Plot: A competitor is found dead and scalped at a regional hairdressing competition. In the aftermath, tensions boil and rumours spread throughout the dressing rooms. Who knew a quick trim could lead to something so violent?
My Review: A stylistic film, presenting itself as a one-take (though it is a few long-shots edited carefully together), the camera snaking itself around the labyrinthine backstage. The characters are all wonderfully fleshed-out, each with a plausible motive and eagerness to found out the killer's identity. The score too adds to the tension, only broken by the occasional joke and reminder that it's just a regional hairdressing competition. It's not mace, it's Tressame.
Film after film: Medusa Deluxe (dir. Thomas Hardiman, 2022)
It's a bit a film about nothing, but it's extremely watchable. The plot is simple, it deflates weirdly and interestingly by its end: there's an art-hairdressing competition, and someone gets murdered. Everyone stays in the industrial building that the competition was to take place and waits, reacts to, and gets anxious about the murder. The film's main trick is that it pretends to be one continuous shot, which conditions the plot's development: there are three people in the room, someone leaves, the camera follows them until they get elsewhere, where there are other people, and so on. There are some beautiful performances here, especially from Perkins, who's the film's prickly heart. The ending can annoy, but I loved it.
Medusa Deluxe Review- A Murder Mystery Set At A Hairdressing Competion Doesn't Make You Pull Your Hair Out
A few years ago, there was a horror comedy based on women’s hair called Bad Hair. As in the hair was the killer in this film. I had no idea anybody could do such a thing. The latest film centered around women’s hair is called Medusa Deluxe. It’s from the BFI and A24, and they usually invest in good things. The story and most of the actors are entirely new, but there are things about this movie…
New Trailer | MEDUSA DELUXE (dir. Thomas Hardiman)
"A murder mystery set in a competitive hairdressing contest. Extravagance and excess collide, as the death of a contestant sows seeds of division in a community whose passion for hair verges on obsession. "