The Stylist (2020)

"Very Stylish Indeed"

Jill Gevargizian's elegant serial killer movie gets a special edition Blu-ray release from Arrow Films.

Claire (Najarra Townsend) is a hairdresser who also happens to be a serial killer, drugging and scalping her victims and storing her trophies in a basement room where she can try them on from time to time in the same way she tries on the personalities of those the scalps belong to. Olivia (Brea Grant) desperately needs a stylist for her wedding and begs the reticent Claire to fill the role, which she agrees to.  And so the scene is set for a wedding day everyone will remember.

A supremely stylish, gorgeously photographed, well-acted horror movie about a female serial killer (and there aren't many of those around) director Jill Gevargizian's THE STYLIST will inevitable draw comparisons with MANIAC - both the 1980 William Lustig original and the Franck Khalfoun 2012 remake. Both killers scalp their victims but whereas Frank Zito does it to create a collection of fantasy women, Claire uses them to fantasy role play. In both films there are suggestions that their mothers are to blame - Claire claims her mother changed her hairstyle so frequently that as a little girl she never knew who was coming home, whereas little Frank never knew what new "boyfriend" his mother would be bringing home.

THE STYLIST was Thana Niveau aka Mrs Probert's film of the festival at the Frightfest it premiered at. Her thoughts include, as well as the MANIAC comparison, the film being "a spiritual sister to Lucky McKee's MAY, a brilliant and heartbreaking character study flawlessly brought to life by Najarra Townsend - the pained smile, the desperate desire to please, to belong, to be someone else. It's also a brilliant portrayal of the minefield of female relationships. The trust given to a stranger, the casual way those who 'serve' in some way are taken for granted, the strict boundaries of who belongs where and what their 'place' is."

Arrow's special edition includes a Gevargizian and Townsend commentary, a twenty minute video essay by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas on female serial killers (both in fact and cinematic fantasy) and the depiction of women's labour, six minutes of out-takes, behind the scenes footage, a scouting featurette, the kickstarter video, the original THE STYLIST short film and another Gevargizian short PITY as well as trailers and an image gallery.

The second disc in the set offers us 32 minutes of music from the film. Seven out of the eight tracks are songs with only the first being taken from composer Nicholas Elert's atmospheric music score and several being those used in the nightclub scene.

Jill Gevargizian's THE STYLIST is out from Arrow Films in a special two disc Blu-ray and CD set on 

Monday 7th June 2021