I’m always a sucker for weird films and an Iranian vampire movie certainly counts. This one is actually a bit of a cheat as while it’s in Persian, stars ethnically Iranian actors and is set in some weird comic book version of an Iranian town, it’s an American production. They changed the signage and added some props but you can still see that it was shot in the US. There are some cool vibes in here as who could have imagined the sight of female vampire in a full-body chador riding a skateboard. But for the most part this is not a very interesting film and commits the sin of dragging things out so long that it gets boring.

Arash is a young man who takes pride in his car that he has worked hard for. He is frustrated by his drug addict father Hossein who has racked up large debts and whose mind is stuck on the past. When the gangster Saeed who is both a pimp and a drug dealer comes to collect on the debt, he seizes the keys to Arash’s car. Saeed later abuses a prostitute Atti and collects her takings. While on his way home, he notices a young girl in a black chador following him. When he invites her to his lavish place, she boldly complies and watches impassively as he does drugs. But then she exposes her fangs, bites a finger off and proceeds to kill him and feed on his blood. Meanwhile Arash has reluctantly stolen a pair of earrings from the rich family he works for as a gardener. He arrives at Saeed’s place to get his back just as the vampire girl is leaving. Inside he is shocked to find Saeed’s corpse but doesn’t hesitate to take his car keys and a briefcase containing the gangster’s drug supply and cash.

The setting of Bad City feels like it was inspired by Frank Miller’s Sin City especially with the black and white visuals. The dialogue is entirely in the Persian language and the characters appear to be culturally Iranian. Yet there’s also plenty of classic Americana including Arash’s muscle car and some of the music they listen to. It’s a weird mix but it does somewhat work. The visual of the vampire girl gliding along the street in a black chador is striking. Also intriguing is the recurring appearance of a gender-bent character who serves no purpose to the plot but contributes to the moodiness of the setting. The issue is that there’s no little of it and the world feels very sparse. No doubt the production was constrained by a limited budget but there are also times when it feels unimaginative. Saeed for example feels like a stereotypical American gangster down to how he consumes cocaine. It feels to me like director Ana Lily Amirpour even tries to pad out the running time. Did we need to watch Saeed snort cocaine twice? If you don’t have enough material, it’s far better to just cut it short. This would have been a better film if it were 15 to 20 minutes shorter.

Vampire or not, this is less a horror movie than one about a female avenger of the night. The key conceit is to inverse the usual expectation of a girl walking alone at night being especially vulnerable to her being the apex predator of the streets of a blighted city. It’s hardly that original and unfortunately the execution is too one note to be of much interest. The film portrays her as being too weak, as she struggles even with disposing of the corpses afterwards, to be truly terrifying. There’s no pathos as she seems perfectly in control of herself at all times and is not driven to feed by desperation. She doesn’t seem to spawn more vampires so there’s no wider threat. Amirpour has commented that this is a compilation of all of the elements that she likes, including the costumes, music and vibes. I’m inclined to believe her which means this film operates primarily on aesthetics so there’s little point in overthinking things.

That might be okay for a shorter film but A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night wears out its welcome quickly. Even her being in the same black-and-white striped outfit gets tiresome. I wanted to like this but there’s just too little going on here to recommend it.