A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT (2014) ** ½

What would happen if Sergio Leone remade Nosferatu as a ‘90s indie junkie drama?  It might just look something like this.  A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is director Ana Lily Amirpour’s debut picture and it shows she can set a dreamlike, Lynchian mood with style to spare.  I just kind of wish there was more to it.  

Filmed in California (filling in for Iran), it’s the story of a vampire (Sheila Vand) who lurks the streets of a dead-end Iranian town preying on pimps and junkies.  When she falls for a hunky drug dealer (Arash Marandi), it goes against all her principals.  Still, she follows her heart, and strikes up a relationship with him.  Problems arise when she kills his junkie father. 

I don’t think I have to tell you the movie works much better as a vampire flick than it does as an Iranian junkie drama.  Amirpour delivers a sterling sequence when Vand seduces a sadistic pimp.  I had no sympathy for this guy whatsoever.  I’m sorry, but if you go to put your finger in a girl’s mouth and she reveals to you that she has switchblade-style fangs lurking in her teeth, and you STILL put your finger in there, you get what you deserve.  We also get a Duck Soup-inspired scene where she mimics the movements of an old junkie and the part where she threatens a kid with damnation if he isn’t a “good boy” is some real coldblooded shit.

Too bad much of the movie is so overly pretentious (not to mention overlong).  I enjoyed some of the moody, black and white visuals, but honestly, this was kind of a slog in some places.  It also says something about the acting when the cat gives the best performance in the entire film.  

Even though Amirpour draws her inspirations from all over the place, her vision remains distinctive.  Warts and all, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a unique enough experience to warrant a watch.  I mean, it features the first chador-wearing, skateboard-riding vampire woman in film history, so let’s give it a little credit here, okay?