So, I bought myself an Arrow subscription. I know what you’re thinking “but Katy, you already bought Shudder this year!” Yes, yes I did. Let’s move on, shall we? I went through and added a ton of titles to my “list” and at the weekend I started with the deeply unsettling horror/psychological thriller, Jill Gevargizian’s The Stylist.
The Plot
Claire (Najarra Townsend) is a hair stylist, vintage clothes lover, dog mum, coffee drinker, loner and psychopath. Along with being a hair stylist she also (sometimes) kills her clients and scalps them, turning their hair into gruesome wigs to wear, making herself feel like she can be anyone. “You always want what you can’t have”, she says, quoting one of her victims.
In amongst the killings she also has regular clients who she is friendly with, one of which is Olivia (Brea Grant), who is getting married. Olivia’s hair dresser for the wedding bails and she enlists the help of Claire for the big day. The main crux of the movie is centred around Claire’s newfound obsession with becoming friends with Olivia mixed in with her killings now becoming sloppy and crazed, when they used to be methodical. Will Claire’s new friendship prompt her to stop the serial killings? Or will Claire end up turning on Olivia?
My Review
The Stylist is, as I mentioned, deeply unsettling, in a good way. The film centres around Claire, the killer, and the focus on her creates a beautiful “what will she do next” feeling. Will she kill this client, or this stranger, or this friend. Will she get caught or found out? Will she trip up or go over the edge? Najarra Townsend is wonderful as Claire, she is very creepy – the character is so quiet, especially in social situations, that it really is quite sinister. I love it when the “villain” is the main character, it gives such a wonderful and creepy insight into their psyche. (See: Pearl.)
Townsend is also beautiful, has incredible hair and very stylish. Her clothing is vintage and so thought through: I was having major clothes envy throughout – massive shout out to Halley Sharp for the costume design. Speaking of design, I loved the contrast between Claire’s creepy, old, candle-lit, broken-down house and Olivia’s modern, minimal apartment.
The gore was good. As you can imagine, from a scalp heavy film, there was a lot of skin cutting and blood. It didn’t look super fake and as the cutting was happening I was like ooo grosss. I liked how Claire was very methodical at first then, as she spiralled, so did her cutting abilities.
There’s something very single white female about it all, Claire was obsessed with being Olivia’s friend that you end up embarrassed for her. Willing her not to call her or text her or check her socials. You’re rooting for her to pull herself together, despite her being a literal serial killer.
One aspect of the framing I’d like to highlight is the double frame (is that what it’s called?) that Gevargizian (dir) employed – pictured above. The first time I saw it, post credit sequence, I was a bit put off, but I actually came round to it. The device really served to highlight the differences between Claire and Olivia.
I have two very small criticisms. Firstly, I would have liked to see more of Claire’s past killings. We only see one at the start that is very thought through and methodical – maybe Claire could have remembered the past ones while trying on the wigs. And 2. I did see the end coming. But saying this, it was a good ending, so I wasn’t too annoyed.
Overall, I highly recommend.
4/5 stars, if you’re into that.
That Horror Chick 