(dir. Ana Lily Amirpoor)
 |
| VICE Films |
*First time viewing
A lonely vampire stalks the streets of Bad City
looking for prey and finds something else.
I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night,
especially given how the Persian film took the world by storm last year. What I
got was much different from what I imagined, and in the initial moments
following my viewing, I’ll admit I was a little let down. Make no mistake, the
filmmaking is brilliant. Amirpoor creates the best looking modern black and
white film in recent memory (The Artist
can suck it). But the film is not a traditional horror movie by any means, nor
is it a traditional vampire story. Even the kinda, sorta love story that
develops between the nameless vampire and her suitor, Arash, never feels much
like a romance. A
Girl Walks Home Alone At Midnight breaks traditions, and as a result
becomes something deeper, though perhaps the exact amount of depth is not immediately
apparent.
The film is drenched with a sense of isolation, from
the buildings that seem to lack inhabitants, to the lone figures, silently
walking the streets of Bad City. Everyone and everything in the film seems to
be in search of something, and the plot points revolve around a set of
spatially interconnected, yet emotionally disconnected, characters only to emphasize
this sense of longing. The more I’ve thought about the film, the more I’ve come
to appreciate its subtle brilliance. Life without love or companionship is
death, and so all the characters who stalk the night within the film are
vampires in their own right, each craving their own vices to fill the void for
something else. A Girl Walks Home at
Night does what the best vampire stories do: provide a meditation on life,
and it does this with a great soundtrack to boast.
Scare Factor 1/5: A Girl Walks Alone at Night sneaks up on you with its power. It’s
not overt in its intentions, but instead asks you to explore it for yourself.
While I’m hesitant to give it the instant classic status that so many others
have, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
is far more complex a film than I initially thought and one that I think will
grow on me with subsequent viewings.
**Available to watch on Netflix Instant
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