His Movie Review: A Girl Walks Alone at Night (2014)

Why he watched it: Positive reviews

His rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

His review: I don’t like vampire movies. I’m not intrigued by vampires, their plight as the undead, or the metaphors that come from their need for blood. I’ve watched vampire movies, usually unwillingly, and the best vampire novel I’ve read is Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend, which gives scientific meaning to all the vampire attributes and explores the evolution of human to vampire. But usually, I find these movies tedious and rarely scary.

Vampire or no, though, a good movie is a good movie. A very good movie, set in the vampire world, is Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In (avoid the nearly identical, and thus unnecessary, American version by Matt Reeves). Alfredson effective merges the cold setting with a narrative from the eyes of children, to create suspense and draw us into the complexity of immortality when you are 12-years old.

Style makes Amirpour’s vampire tale equally interesting. Told with a similarly feminist perspective at Alfredson’s movie—which is made all the more powerful because it is set in a Iranian town—Amirpour mixes Rebel Without a Cause with a thrumming dance soundtrack through a black and white palette. Characters speak little, eyes take center-screen, and music sets the tone. I liked how Dracula’s cape is replaced by a woman’s headscarf, with the implications that come from a young woman in a repressive culture having all the power of life, and death, over the men around her.

This film sticks to the visual tone of its graphic novel origins, but what’s lacking is more narrative structure and character development. The final scene is similar to Alfredson’s movie, where a human must choose between worlds—for love? For security? I liked this film, but wanted more from it. But worth your time, particularly if you like vampire movies that are more about style than gore.