A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT (2014)

Bad City, a near-ghost town in Iran, has earned its name; the place reeks of poverty and death, its few residents mostly surviving over living.  Arash (Arash Marandi) is a handsome young man living with his drug-addicted father, for whom he has literally given everything; Atti (Mozhan Marno) is a prostitute who has Arash's father as a regular customer, and the old man's drug dealer as a pimp.  And into their lives comes The Girl (a remarkable Sheila Vand), a petite, dark-haired beauty who walks the streets of Bad City at night ... and who happens to be a vampire living quietly in their town.  Director/writer Ana Lily Amirpour has fashioned a terrific, moody, atmospheric film about loneliness and despair that also works as one of the most original vampire movies ever made - shot in black and white, which gives it even more of a grace and beauty found so little these days in the "horror" genre.  Marandi and Marno are terrific, Vand wholly impressive as the lonely, haunting and haunted child of the night who finally finds a friend. (unrated)  A-