10 Underrated Films From The Last 5 Years That Flew Way Under The Radar

10. A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014)

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 95%

Box Office: $514,000

Many films lack style, and even more lack substance, but Iranian-American Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night has bundles of both. The writer/director called her film the first Iranian feminist vampire Western ever made, and while the comment was tongue in cheek, it goes to show just what a unique work it is.

Shot entirely in high-contrast black and white in city outskirts, it tells the story of the residents of a run-down Iranian town (referred to only as Bad City) and their resident ghoul, a vampire (known only as The Girl) who preys on men that disrespect and mistreat their women. While the subject matter is plainly a political statement, the film itself is a bizarre genre mash-up that works brilliantly, with pulp, noir and new wave just a few of the many styles that Amipour blends seamlessly.

While it isn’t likely to get a release in Iran (unless the brief nudity is edited out, at least) western audiences were treated to a film that is alien yet strangely familiar at the same time, with an underlying madness that would make David Lynch proud.