The Stylist

...The Demon Barber of Creep Street.

Not much to say, but this horror/drama about a mentally unfit hair stylist who cuts a little too deep gave me Stepfather II vibes, but mostly reminded me of the original Maniac from 1980 and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer from 1986. Nothing wrong with that, it was enjoyable and everyone was spot on in their roles.

I would question the pacing and direction of the story even though it was easy to follow. At least the gore was decent. I even had to turn away in a few spots. The Lead, who looked way too much like Judy Greer, really sold the psycho.

Recommended.

Najarra Townsend plays a hairstylist who alternates between sweet and psychotic in a film that's reminiscent of Franck Khalfoun's Maniac and Nicolas Winding Refn's The Neon Demon. Jill Gevargizian's audio-visual choices in the film really stand out - be it neon-esque colorscape or the prominently bassy soundtrack. Townsend, in the titular role, does most of the heavy lifting with a chillingly effective performance. The film gets a bit drab and overlong in its middle portions (especially that nightclub scene) but picks up again towards the end, even if the climax is something that you can foresee from a mile away. It may be an easy film to write off given the predictability aspect alone, however, the aesthetics deserve a double thumbs-up. The script deliberately doesn't focus on how well the hairstylist covers up her grisly murders; it delves more into her inner conflicts instead. All said and done, The Stylist is a film that offers different levels of satisfaction for different viewers.

A decent enough film, with solid acting and great cinematography.

It just lacked oomph!

Left me feeling somewhat unsatisfied.

Generic lead psycho without rhyme or reason murders pretty much anybody she meets. No motive, no specific reason for selection, just random unexplained psychotic breakdowns. Could've been a winner but the writing is terrible and it's jam packed of long repetitive scenes that do nothing to move the story or reveal anything deeper about the main character. Maniac, Sweeney Todd and even Lucky McKee's May do everything done here way better. Ultimately a unoriginal, paint by numbers story with a excruciatingly long and predictable finish. More like a photo shoot for bloody bride monthly than a worthwhile narrative.

Borrowing from some of the best character study horror films from the 60's and 70's, The Stylist seamlessly updates these tropes for the new age with lots of style and higher production values than expected for such a low budget film.

A lonely hairstylist takes to drugging some of her clients, scalping them, and storing said scalps in a creepy shrine underneath her house where she can put them on and pretend to be different people. She tries to shape up and stop doing this when a bride-to-be client books her for her wedding and the stylist believes this might be a true friendship in the making.

For most of its runtime, The Stylist plays like a modern mashup of Maniac, Repulsion, and May and it's anchored by a lovely performance by Najarra Townsend, who wisely underplays her character's mania. Most actresses would swing from the rafters and chew the scenery with a character like this, but she keeps her very grounded and true to life.

Townsend's performance helps fill in a lot of the script's flaws, because, as much as The Stylist seems to want us to relate for its lead character, it doesn't do an awful lot to endear her to us. We never figure out what made her start killing and collecting scalps and we never find out why she's so fixated on this particular bride-to-be. This does weaken the film and throw things off balance, because Townsend is playing the character as if she's in a nuanced character drama, but the film gives her even less development and motivation than some of the Friday the 13th sequels gave Jason.

At least The Stylist knows how to end a movie as it offers up one of the most memorable final horror film images of the past decade and the film itself is beautifully directed by Jill Gevargizian who has an excellent eye.