The Stylist

This year's Fantastic Fest will have allowed us to discover genre films as diverse as they are successful. Practically flawless for the proposed films and a focus on the theme of the werewolf film with no less than three films: Teddy, Bloodthirsty and the much awaited The Wolf of Snow Hollow by Jim Cummings. However, this year, other themes have been highlighted with a real success such as serial-killers and that of Jill Gevargizian's first film is well worth the detour and will send us back to these killers who haunted many films in the 80s.

Jill Gevargizian's first film draws its main inspiration from the excellent short film with the homonymous title that was shown on several festivals in 2016. We thus find the same female character played by the same actress Najarra Townsend. This hairdresser in a salon that has nothing special in itself turns out to be a psychopath who scalps some of her clients and thus imagines herself in their place by wearing part of their heads. When discovering this film, one immediately thinks of William Lustig's Maniac (1980) but with a feminine touch that makes all the difference. Violent but also fascinating, The Stylist benefits not only from a great care taken in the direction but also from the presence in a secondary role of the actress Brea Grant (Halloween II (2009), A ghost story (2017), After midnight (2019)...).

The director's approach is particularly interesting in the sense that it shows the emotional flaws of a true psychopath who can no longer discern the good from the bad, the moral from the immoral. Claire thus by getting in touch with her client Olivia (Brea Grant, perfect once again) will do everything to become her first friend but also to become her. The structure of the film, which follows the portrait of these two women, avoids the classic horror movie scheme to become little by little a psychological thriller punctuated by ultra violent and realistic scenes.

The Stylist also shows that, with a reduced budget, talented directors are able to bring to life perfectly mastered genre films that will hold your breath until the last scene. The Stylist also shows that with a reduced budget, talented directors can bring to life perfectly mastered genre films that will hold your breath until the last scene, which will haunt you long after the end of this first successful film that will hopefully find an audience. In any case, it has caught our attention amply.

The Stylist
Directed by Jill Gevargizian,
Produced by Najarra Townsend
Written by Jill Gevargizian, Eric Havens
Starring Brea Grant, Najarra Townsend, Sarah McGuire, Laura Kirk, Timothy English, Millie Milan, Jennifer Seward, Davis DeRock
Music by Nicholas Elert
Cinematography: Robert Patrick Stern
Edited by John Pata
Release date: September 26, 2020 (Fantastic Fest)
Running time: 105 minutes

Seen on September 20th (press screener)

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