Director: Ana Lily Amirpour
Writer: Ana Lily Amirpour (Screenplay)
Starring: Sheila Vand, Arash Maranadi, Marshall Manesh, Mozhan Marno, Dominic Rains, Rome Shadanloo
Plot: In the Iranian ghost-town Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople are unaware they are being stalked by a lonesome vampire.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Beautifully Shot Modern Day Vampire Classic
Story: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night starts in a small Iranian town as we follow the drug culture sweeping through the city with Saeed (Rains) supplying all the drugs as Arash (Marandi) does all he can to help his junkie father Hossein (Manesh).
When a mysterious girl (Vand) arrives in the town she appears only at night searching for her victims as her addiction isn’t a drug but the blood of humans, she is a vampire that hunts on the bad people sparing the innocent ones, but she must work out just who are the innocent.
Thoughts on A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Characters/Performance – The Girl is a very mysterious character, she stalks the people of the town at night as she witnesses the good and bad people do, but when she starts to see the gray in people’ actions she aims to learn more about who they really are before selecting her victims. Arash is a young man who works for a drug dealer to support his father’s addiction, he finds himself deep in the world once the Pimp of the town is killed but also having a connection to the mysterious girl. Hossein is the junkie hooked on the drug going around the town pushing his son away as his addiction is taking control of his life pushing him towards the bad ways.
Sheila is brilliant as the vampire girl that hunts for her victims, she is filled it the beauty of the innocence needed for the role and the fear needed for the feeding scenes. Arash Marandi is also great in this role showing how he could be going down the wrong path as well as seeing the light of a new future at the end of the tunnel.
Story – The story is easy to follow, we have a small town drowning in sin, be it drugs, prostitution of just general depression. We also have a girl, well a vampire who comes into town to search for victims that have been sinning as she spares the innocent. This is a fresh approach to the vampire genre one that keeps us curious as to her actions throughout the film.
Fantasy/Horror – The fantasy side of this film comes from a vampire cleaning up a town, yes this isn’t overly great but it works. The horror side comes from the overall creepiness created by the mysterious girl’s appearance as we know just how deadlier she can be and watching her stalk the victims in just as frightening.
Settings – The settings used are all within one small town that is one you can see people in their weakest states in, there is nothing pretty about this town it is down, dirty and full of people ready to give up on life.
Special Effects – The special effects are not used that often but when they are we are left to see how the vampire attacks come off.
Final Thoughts – This film has an excellent us of music to describe the tone of each scene, the black and white shooting is also a brilliant touch for the film, the fresh spin on vampires is another plus and I can safely say you should believe the hype on this film.
Overall: Easily one of the best modern day vampire films.
Rating
