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SLIFF 2014 Review: A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT – We Are Movie Geeks

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SLIFF 2014 Review: A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT

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A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT screens Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 7:05 at The Tivoli as part of The St. Louis International Film Festival. Ticket information can be found HERE.

 

In the fictitious town known as Bad City, everyone is struggling to survive another night. Personal woes and financial struggles plague Arash (Arash Marandi) and the other residents. So mush so that the film even opens with a young homeless boy asking Arash for some cash, only to be met with the question, “Do you know how long I worked to pay for this car?” More problems arise though when a mysterious young woman (Sheila Vand) enters his life. Their budding romance gives way to a sense of uneasiness as Arash’s cloaked beauty attempts to hide her bloodthirsty ways.

A GIRL WALKS HOME… feels in many ways like an early film from Jim Jarmusch – which is somewhat ironic considering Jarmusch tried to inject new blood into the genre earlier this year with his own “vampire” film ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE. It’s interesting though that both films use the horror trope in a way that feels nothing like what’s traditionally seen in cinema. While Jarmusch presented a brooding Jim Morrison like figure in the form of Tom Hiddleston, Amirpour gives us a vampire that is more akin to the indie, shoegaze, romantic hipster that you would see at Urban Outfitters or what might be a trend among the youth in Iran. The retro new wave music combined with Ennio Morricone flourishes gives the film a slight air of self-awareness without feeling like just conceit. Though an emphasis is placed on maintaining a disquieting mood through music and lush black & white photography, A GIRL WALKS HOME… is not without an ample amount of subtext.

The fact that the film is titled in such a way to make you feel uncomfortable is certainly no accident. Feeling afraid of the implications that the title suggests is at the heart of what A GIRL WALKS HOME… is essentially about. Throughout the history of cinema, women are frequently shown as victims, potential victims, or just bat-shit crazy (we can thank Glen Close and Sharon Stone’s memorable cinematic crazies for the latter category). In the horror genre this is especially true. So to hear of a girl being “helpless” and alone at a time of the day when she (traditionally speaking) shouldn’t be, turns much of what Amirpour is presenting into a feminist statement against the idea of the “girl” in our culture. The “girl” in the title is in fact nameless throughout the film. She is neither shown as a weak woman nor as a crazy-eyed villainess. You could almost say she is a vigilante since her targets are those that are ruining her city. Her motives are simply to survive and do what she has to to live through another night – just like everyone else in Bad City, regardless of their sex. It just so happens in her situation that survival is dependent on the death of another. Amirpour mirrors this with the damage the male gangsters and drug dealers do to the citizens of Bad City. A barren creek bed is frequently shown from a distance with bodies piled in it. The fact that no one mentions the strange killings or even utters the word vampire in the film illustrates the real world problems Amirpour is speaking about. Death is abundant and always present regardless of the presence of a supernatural creature. Showing a girl walking alone at night, fearless even with death all around her is a foreign concept to the idealized image we often see in a horror movie.

Having a female vampire is nothing new in horror. Yet it’s the manner in which the character is used that feels fresh and instantly memorable. Considering a number of vampire shows, movies, and books have saturated the horror market in recent years, it brings me great pleasure to say that A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT is the best vampire film since LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. Donning a black hood and cape over a striped t-shirt and jeans, this GIRL may not appear to be someone you should be afraid of, but that may be why the film’s bite is as strong as it is.

 

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I enjoy sitting in large, dark rooms with like-minded cinephiles and having stories unfold before my eyes.