A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, or for the sake of this review, AGWHAAN, is an Iranian film noir focused on a slew of deadbeats in “Bad City” whose lives all become intertwined with a young vampire. The film is beautifully shot, with the black and white giving it a gloomy tone. Between the male lead’s ’50s bad boy attitude/style and the female lead’s angst-ridden record collection at some point I was waiting for The Smiths to start playing and for them to ditch the school dance to go read poems to each other in the woods. On a scale of grindhouse to arthouse AGWHAAN definitely throws its weight more on the stylistic side, lacking the substance to make first time director Ana Lily Amirpour’s effort really hit home (similar to the trap The Neon Demon fell into).

By no means is this film scary (the most NERVE-WRACKING scene involves the vampire threatening an innocent little boy) but the actors have a way of drawing you in to their somewhat mesmerizing performances. I honestly wasn’t expecting this film to have much in the way of gore but the “hunting segments” could have at least been more frightening. The most unsatisfying thing about AGWHAAN is the third act. By this point the movie has laid out all of the character’s backstories and their intentions. They then proceed to react to each other’s shortcomings in variously puzzling ways until the plot runs out of gas and the credits roll. I don’t know how I would change the script if I were at the reigns but “The Manster presents: AGWHAAN” would end up being an entirely different movie. Although that girl walking home alone at night seems like a likable person, I’m going to make a safe decision and cross the street to continue my way home on the other sidewalk.

3 walks…alone…at night out of 5

★★★☆☆