2. Ana Lily Amirpour - A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014)
For centuries, vampires have provided handy metaphors for social and physical dilemma, but in the stylishly muted deadpan romance A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, the threat is personal. Writer-director Ana Lily Amirpour's stunning debut, produced by Elijah Wood, follows the experiences of a small Iranian town haunted by a vampiric presence who's just as lonely as the other locals. If you're a fan of the vampire genre, A Girl Walks Home is a dream come true. Recent, inferior vamp properties like Twilight and NBCs Dracula were soullessly manufactured and disposable, overseen by corporations to satiate audiences who couldnt care less about ingenuity. This film has none of that interference Overall, this film refuses to fit into any particular box. Arthouse Western? Sure. Feminist comic-book movie blended with social realism? Why not? Tender, sexy-as-hell romance? Definitely. Somehow, the disparate parts all meld together beautifully, thanks to pitch-perfect performances from its cast and Amirpours immediately assured direction, resulting in one of the most striking horror films in recent history.