Film Review - The Stylist (2020)

Every serial killer has a motive, factual or fictitious. Jeffrey Dahmer sexually assaulted, dismembered, stowed away and often ate his victims so that he felt like “they were apart of him forever”. Jason Voorhees haunts the drug-fuelled, sex-crazed teens of Camp Crystal Lake (and that one time in Manhattan…as well as that one time well into the future…in space) to murder them in the most brutal fashions imaginable to avenge is mother’s death.

Particularly in horror and thriller films, the psychology of the killer’s motive is explored in deep, multifaceted context. The psychoanalytical study generally accumulates our sympathy for the antagonist. In Jill Gevargizian’s debut feature-length film, that is only partially true.

Adapted from a short film of the same name, The Stylist stars Najarra Townsend as Claire, a lonely hair stylist by day who becomes an obsessive serial killer by night, scalping her victims.

From just the plot alone, Gevargizian‘s film doesn’t sound all that refreshing. Most obviously, The Stylist sounds much like William Lustig‘s Maniac. Or Franck Khalfoun‘s very honourable remake starring Elijah Wood. However, Gevargizian‘s film is a much better crafted and better polished finished product. It doesn’t share the same guerrilla style approach to filmmaking. In fact, The Stylist plays out more like giallo slasher than a gritty, video nasty from yesteryear. Think Argento’s Deep Red or De Palma‘s Dressed to Kill. Right down to the glitzy and glamorous opening credits and title card, The Stylist has a vibrant, giallo-inspired trademark.

Seemingly living a normal, mundane day-to-day life, Claire (Townsend) lends a sympathetic ear to the women who come to see her work her magic. But as Claire’s interest becomes more obsessive, she gradually becomes more and more sinister. Scalping the victims of who she is most obsessed with, her obsession becomes a living nightmare when a regular client asks her to style her hair for her wedding day. Vowing to change her deranged, murdering ways for good, Claire soon realises repressing her desires only makes them stronger.

Going back to exploration of the titular character, the psychoanalysis of Claire’s sociopathic ways are merely touched upon during The Stylist‘s runtime. We’re given an extremely brief backstory to films lead character that never fully reveals to the audience why she is the way she is and does the things she does. What is Claire’s motive!? Viewers instead are left to take in the vague tale in favour for the ambiguity of Claire. Whether that’s intentional or unintentional from Gervargizian, it is unclear to me.

Having being adapted from one of Gervargizian‘s earlier short films, I do believe that’s where The Stylist‘s biggest weakness lies. Originally a 15-minute short, that 15 minutes worth of storytelling is stretched out to make an almost 2-hour film. There’s several moments during the runtime where it feels overly bloated. Particularly around the midsection of the film, there are several scenes that are downright frustrating to watch. For example, without giving away any major spoilers, there are four sequences in quick succession of Claire waking up (oddly always before 7AM) to check her phone for any missed calls or messages from Olivia (Brea Grant) and be left facing disappointment. They’re repetitive and extremely vapid, adding nothing of any significance to the plot.

The more key moments of the film are equally irking. With a very basic and unchanging score or no score at all, the most vital scenes of The Stylist lack any oopmh and conviction. There’s no sense of atmosphere or suspense built, even during what are intended to be the most tense moments of Claire’s narrative. The bare bones, minimal storytelling isn’t compelling enough to create any genuine anticipation. As for the grand finale, it’s one you could see coming a mile off. It’s unintentionally predictable; anticlimactic and thus second-rate.

Claire’s visibly dull life that doesn’t fulfil her leading her to commit such heinous wrongdoings, forces us to feel pity at her anguish. The tears of sadness she can wail out in one breath for her to be all smiles and laughter the next shows the gravity of what it means to Claire to wear the hair of another. Despite leaving a lot left to be desired on her closing story arc, Gervargizian does manage to do a splendid job of creating a space for us to feel sympathetic towards the lead character through the showcase of her emotional and mental complexity and Townsend‘s standout dextrous performance.

One thing that’s truly commendable of The Stylist is its makeup and special effects. With each Frank Zito-inspired grisly murder, it becomes more and more difficult to watch. The blood-soaked gruesome on-screen kills aren’t for the squeamish. Even as a seasoned horror veteran, the attention to detail Gervargizian displays when Claire is peeling back one of her victim’s scalps is stomach churning. The sound design is exceptional! Peter Strickland‘s Berberian Sound Studio levels of exceptional. Even if the struggle isn’t always shown on-screen, you can observantly hear it through the squelchy, meaty textures.

So whilst I didn’t jump for joy for this film like many did at its screening at Fantastic Fest in September 2020, I believe it just misses the mark but does have redeeming qualities. Showing plenty of promise as a developing yet talented filmmaker, I am eager to see what Jill Gervargizian will conjure up in her next outing. Whilst brilliant in concept, its bold leap from short to feature-length sadly feels premature and its style-over-substance manner leaves something to be desired with The Stylist.