Review of A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) by Aswin S — 27 Mar 2016

I am not really into Vampire movies but this one caught my attention. Maybe it was the RT rating or the word of mouth. I watched it anyway and I was blown away.

What we have here is an almost-vigilante like Vampiress wearing a chador that roams the street on a skateboard. Skateboard part comes late but the picture of it was very original and amusing (not at all cheesy). The plot is thin the characters are few but with whatever there are, a masterpiece is made. We have a handsome male lead who is trying his best to meet ends, his senile father using drugs to alleviate his pain, a prostitute just living her life for the sake of living, and then the Vampiress.

Entirely shot in black and white in a brilliant visual style, the movie takes place in a fictional city whose name is translated as Bad City? A little too literal. Almost like a ghost town, Bad City is a strange place. What is it with the dead bodies lying under a bridge on a dried up river? It is just there, just like that, for everyone to see. I wonder if there is a thing like Law in there.

Sheila Vand makes a beautiful Vampiress. The eyes are what speaks for the character. They are sad and lost, yet gleaming. The scene our male lead and the vampiress meet for the first time and the interactions between them were quit brilliant and amusing. The use of some excellent music reinforced the greatness of their respective scenes. We get to look into the closed lives of these complex creatures whose lives (as the male lead asks the vampires when she rejects his love) wouldn't be any different if their city was taken by a storm. Black and White color scheme really helps bring out the characters for us to feel them and the despair of the city.