thanks to MaXXXine. Her current number is 2. Come July 5, that’ll improve to 1. (Well, all cast members will claim that honor.)
But let’s back up for a second for those who may have thought this post was about the kind of bacon you eat, not the Footloose actor. What in the heck is a Bacon number?
It comes from the Kevin Bacon game. Nerdonomy explained the game started in the 1990s after some college students watched a couple of movies back to back and realized Bacon was in both. They realized even back then that he’d been in a bunch of movies. That got them wondering how many steps it would take to connect actors with Kevin Bacon. They ended up writing a book about it, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, and voila. A new game was born, no board required.
The game has become its own phenomenon really. Hence, a site like The Oracle of Bacon was born, which uses info from IMDB to show you via movies and the actors in them how many steps away from Kevin Bacon someone is.
However, sometimes googling “ACTOR NAME Bacon number” gives you that same info too.
MaXXXine’s Bacon Number Impact
Fun fact, according to the Oracle of Bacon, “Bacon numbers higher than 4 are very rare.” Did any of the actors in MaXXXine have a 4 or higher? Sort of.
Three had Bacon numbers of 1: Michelle Monaghan (Patriots Day), Giancarlo Esposito (Enormous Changes at the Last Minute), and Ned Vaughn (Apollo 13).
The majority had 2, including Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Bobby Cannavale, Lily Collins, Moses Sumney, Chloe Farnworth, Uli Latukefu, Marcus LaVoi, and Deborah Geffner.
Cecilia Kim was the only one with 3. I would’ve said her Bacon number would improve the most, but three other actors didn’t even register in the Oracle of Bacon’s system, so they had no Bacon number at all. Naomi Phan has been in many things, except a lot have been uncredited, and a few parts said “as a different name” under them. Maybe whatever that name is had a Bacon number? I don’t know. She’ll jump to an instant 1 now. So will Michelle Marie Jacquot and Allen Waiserman, who also previously had no score.
Check-In
Have you ever played the Kevin Bacon game?
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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Hahaha, a Kevin Bacon game. You know he’s BIG time when he has a game named after him. (And a Six Degrees book!)
And that all started back in the mid-90s! Kevin Bacon said he hated it at first, but then guess what he did? Turned the idea into a way to do good and started SixDegrees.org, a nonprofit that helps people in underserved and under-resourced communities. Talk about a genuinely good human!