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We’re throwing it back and taking it forward this week on the Rotten Horror Picture show. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night shows up on our screens in stark black and white, evoking classic vampire films that started the genre, such as Nosferatu and Dracula, while also looking to the future through the eye of first-time filmmaker Ana Lily Amirpour! It’s the first Iranian vampire flick, and it’s atmospheric as all get out!
In the Iranian ghost-town Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople are unaware that among the stark shadows of the night time streets lurks a skateboarding vampire (Sheila Vand) who preys on men who disrespect women. Throw in some fantastic photography, and a soundtrack to die for and you’ve got one of the more unique films we’ve covered to date!
Join Clay and Amanda as they get into the finer points of Iranian indie rock, solo balloon dancing, skateboarding vampires, head tattoos, fangs, cats with the soul of your dead mother, and of course, questionable parenting.
The first feature film offering from Ana Lily Amirpour, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a unique film that walks the line between horror and art film and goes at least ankle-deep into the weird, weird waters that one might find David Lynch lounging in. It’s fairly hard to pin down, as there are horror elements, Western elements, arthouse elements, mumblecore elements, and yet it can’t really be labeled as any one of those isolated genres–it’s really its own thing. A slow burn with an iconic central character, A Girls Walks Home Alone at Night is a great addition to the legacy of vampire films, so get out your lipstick, throw on your favorite striped shirt, dance like nobody’s watching and join us this episode as we dive into A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night…if you DARE!