A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night

Released: May 22nd 2015

Directed By: Ana Lily Amirpour

Starring: Arash Mirandi, Sheila Vand

Certificate: 15

It’s been a good 12 months to be a horror fan- Indie hits The Babadook and It Follows have both been a critical success and have breathed new life into a genre that had otherwise gone stagnant, over run with remakes and cash grab sequels. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is the latest film to confirm that the indie horror genre is undergoing something of a renaissance at the moment.

Set in a dreary, desolate town known as Bad City A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is the story of Arash- a young man whose life isn’t going all too well. His father is a hopeless drug addict being pursued by drug dealer Saeed for debts he owes him and Arash is caught in the middle of it.

All this changes however with the introduction of the girl- a mysterious loner who also lives in the town. Draped in a veil she roams the streets at night stalking people. As it turns out the Girl is a vampire, one who tends to take vengeance on those who have done wrong. When the Girl stumbles upon an altercation between Saeed and a girl he is pimping out she takes justice into her hands before having her first encounter with Arash and setting the films central narrative into gear.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is not overly concerned with its plot- but rather chooses to tell its tale through its expert use of nightmarish imagery. One can’t help but draw comparisons to the works of David Lynch, most notably Eraserhead. The film, shot in monochrome creates an almost alternate reality; surreal and haunting Bad City is beautifully realised. More contemporary comparisons are easily drawn to Let The Right One and Only Lovers Left Alive, both of which would make excellent companion pieces.

Despite these comparisons a Girl Walks Home Alone at Night manages to carve its own, terrifying identity thanks to debut director Ana Lily Armipour who twists genre conventions throughout, creating a strange hybrid of both the horror and western genre providing us with one of the most original films of the year so far. Armipour is clearly a genre literate director, combining beautiful and haunting cinematography with an 80’s synth and Sergio Leone inspired score to create some memorable imagery that will prove difficult to shake once the film has come to a close.