A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night: a sparse, feminist horror film
December 6, 2015 1:18 PM   Subscribe

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is not your average vampire flick. For one, it features a who's who of Iranian actors (all speaking Persian), with various bits of the [Inland/]Southern California landscape serving as stand-ins for Iran. Plus, there's the stripped-down storytelling and the fusion of styles. It's been billed as the first "Iranian vampire Western."
Join director Ana Lily Amirpour for Q&A on Iranian vampires and weird SoCal towns and learn more about her feminist horror film that turns horror film (and every day) tropes on their heads.

Interview with Ana Lily Amirpour by The Vilcek Foundation (5:07), where she talks about growing up in the US, why this isn't actually set in Iran, the freedom of making your own city, and the casting of Masuka the cat.

VICE goes behind the scenes (part 1 - 7:41) with Ana Lily, Elijah Wood (an executive producer/backer) and Shiela Vand (Girl) talking about the inspirations behind the film, continuing (part 2 - 12:11) into the history of the Girl that isn't seen in the film that you can find in the graphic novel, early collaborations with Sina Sayyah (producer), making Margaret Atwood into Bad City's Madonna, and how to say (and write) "pimp" in Farsi, as seen on the head of Dominic Rains (Saeed the pimp), and the importance of music setting the characters and scenes.

Speaking of music, here's a partial playlist of the soundtrack.
posted by filthy light thief (24 comments total) 58 users marked this as a favorite
 
See also: FanFare discussion of the movie, which is currently on Neflix (US, at least) and available to rent and buy elsewhere.
posted by filthy light thief at 1:21 PM on December 6, 2015 [1 favorite]


MeFi's Own We Have Such Films To Show You did a full episode on this film as well.
posted by shakespeherian at 1:45 PM on December 6, 2015 [4 favorites]


Awesome. Great film, thanks for the links!
posted by Athanassiel at 2:03 PM on December 6, 2015


I LOVED this movie. Great post!
posted by triggerfinger at 2:40 PM on December 6, 2015


Sounds awesome. I am going to watch this right now.
posted by mstokes650 at 2:43 PM on December 6, 2015


If I were dating again, appreciating this film would be one of my screening questions. And liking cats, but that goes without saying.
posted by nanook at 3:13 PM on December 6, 2015 [2 favorites]


Ooh! Ooh! I think I will watch this tonight. I hadn't realized it was on Netflix, and I've been wanting to see it.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 3:56 PM on December 6, 2015


I watched this on Netflix a few weeks ago, and it completely blew me away. Stunningly original.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 4:24 PM on December 6, 2015


I just saw this film a few days ago and it is one that sits with you for a few days, for me anyway. The slow pace of the film reminded me of another of my favorite vampire films, Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) (previously).
posted by Monkey0nCrack at 6:16 PM on December 6, 2015 [4 favorites]


My brother told me about this film a few days ago: "I got it from Hoopla and it didn't have any English subtitles, but I started watching it anyway. It was so damn good it didn't need any subtitles. I watched the whole thing. YOU MUST SEE THIS FILM." I've got it lined up for Friday.
posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 6:20 PM on December 6, 2015 [3 favorites]


This has been on my to-watch list for a while, and this is a good reminder to actually make the time to watch it.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:25 PM on December 6, 2015


This is such a great film.

I was skeptical when I heard about it; I wasn't sure a vampire flick could still be this fresh and stylish and original. Never been happier to be so wrong. Such a pleasant surprise.

Now if only somebody could figure out a way to make zombies stylish and original again...
posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 6:51 PM on December 6, 2015


Two unicycles and some duct tape: Now if only somebody could figure out a way to make zombies stylish and original again...

Try In the Flesh, a BBC series with 9 episodes in 2 seasons. It's kind of "post-zombie," because there's a cure (of sorts) for zombies, so people are coping with what people did as zombies, and the "rotters" living among them as normal folk. (Available Netflix DVDs in the US, can't speak for other services.)
posted by filthy light thief at 6:55 PM on December 6, 2015


Such a knock-out film! It should be on a triple feature with Let The Right One In and especially When Animals Dream.
posted by cleroy at 8:05 PM on December 6, 2015


Here's a short interview with Federale, a band from Portland, OR, who make some new, very Western tracks heard in this film. Here's a few of their songs, including one used in A Girl, instead set to a scene from My Name is Nobody.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:19 PM on December 6, 2015 [2 favorites]


MeFi's Own We Have Such Films To Show You did a full episode on this film as well.

We did, and griphus and I both loved it! It's really one of my favorite films I've seen all year, and one of the best things we've done an episode about even as one of the least horror-genre flicks of the dozens we've covered.

It's beautifully shot, wonderfully odd in its mix of tension and sort of soothing romanticism, sounds great, and on and on and on. Full of wonderful moments, shit that has crystalized in my memory and makes me smile about again every time I think about it. "Vampire western" is a fun hook but it's more of a vampire noir-lite with one or two great Morricone-vibing soundtrack bits in there.

It's really, really great. Just see it.
posted by cortex at 8:48 PM on December 6, 2015


One of my top ten films of 2015.

Great post, too.

Thanks!
posted by Mister Bijou at 10:22 PM on December 6, 2015


Watched this sitting in the back of a tiny theater in Poland. I followed along with a pirate copy of the English subtitles on my phone.

Great movie.
posted by BungaDunga at 10:48 PM on December 6, 2015


Such a knock-out film! It should be on a triple feature with Let The Right One In and especially When Animals Dream.

Or even quadruple, with What We Do in the Shadows added in for great comic measure.
posted by progosk at 6:49 AM on December 7, 2015 [2 favorites]


I suggest Shadows as the chaser, in case three relatively serious movies were too much. ("What are we?" "Werewolves, not swearwolves.")
posted by filthy light thief at 9:11 AM on December 7, 2015


The slow pace of the film reminded me of another of my favorite vampire films

Yeah it has Jarmusch written all over it.
posted by kenko at 9:51 AM on December 7, 2015


I'm looking forward to digging into the links - I think the connection to Jarmusch is totally resonant and I was a little surprised he wasn't involved in the production. Which just goes to show how long the shadow of "Stranger than Paradise" is. Which I guess isnt surprising but at the same time, kind of is.
Still, a really great movie in its own right.

I think what struck me most was that the girl/ the vampire is basically a moral creature, which is a surprising twist - vampires being chaotic and predatory and amoral, normally. I didn't mind, it wasn't too jarring, but still. (Actually I guess Jarmusch's vampires were pretty moral as well.)
posted by From Bklyn at 10:23 AM on December 7, 2015


Far more lightweight, but I feel like since we just lost Robert Loggia it bears mention, Innocent Blood has a moral vampire at its center as well. And then RL as a newly created vamp who is delightfully not moral in the least.
posted by phearlez at 11:01 AM on December 7, 2015


Bonus link: this started out as an 8 minute short, but I haven't been able to find it online, or even really mentioned. Part of the problem is that is the same name as the full-length movie.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:36 PM on December 13, 2015 [1 favorite]


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