There is an Iranian city named Bad City. It is not a great place to live and trouble abounds everywhere. In this wild west setting also lies a skateboarding vampire. If this appeals to you, well then this is your movie. A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night is a magnificent and beautiful combination of different genres, all centered around horror and the western. Shot in glorious black and white, no less. This does have the feel of other dramatic films, and director Ana Lily Amirpour builds upon those influences to craft something unique.
The Girl (Sheila Vand) is a woman with no name. There are few insights into who she is or why she lives in a desolate place, yet we get a terrifying image of her nature early on. Arash (Arash Marandi) is the young man who falls under her spell, resulting a tender and dangerous romance-dangerous for him because of her predator nature. The scene with the two of them in her apartment is lyrical in a romantic sense: two lonely souls, bound together, which is how so many people connect in this world.
As much as I love this film the last act does kind of borrow/steal from another modern classic, Let The Right One In. However I prefer this film (it’s long title also amused me as much as it was intriguing). I rather enjoy that it’s an Iranian that gives us an exceptional feminist driven horror film given the nation’s culture. I also note this due to online friends encouraging myself and others to watch more films directed by women. This movie is a fine move in that direction.
Down The Rabbit Hole 
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