‘We all want what we don’t have…’
Turning a serial murderer into an anti hero has been done so many times it has become old hat. Vorhees. Myers. Krueger. Pinhead. Chucky. The audience is rooting for all of those guys once you get passed the third or fourth sequel and that’s one of the things that keeps you coming back. A sympathetic villain, however? Now, that’s something that is more difficult to pull off. Mainly because it’s tough to feel sympathy for someone who is hacking teenagers to death. It is this uneasy paradox that makes The Stylist all the more impressive…
Instead of dealing with her crippling social anxiety by drinking Guinness and eating pizza alone with a cat like a normal person, hair stylist Claire (Najarra Townsend) cools off by murdering her customers, scalping them, and then prancing around a basement wearing the spoils of her kill like an introverted Buffalo Bill. This is all well and good until she meets someone who actually pays her some attention (the vivacious Olivia, as portrayed by Brea Grant) resulting in a breakdown of epic proportions when Claire realises that she will never fit in with the normal world.
Directing her debut feature based on her own short, Kansas City native and real life hair stylist Jill Gevargizian plays all the best tunes from the giallo songbook with Claire constantly bathed in primary colours and flashing neon lights. Gevargizian brings an assured hand to what is an outlandish story, ensuring that it stays just the right side of over-the-top. Sure, the ending is telegraphed, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that it is genuinely horrifying. In fact, the long build up only adds to the tension and the final grotesque moments really are something to behold.
Horror is a crowded field, and it is becoming harder and harder to stand out. With The Stylist, Gevargizian has coaxed a pair of top notch performances from her co-stars and has also created something that is devilishly unique and innovative. An exciting new voice on the horror landscape.