If Extraction 2 stunned you, A24’s Medusa Deluxe will slay you

As director Sam Hargrave recently told Polygon about the 21-minute no-cuts fighting sequence in the Netflix action movie Extraction 2, one-shot sequences — or “oners,” as the industry calls them — have become signature flashy moves that allow filmmakers to showcase their ambition and technical skills. “You as the audience go with the character on a real-time journey, and hopefully at the end of it you’re exhausted, just as exhausted as the character,” he said.

That is part of the premise behind A24s Medusa Deluxe, a gaudy, gaudy, gloriously high-energy murder mystery that plays out in just a few long takes. The film, which played at festivals such as Fantastic Fest and Fantasia in late 2022, immediately grabbed audiences’ attention with its dizzying visuals, with the camera wandering up and down the many floors of a derelict old building as a group of British hairdressers and models gathers for a small regional haircut competition, during which a front runner is murdered – and significantly scalped.

Part RuPaul’s Drag Racepart highly structured exploration of a subculture, part extremely dry British comedy (films like Calendar Girls comes to mind), Medusa Deluxe is partly very nice because it just is specifically. The stakes can hardly be lower than “Who’s going to win hairdresser of the year in this little competition”, but the characters pretend to compete for Olympic medals – except they do it by producing lavishly lavish haircuts. Meanwhile, first feature writer-director Thomas Hardimann steers his camera between them, following their rivalries and affairs, their breakdowns and outbursts.

It’s a deliriously messy movie that at times feels like you’re hanging out in an immersive theatrical event as it happens, and it all builds to a wild finale. The first trailer emphasizes the story more than the style, but this is a movie that people want to watch more for the feeling of being in the middle of this wild mix than for the murder mystery itself.

Medusa Deluxe will hit theaters in a limited run and on VOD August 11th.