Back when I used to live in Lincoln, Nebraska on occasion I would visit the Mary Riepma Ross Theater, the university theater that would play low budget indie flicks and foreign films. It was there that I saw such films as Red Cliff, Let the Right One In, The Orphanage, and House of Flying Daggers among others. Since moving away in 2010 I haven't had the luxury of such a theater. This last weekend I was back in town and decided to drop by the Ross Theater again. This time I saw the Iranian vampire western political statement A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT.
Huh? At first glance I thought, judging from the title, that this wood be another film similar to CABIN IN THE WOODS. Oh, how wrong I was. This film is in black & white. The language spoken is Farsi so we're reading the film with English subtitles. The movie is slowly paced, deliberate, and methodical. It is set in an ambiguous time period (a mash up of 1980's and 1950's with modern day cellular phones) in a sinful oil town called Bad City sitting in the middle of the desert. This town is home to many unsavory folk and only a few innocent residents. A lone vampire drifts into town determined to clean up this den of rot and ruin.
Arash (our central male character) is trapped in Bad City. He is unable to get out, without money or support, stuck paying his father's debt to the pimp. The Girl's (our female vampire) first victim is the pimp, perhaps the vilest character in the film. She appears like a specter in the night without a word, humbly and mysteriously dressed in a black cape and hood (an innocent sort of red riding hood appearance). She's clearly beautiful and uses this to her advantage. She lures the pimp into an intimate seduction, bites his finger off, shoves the severed finger into his mouth, and gorges herself on his blood.
From here on she continues disposing of trash and vermin plaguing the city. With the exception of the homeless man her victims are typically the bad people of the city. She menacingly threatens a young boy into staying good and growing up to be a good man. She helps a prostitute escape being raped and force injected heroin. But when she meets Arash her world changes. Arash is tripping on ecstasy when he meets her making it a truly interesting scene. It would be almost too easy to feed off him. Arash had just wandered from a costume party dressed as Dracula and is lost unable to find his way home. Maybe it's that he's pretending to be a vampire. Maybe it's that he's lost. Maybe she sees into his heart that all he truly wants is to be free from Bad City. No matter the reason the Girl takes him in instead of killing him.
The film injects horror, romance, and morality into one curious mix. Arash and the Girl form a deep bond, whether it's love or not is left up to the viewer. It follows the basic formula of most spaghetti westerns a la Sergio Leone. The score in several instances is the most obvious nod to the western genre. Actress Sheila Vand plays the vampire with a mixture of Bela Lugosi, Stephen Rea, and a curious aloofness and malevolence all her own. She truly is amazing in this role. The rest of the cast is great too but none compare to her.
For the most part this film works. The only thing I don't understand is the scene with the dancing gender confused cowboy/girl and his/her balloon on a string. That's the only scene that the film could do without in my book. Seriously, why is it there? One could speculate that this transgender western figure is a physical representation of the role reversal and genre inversion of the characters and film. A commentary on the film itself, unique and unable to be categorized. Or it could just be a scene with a she-male cowboy dancing with a balloon. Damned if I know.
I didn't have any snacks or soda pop with me so near the end I was almost dozing off but that is nothing against the film. It simply means I'm getting old and that's what usually happens when I watch classic westerns without any sugar. The scene with the most impact happens to be the first death scene. This is a little disappointing but forgivable. Still I wish there would have been one climatic scene at the end to top the first. The scene was there was the director didn't go for it like she should have. All in all a very unique and visceral experience. Ms. Vand's performance is worth the watch alone.
Overall Ranking: 6 out of 10
Nude-O-Meter: 2 out of 10
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