The reason vampire movies manage to stick around, despite the sub-genre seemingly tapped out, is because, like zombies, they're not really about what their supernatural force is at face value. All horror comes from some form of tangible, real world fear, and with changing times come changing meanings (this isn't the only reason Twilight sucked, but it certainly didn't help). So it is that A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night repositions the legendary monster to be in stark contrast to standard gender roles (particularly in Islamist countries) - the unnamed blood sucker stalks the streets of the fictitious Bad City doling out vengeance on those who wrong women (her menacing cape is even made from a hijab). There's a lot more to it than just that though - although she makes every effort to come across like it to others, there's a naivety to her, with conflict over when to kill and how to fit into normal society. This allows for one of the most unexpectedly complex love stories of the year. One night she meets Arash, who is position of a similar, if differently rooted, innocence, leading to a relationship where all traditional power positions are reversed. The pivotal scene where, to the scoring of White Lies' Death, Arash stalks up behind the girl with what would have been menacing chillness, only for her to be the one having to resist violence, is one of the most attention-grabbing scenes from this year.
