A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a horror film directed by Ana Lily Amirpour, starring Sheila Vand, Arash Marandi, and Marshall Manesh.  The story is set in the Iranian ghost-town Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople are unaware they are being stalked by a lonesome vampire.

Positives:

• Good camera shots
• Good score

Negatives:

• Bland performances
• Boring story
• Lackluster characters
• Poor script

Plot:  The story is extremely slow and does feel like it just drags with no build up nor exciting moments.  Okay…I was being nice.  The story is freakin boring.  Nothing really happens, there’s no tension, and it feels really random.  There are so many questions that go unanswered.  Who is the vampire and why does she do what she does?  How did Arash and his father get into the situation that they’re in?  What is the history between Saeed and Atti?  (1 out of 5)

Characters:  The characters are…what’s the word…bland.  There is literally nothing to them.  Most of the time, they’re just awkwardly starring into the abyss as the movie painfully creeps by.  The Girl is probably the worst character.  There’s nothing interesting about her, no real reason for her actions and definitely no chemistry with Arash.  Everyone feels so random with no exposition.  Who is the vampire?  Atti and Shaydah have no exposition to them.  Saeed might’ve actually been the most interesting character despite being a douchebag.  The subplot with the vampire and Arash forming a relationship is completely and I mean completely rushed to the point that it’s stupid. Even the point where Arash gets the heroin, it isn’t utilized enough to make the movie interesting. (2 out of 5)

Cast:  The cast isn’t anything to run home about.  They do a decent job but definitely nothing memorable.  Sheila Vand does a decent job being all mysterious but she is literally given nothing to do.  Her character mostly follows people around, skates on a stolen skateboard, and sits around in silence.  Arash Marandi is also decent but not really memorable.  (2 out of 5)

Visuals: The film is shot in black and white but it isn’t distracting, instead giving the world a very isolated look.  It also helps to give atmosphere especially during some of the darker sequences.  There is a really good use of camera work, so the cinematography is on point.  The vampire effects are great.  (4 out of 5)

Score: The music isn’t bad though it does feel very generic.  And like the black and white visuals do help the isolating feeling. There is this thing where there are certain sequences that play songs and the entire sequence is the two characters staring and listening to the entire song.  The entire song…just doing nothing.  (3 out of 5)

Writing:  There are these awkward moments where characters are together but there is no dialogue which gives little exposition to the characters nor pushes the story.  An example is when Vand’s character is in Saeed’s home and nearly the whole time neither say anything.  No small talk, no banter.  Literally nothing.  Sure Saeed utters something here and there but for the most part the two might as well not even been in the same room.  There are several sequences where someone encounters the vampire but nothing cool happens and it all feels to anti-climatic.  There were several sequences where the vampire did something that made little to no sense.  A great example of this is when the vampire scares a little kid for his skateboard or scares some old guy by mimicking his movements.  What was the point? Ana Lily Amirpour does a decent job but the film definitely feels painfully amateurish. (1 out of 5)

The Verdict:  In the end, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a joke.  Not only does it suck as a vampire movie but as a movie overall.  There is literally no redeemable qualities of the film outside of an interesting premise.  It not only suffers from a terrible script (which would kill any movie) but also lackluster characters, weak performances, and a boring ass story.  A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night gets 2 out of 5.