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A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night isn't exactly frightening. It's a quality I’m willing to forgive because it’s got a lot going for it. The film drips with atmosphere and takes familiar material in interesting directions.

In Iran, Arash (Arash Marandi) is a lonely young man living in the crime-riddled “Bad City”. He takes care of his heroin-addicted father (Marshall Manesh) until his path crosses that of a solitary vampire (Sheila Vand). An unusual romance begins to develop.

Though I wasn't taken by the film as many others, I’m still giving “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” a strong recommendation. The performances are strong and even though there isn't much dialogue exchanged, you can tell what kind of lives these people have lived, what joys and struggles have shaped them into the people you now see. Even the film's villains are multi-dimensional. This dirt clod of a town where the police are non-existent and hope is a fleeting dream creates a necessity for everyone to climbing on top of each other. Everything that goes on between Arash and the vampire (who is never named and credited only as “The Girl”) feels genuine because you’re given only exactly the right amount of information to see why these kindred spirits would click together.

This is a great-looking movie. The black-and-white photography is perfect for the setting and helps accentuate the themes of alienation and loneliness that persist throughout. There are clever parallels and symbolism throughout, with the vampire draining people of their blood, the inhabitants of Bad City feeding off of each other, and humanity leeching off of planet Earth. It's bleak, and it works. Something about the theme of isolation and pointless existence fits a vampire story so well. Paired with what is essentially the tale of a good person being stuck in the slimy underbelly of a society just works.

Let's now address the aspects that could've been improved. At their best, black-and-White movies strip away useless information and allow you to focus on the acting, the dialogue, the story. We know blood is red. If your movie isn’t consciously using color, then you’re not utilizing your medium as best you could. At their worst, black-and-white films are simply different for difference's sake. Maybe even... pretentious. The subtitles combined with the story-drenched metaphors are fine but a lengthy scene of a transgendered person dancing by themselves while holding a helium balloon that could've been cut and made no impact on the story pushes the film into artsy-fartsy territory. The disappointment I felt over the lack of horror or a discussion over the horrifying aspects of a vampire should also be noted. “AGWHAaN” is closer to a comedy than a nightmare. Will these annoy you as they did me? Unlikely. There are better chances you'll be taken by what the film does well, such as explore the idea of feminism in a middle-eastern society or consider a romance between two people from different worlds. This is one to seek out.

Vampire movies are a dime a dozen. Whenever a new one comes out, there’s a bit of an internal dilemma to any horror connoisseurs that venture into the theatre. Is originality now judged on a sliding scale because we’ve seen everything from Nosferatu to Lifeforce? Is it more important for a film to be merely good than original? You don't have to wonder too much when it comes to A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night because it's both. (Original Persian with English subtitles, On DVD, October 16, 2015)