A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night is an Iranian film based on a girl who is a vampire that walks through a fictional place called “Bad City.” As you can guess, in “Bad City,” bad things happen such as drugs and prostitution. Some could say its a love story about her and a young, Iranian man named Arash. However, I think the film serves as much more. The motif that stood out to me the most in this film was the “feminist hero” construct. The vampire would go out at night and murder men who would pay for prostitutes. She was observing the prostitutes and how unhappy one in particular was, Atti. She killed two of the men that acted horrendously towards Atti. The vampire was there for women; she did not like the cruelty and harm these women were facing. 

The scene in particular that really stuck to me was when the vampire was following a little boy. She finally approached him and asked him if he was a “good boy.” Obviously, the boy responded yes. The vampire repeated herself question twice, so the boy understood the severity of the situation. The boy persisted to answer yes. She warned him to stay a good little boy and if he ever stopped, she would come back for him. This scene really exemplified, the vampire’s purpose during the film. She was not just “killing boys/men,” she was trying to reform the male species. Do NOT get me wrong, murder is always wrong. For the sake of the film, she was a hero. She was trying to make it a better place for women to live. I think the vampire meant well. She had good intentions, and at the end of the day, that’s all we can really have.

I definitely expected a different outcome of this film. “A girl who walks alone at night,” I thought it would be more focused on women getting hurt. In this film, women were getting hurt; but shortly after, getting saved. I thought this movie had underlying powerful messages that made it so engrossing. I did not even realize it was all in black and white until the end due to the fact that I was so into it. I normally do not enjoy black and white films; however, the lighting in the movies really complimented the whole theme and idea of the movie.

Overall, for women empowerment, I would give the film 10/10. Do you think there is anything the writer could have supplemented female empowerment? Or did the vampire murdering the “bad people” obstruct the feminist ideal?