I picked this movie out after watching the trailer and finding that it reminded me of a short film my wife really enjoyed, a movie we’d watched on the Alter channel on YouTube. It turns out, The Stylist is a direct sequel to that short film, which was also titled “The Stylist.” Alter is a great channel to follow if you like bite-sized horror flicks, and that one is among their best that I’ve seen.
I had no idea they’d made a feature length film out of the same concept as that shorty, but, man, I’m sure glad they did. Director Jill Gevargizian and lead actress Najarra Townsend are both immensely talented. The budget for the film could not have been very much, yet it feels like an arthouse flick that managed to land a giant budget. It’s stylistic, beautifully shot, and the acting is incredibly believable.
The plot follows Claire (played by Townsend), who is a hair stylist and also a crazy person. And I mean crazy. Among the things she fancies doing are drinking chai lattes (gross), stealing clothing from others (not nice), and scalping people so she can wear their hair and imitate them in front of the mirror (oh my). One thing she doesn’t fancy is doing hair for weddings. Why? That’s not real clear, but when she’s talked into doing just that, Claire’s crazy gets turned up a notch or two.
There’s not much complexity to the story. Rather, the draw of the film is watching Claire repeatedly try to act normal, then failing wildly to do so. The number of awkward moments in this movie are too many to count. Claire simply lacks any social capability, while having an underlying evil that’s never fully explained. We expect she has endured some sort of early trauma that has led her to behave the way she does. Almost the entire movie hinges on Najarra Townsend’s portrayal of this character, and she executes it masterfully, showing an ability to go from sorrow to anxiousness to glee to embarrassment to rage seemingly at a snap of the finger.
As I said, the plot is not very complex. I could have gone for a twist or two to give the story a little more suspense. While the ending was wonderfully done, my wife and I both guessed what would happen several minutes before it did. And I think the film could have had ten to fifteen minutes cut from the final product and been just fine. It seems to drag at certain points. Though, I must admit, this likely adds to the awkward feeling you have throughout its viewing.
The Stylist is really, really good. It even gave me weird dreams, which is always a sign that the film dug a little deeper into your grey matter than most flicks. I’ll have to seek out more stuff from both Gevargizian and Townsend.
PC3’s Horror and Exploitation Movie Scale of Awesomeness!
Gore - 6
Special Effects - 5
Nudity/Sexuality - 5
Wow Factor - 6
Acting - 10
Fear Factor - 3
Story/Plot/Originality - 3
Cinematography/Atmosphere - 9
Sound/Music - 9
Fun Factor - 4
A very nice 60 PHEMSA score for The Stylist. I could have used a plot twist just to make it a little more intriguing. The character embodied tension, but the story itself had very little. Still a great watch! You can find it on Shudder.