From Dusk 'Till Dawn
To be brutally honest, the first thing that always pops into my mind when the two words, "vampire" and "romance" are intertwined into a sentence is the abomination of a series that was Twilight. Okay, I may have secretly enjoyed the first one when it came out but the series itself has now been tarnished with the label of "keep away," leading to an inevitable punishment of shame and regret if and when such rules are broken. What we have with A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night however is a film at the complete opposite end of the cinematic spectrum to Twilight with its' comparative story-line being the only sure thing in common. Think more Let The Right One In, except with added darkness, added detail and much a much more delicate take on the age-old tale of vampires; A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is not for the faint-hearted.
Shot entirely in black and white and taking place in the Iranian town of Bad City, the film follows Arash, who aside from looking after his heroin-addicted father and settling debts for such with drug peddler/pimp Saeed, falls upon the hypnotic gaze of the vampiric beauty simply known as The Girl who has been patrolling the streets for prey deemed ill-worthy enough of being subject to death. In terms of plot, that is pretty much it; a straight-forward vampiric love story told on the backdrop of darkness, and boy is it dark. Not only is the film dark to look at, with the beautiful cinematography by Lyle Vincent effectively managing to contain the films' sense of noir throughout its' 100 minute runtime, but highly dark in tone also, with the violence not only contained into one format, but in many with disturbing scenes of drug abuse, sexual violence, capped off with a huge sense of impending doom for most that appear on screen.
Top marks goes to Sheila Vand for her portrayal of the vampiric presence, who although says very little, is highly effective in creating a sense of eeriness whenever she appears on screen, making her one of the more memorable characters that have appeared in horror movies released in the year so far. Much like Vand's character, the film perfects the art of doing quite a lot whilst not really doing much at all, with its' delicate approach to the dark matters within juxtaposing the generic horror tropes that are so usually readily expected in horror films of the 21st century, and for that I can only praise it. For once a horror film has swayed away from the "audience-favourite" approach of quiet, quiet, quiet, BANG and instead favoured a much more low-key notion of how to tell a story, which for some may be boring, but for me worked on every level and had me engaged from the outset where at times, the film reminded me of the works of David Lynch, and that is always a good thing.
Dark, delicate and delightful, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night was a truly refreshing experience of modern horror attempting to tackle the endless tale of vampirism. It may not be for the Twilight fans, but that pretty much is the reason why the film works anyhow. Seek it out.
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