Review of A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) by Tiberio S — 22 Apr 2017

I like a vampire film that's both symbolically poignant and cinematographic (namely black & white). Perhaps the two best other vampire films are both black & white, Tod Browning's 1930 Dracula, and Abel Ferrera's The Addiction. The former ties Dracula's thirst for blood with his need for love, the latter deals with vampirism as a type of heroin addiction. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is the best of both worlds, and the treatment of her thirst differs from previous incarnations. She's something of a vigilante - she sucks souls that are headed nowhere, at the bottom of life. We see it three times: a corrupt drug dealer, a homeless man, and her boyfriend's junkie father (which it seems like she never learns the relation).

Vampirism is so often abused by cinema, filmmakers don't seem to understand the subtle nuances that instill fear into the viewer. There's so much potential with vampires, and they are amongst my worst cinematic fears, yet hardly anyone seems able to exploit this. Ana Lily Amirpour is masterful in her execution, incredibly delicate and sensitive, patient - it takes 15 minutes before we finally meet the vampire, and another 9 before her fangs pop out and we learn her true nature.