LogFAQs > #965093305

25. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (304 points)

Why I Chose It: Promoted as the first "Iranian vampire western", A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night represents the creative effort of Ana Lily Amirpour in totally redefining what making a "vampire movie" means. Though technically American-made to avoid censorship in Iran, the film is steeped in Iranian culture, representing a totally unique voice and vision that's wholly different from almost any other horror film in the list or, otherwise, in the decade.

Suprak: 11
Snake: 13
PrinceKaro: 14
thesmark: 14
Lightning Strikes: 15
rockus: 15
BetrayedTangy: 21
FFDragon: 22
Johnbobb: 22
Plasmabeam: 23
Tom Nook: 25
fortybelowsummer: 26
jcgamer107: 27
red13n: 27
Inviso: 29

Suprak - B+
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night was so good It helped me understand twilight better. Like, sure the main girl here is essentially a serial killer and she eats at least one homeless man so clearly she isnt just killing bad peoplebut shes kinda cute though, right? Like I was actively rooting for the romance in this movie, and Arash/the woman are cute enough together you want them together and just sort of ignore the fact she ate his father during the ending. I feel like horror/romance is a difficult mix to pull off, but it works well here even if overall the film feels a bit light on the horror. The way she keeps following people around, getting closer each time they turn to face her, is somewhat creepy, but theres only so creepy she can be when she spends a lot of the movie riding around on a skateboard and going on dates with Arash.

I will say that I think the film is a bit to artsy for my tastes. It doesnt get in the way too much, but when youre dealing with cutaways of random people dancing for a full thirty seconds that isnt related to the story in anyway, I feel like youre doing a bit too much to be weird. Apparently the director here describes this as the first Iranian vampire western which sounds like a Madlib gone wrong. And maybe it is just because I have absolutely zero interest or knowledge of westerns, but I feel like some of the things I didnt get were references to spaghetti westerns and I just dont have a frame of reference to appreciate them. Im not saying the style is bad and in fact I would say it is a major strength of the film. I really liked the style and direction and even the dedication to black and white. I just feel like they couldve toned down and at times it feels like they focus a bit too much on style at the expense of substance.

Overall though, I thought this was great. I was shocked to find out this was at least partially funded via Indiegogo because it feels incredibly competently made. If anything, I thought maybe the film could be 10-15 minutes longer to help flesh out the relationship between Arash and the girl just a little bit more.

Basically just one more scene between their date and their decision to run away together. Other than that though, I really enjoyed the story here and I thought the script was really strong. It was interesting and funny and charming and I thought there was a lot of heart here, which sort of helps set this one apart from other films on this list. Im not sure I would really recommend this if someone was looking for a horror film per se, but I think it is a thoroughly enjoyable movie with some horror elements and definitely horror inspiration, if that makes sense. I want more movies with vigilante vampires going around and doling out justice one bite at a time, and this is a clever twist on what Ive come to expect from vampire movies.

Snake - A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night perfectly demonstrates what the genre of horror can be, what it can say, what it can represent. The film combines family drama, romance, crime, urban Gothic noir, dystopia, and skateboarding all in cohesive and enriching ways. Its a slice-of-life film where horror lurks silently on the edges of Bad City - a ghost town with landmarks such as the gulch where bodies are unceremoniously dumped and forgotten, and the nightmarish, polluting, long-reaching arms of industry encroaching and invading on the population, omni-present in sight, sound and influence, a constant drone on everyday life feeding on the very spirits of the citizens of Bad City. The black-and-white invokes memories of Dracula and Frankenstein, but their looming castles and clamorous laboratories have been replaced by ever-churning, monolithic oil refineries and thunderous, deafening freight trains for a more mundane type of horror.

Meanwhile, the inhabitants themselves are fed upon with their more metamorphic demons - eaten up by drug abuse and prostitution, controlled by Saeed, a man with all the power and money under his thumb, manipulating and violently lashing out against any who even think to disobey or cheat him. Then, you have the titular Girl - a chador wearing specter of the night, arriving somewhere in the middle of our valleys of the people of our everyday lives and the summits of our unnamed innermost terrors. Shes a feminist anti-hero, soft-spoken as a lamb but fierce as a lion in her taking down of men who would choose to abuse their power and explot women - yet shes not above threatening a child either. In Bad City, there really is no such thing as good or evil, as theres just simply no room for it. Take Arash, who perhaps would like to see things differently. Hes hard-working, cares for his father, indulges in vices but tries not to let them control him - yet he steals a pair of diamond earrings from a wealthy woman hes working for. Hes trying to resist corruption - and he thinks his chance meeting with the Girl is the answer. Their romance is one of understated tenderness, and plays with vampire tropes such as the stake, represented by the Girl piercing her ears - a cute melding of a rom-com scene taking advantage of the classic way to kill a vampire - or the always-great-for-a-gag exposed neck as the Girl struggles to resist biting into Arash. Its in these tropes where the ultimate tragedy of it all is found though - when the Girl eventually feeds on Arashs father after he forces a prostitute to do heroin with him. Its the classic Gothic twist again seen through a new lens, this romance now forever tainted with questions raised, like, was the Girl in the right to do this, is she really helping the women of Bad City, or is she really just a blood-thirsty monster looking for her next feed. In the eyes of Arash - perhaps it doesnt matter. After much turmoil, he leaves with her anyway. Another day of life in Bad City - but now at least, perhaps theres a chance to leave the realities of that world behind and start fresh again.

PrinceKaro - So there is a vampire girl in Iran and she like bites a bunch of people and maybe falls in love with one of them or something.

It is certainly unique, but the story seems unfocused and a little unclear of what it wants to do. Too often it takes detours from the central romance plot to follow random side characters or have everyone dance to weird Persian rave music.

So the girl unwittingly murders her new boyfriend's father, and despite him finding out they still both run off together because daddy was kind of a prick I guess. It's a weird movie.