221: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)

SPEAKER_02 0:04

How dare this movie share the same space on this podcast as like Friday the 13th, 4 or whatever we just did this horrible.

SPEAKER_03 0:18

Greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hacker Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. How many times do I have to tell you I don't have any money? If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is to hack. A total joke, a waste of time, or a slash.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Totally killer. Unintended.

SPEAKER_03 0:37

We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're rating these movies with a perspective we've gained from our varying walks of life and the flavors of fear we fancy most. My name is Chris, I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast, and this week I'm joined by the Superfly Space Guy Mac. Hola, Muchachos, and the cowardly Cooper Ryan. I really need a new way to say hi. This week we're checking out a film about a lonely vampire who's just trying to do the right thing. Before we get to bear our fangs, though, we have some follow-up.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Let's follow up on the movie. This movie is Pumpkinhead. We recently reviewed Pumpkinhead. I think everyone should know that I was a huge fan, but we wanted to ask our listeners. So we had a poll. 66% of our listeners slashed it, 33% gave it a hack.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

That's a lower slash ratio than I was expecting. Does this movie feel two-thirds good?

SPEAKER_01 1:22

This movie felt 100% good to me, so I was actually surprised it wasn't like 80% or higher.

SPEAKER_03 1:28

Well, I'm sure there's someone who agrees with you.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Well, let's dive into our comments from Discord. Rob says, two hacks for Pumpkinhead. I swear you guys just love to make me cry.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

And I again, Rob, I just want it noted that I'm on the right side of history here. That's fair. I mean, we do constantly disappoint you.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Speaking of disappointment, Britney says, Pumpkinhead was an effective monster, just a bad movie.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

Oh. Which I think is really funny because I actually feel exactly the opposite. I didn't actually care for the monster. I really liked the movie. So you know, to each his own.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

And Amber says, I forgot how sad this movie is. Kids get me every time. And honestly, same here.

SPEAKER_03 2:04

Really? That's the true horror of this movie. The emotional heartstrings it tries to pluck. Like, where do you get off? Where do you have the nerve? You're an 80s movie. Why are you out here making me sad?

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Emotional damage. And that's our follow-up.

SPEAKER_03 2:17

Well, this week we're checking out a film that's been described as a feminist Iranian vampire western. This film explores what happens when a cloaked vigilante meets a young man who's unlike the other men in the city, men who disrespect women and ultimately become her prey. This week we're talking about a girl walks home alone at night.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

Who has seen this one before? I, of course, have never seen this movie, and I had never heard of it at all either.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

I did see the trailer for this movie when it was first being released, and it looked really interesting. I just never got to add it to my watch list until now.

SPEAKER_03 2:47

This is something that I've heard of several times before, and I've seen a lot of still images before, but I just never got around to watching it. For as much as I enjoy vampires, I find that they're probably one of the subgenres of within horror that I watched the least. But it's one of those where I expected, because of the still images I've seen, really intentional artistry and beautiful cinematography. I knew going in that this was a black and white movie, which I really appreciated and and thought there's something at play there, right, within the light and the darkness of our shadows that I thought would lend itself well to a vampire film. But beyond that, I didn't know what else to expect.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

This section in my comments, completely blank. I did not really know what I thought I would get out of this. I obviously knew like the subject matter. I was just mostly intrigued. I was really intrigued because black and white is always an interesting choice. It can be done extremely well or be completely horrible. So it I just didn't know which way that this was gonna go.

SPEAKER_02 3:45

Yeah, this one was interesting. Uh the cover art gave me so little that I did end up actually like reading the little description of what was gonna happen. Just because I really didn't know what I was going into. And the cover art made me think this was gonna be a young girl walking home alone at night. And I wasn't really like interested in girl gets attacked on the street or whatever, you know. Like I'm thinking like 10, 12-year-old or something. So I did read it a little bit, kind of saw that it was like, you know, basically a kind of dystopian, kind of really bad city where everything was taking place, and again, knew that it was gonna be black and white, and just like you said, Mac, it's dangerous, it's it's risky to be black and white. But again, like Chris said, it does let you know that you're gonna get that like artsy feeling. And I think it is important to know what you're going into before you watch this. Like, I can't ever think of any other time where I would have chosen to watch this, like having known what it is or had a perception of what it is. But while you're watching this, for me, it was very, very intriguing and slow at the same time. And you feel the intention of everything that's done. But if you if you don't go in prepared for that, I don't think that you're gonna enjoy this movie. And like if you know, I think if you're kind of like barely watching and tired and stuff like that, I don't think you're gonna enjoy this. But if you're paying attention, it keeps you in, even though it's a little slow.

SPEAKER_03 5:08

Honestly, Ryan, I couldn't think of a better way to describe this movie. This is one where its pacing left much to be desired for me, and I felt bored, but I felt so guilty being bored because I was actually emotionally invested in what was happening. I really enjoyed the characters that we have in this film, particularly our leading characters. And I was really bought into the whole concept of this woman and how she moves through the city and what she does with her time, but there was something about this movie that I was just a little bit disconnected from, and I can't quite place what it was, but it felt more like it's pacing. I just felt a little bit tuned out, not emotionally, but mentally.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

See, I have the exact opposite issue here. This is the pacing that I live for. This is when I tell you all how much I love Cohen Brothers movies, this is what I'm talking about. This pacing, it's it's it's amazing, it's super character-based, the storytelling here, which which I love because we have this idea where there's a vampire involved, but kind of not really that important in terms of like how we connect with the characters. For me, it was like this could have been done on stage and it would have been just as compelling. While watching this, honestly, the one feeling that came to my mind is enamored, like puppy love. Like watching this movie, it felt like I don't know, like visually, visually, it's so much to look at. That black and white thing was was again a risk, like you mentioned, Ryan. But I just liked looking at this movie while we're watching it, and then as we're getting into these characters and seeing the story unfold, it just like felt so good. It's like being on a first date that's too perfect.

SPEAKER_03 6:45

Is that your relationship with a movie, or were you getting the romantic vibe from the whole movie? Like as in like the uh puppy love between characters.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

That was my relationship with the movie. I didn't even get the the romantic stuff until I feel like a little bit into it. So yeah, that was just like me feeling that with this movie.

SPEAKER_02 7:01

You know, Mac, you took the word from me, which is romantic. I feel like this is such an odd place because I I don't know if I want to say this isn't horror, but it it's it's it's on the far end, right? Horror is a spectrum, and this certainly is pretty close to one of the ends of non-horror, but at the same time, it feels weird and creepy. It's a romantic feeling of the movie, not because it's a love story, but because it's like the way it's done. And honestly, enjoying the black and white of it all is truly my biggest surprise because I wasn't soaked about it. I just feel like there's rarely a time when that needs to be done. And even here, I feel like we could have gone for a low saturation or like um a a colored shadow type of thing could have easily replaced this at being entirely in black and white. But it does take you out of so many things that you would normally pay attention to. Like, I kind of talk about how uh having Gotham City as the place where Batman is is so genius because we all know like it's basically New York, but because it's not, it allows these things that aren't real to occur. And because this isn't a city that we can relate to, we can't see certain things because it's black and white. It gives us the ability to just kind of see the story as a story and not think about the real world like implications of it.

SPEAKER_03 8:24

Is your mind kind of going to Sin City?

SPEAKER_02 8:26

It is kind of Sin City vibes, and I I definitely think that was on purpose.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

See, speaking of cities, I would have gone with like City of Lost Children, where it feels kind of like this place is out there in almost like an alternate dimension, right? Where we know it's we know it's real, we know these things can happen, but it doesn't quite feel like this place actually exists, and I think that was very, very deliberate. But I think the thing that surprised me the most was the performances. I mean, you mentioned the black and white, I feel like it lets you focus more on the performances. And there are moments where characters are literally saying nothing, but their performances are amazing, and that really was not something I was expecting to see. It was just a lot of power in facial expressions and movements and the slowness of movements.

SPEAKER_03 9:08

I will say that even thinking about what they say and what they don't say, the dialogue in this movie is pretty strong, especially with what you get, even just coming across in the subtitles and not even thinking about like its native language. But one of the other things that I enjoyed about this movie, and a really positive surprise, was how rich the subtext is. And it's just what you said, Mac. It's how much is said with a gaze versus what needs to be said out loud between people. But the other big surprise that I had was the whole romantic angle in this film. That's not something that I knew about or expected going into it, and so I found myself falling for these characters a bit, not in a romantic way, but just in this like, I'm here for the ride. I I'm walking alongside you on this journey, and I hope it turns out for you. But I will say that because I was so emotionally invested in them, I didn't find anything about this movie frightening, nor do I think it was particularly trying to be. I think it who could be frightened by this movie? Pimps, maybe? Men who disrespect women. But even then, they are too machizmo to acknowledge any threat.

SPEAKER_02 10:18

I feel like it's definitely not scary, but one, it's creepy. There's there's like some creepy themes, and two, like the kills are not non-existent, you know? They're there. They're not like insane or anything, but especially like the sound when there's a kill, like things happen, you know, it's not not scary.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

I think there's there's a lot of like threat. There's a lot of really good tension on screen. Even in moments that don't seem very tense, it's like somebody's walking around with a loaded gun in the air. It's just that nobody else realizes it. I guess that's one of the cool things about being a vampire, but it it didn't scare me. I don't I don't know that it should have or would have, but um, I do think it lives within the horror realm. I think it's living with air it's just telling a story in a different part of it than we're than what we're used to.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

It certainly does, but like this movie has me thinking, like, how dare this movie share the same space on this podcast as like Friday the 13th, 4 or whatever we just did. It's horrible. What do you mean? I mean, you know, we're like if you want to talk about like dialogue and subtext and all this stuff, like it's just unfair, okay? It's unfair that they even fit into the same genre because this is a whole this is a whole different thing.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

But it's it's kind of like when you go to a scholastic book fair and you're like, oh, I'm really into you know R.L. Stein. And like as an adult, you can respect R.L. Stein, but you also know that you also enjoy thousand-page Stephen King. It's it's okay that both exist within the same world. There it's just two different options.

SPEAKER_03 11:53

Ryan, it's a spectrum of hacker slash, you know?

SPEAKER_01 11:56

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 11:56

Yeah, but Friday the 13th, whatever number you want to put in this space is like jackass compared to this, you know? And that's okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Yeah, that's that's fine. Jackass is they still have plenty of them, they're still making money off of it. So okay.

SPEAKER_03 12:09

Side note, I do hate jackass, and one person when they saw my fractured elbow uh uh called me Stevo, and I wanted to punch them in the fucking throat. Like I hate jackass and everything that's jackass culture so fucking much. Ugh. It's so you to to be repulsed by such behavior.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

And and jackass, when it was new, what seemed fresh, jackass culture that's like clung to that since then, not fresh whatsoever. We're real tired of it. This movie feels pretty darn fresh to me.

SPEAKER_03 12:40

Oh, this movie feels like if you took Twilight but turned the knob into the opposite direction, and this is the other end of the Twilight scale.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

I don't know anything about Twilight, and I don't want to even talk about Twilight in respect to this movie, okay? I I think that this is original as a film, but I mean, is the idea of a lady killing people vampire situation? I mean, maybe is that original? I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 13:07

I think vigilantes we've seen. I think, you know, a woman scorned, we've seen. I think women taking their revenge, we've seen. Obviously, Alexis would have slashed the hell out of this movie with her revenge, right? Her her penchant for revenge. But there's something about the whole style of this movie and the approach to which it takes not only the central vampire issue, but the complexities of a father-son relationship in loving someone who's an addict, or begrudgingly loving someone who's an addict, and looking at how do you preserve your soul when you're surrounded by darkness, and how do you kind of like force yourself to stay true to who the person that you want to be if nothing surrounds you except for just fucking terrible people. I think that's an interesting dynamic that this movie explores really well.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

Yeah, this movie is definitely one of the ones when we talk about like the sum is greater than its parts.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

And there is a moment at the end that was so satisfying that was 100% that point where a character had to do uh they had to have a little internal battle, and it didn't take much. It literally took like a few seconds on screen, no dialogue, but was such a powerful moment and such a great ending.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

I think you know there's people in the world who are like not so great at reading humans and like understanding things that aren't said. This movie would be a great exercise in finding out if you can understand what what people mean when they aren't saying certain things. Because I think the entire ending of this movie is silent, basically. And everything you need to know is right there. We know exactly what happens, we know exactly how people are feeling, basically. And like you said, the a pep talk for oneself happens. I I think generally I enjoyed the ending. I think it's kind of like what needed to happen in a way. I don't know. I guess there was a few routes this movie could have gone, and this one was, I think, the most satisfying.

SPEAKER_03 15:05

You see, I have such mixed feelings about the ending because at the end of the day I do love it. And there's a moment where something happened and something is revealed, and you realize that one character is completely understanding like what actually is meant by that and and what happened, what transpired, and then you get this like inner battle, and there's something about that inner battle that just didn't really sit right with me. I felt like I could I w I wanted it a little bit more, not necessarily spoken aloud or anything like that, but there's something there that didn't quite do it for me. So I while I think that the ending on paper is strong, if I walked away with it with a less than stellar feeling. I felt like I had higher moments throughout the rest of the movie than the ending itself. But we'll see how that shakes out into my rating or even your rating. But before we actually get down to scoring, how many people died in this film?

SPEAKER_02 15:59

We have three deaths in this movie. Uneventful. Not particularly eventful.

SPEAKER_03 16:04

And what about the animal report? The animal report is even less eventful. All good this week. Alright, well, let's go ahead and get into our ratings. A girl walks home alone at night from 2014. Was it a hacker slash?

SPEAKER_01 16:17

I'll get the obvious one out of the way. This is a slash for me. This film is an absolute work of art. It is timeless, horrific, romantic, ruthless, yet endearing. There's moments where things seem slow and seem quiet, but those moments to me was like somebody's charging at you screaming. That's how powerful they were. It's visually gorgeous. It's so nice to look at. There's effortless tension on screen, which I'm sure it took a lot of effort and a lot of planning, but it just feels effortless. And it's not only a slash, but I think one of the most enjoyable films that we have covered this year.

SPEAKER_02 16:52

Yeah, Mac posted like six images of this movie today on his Instagram story. So I think it was pretty obvious that was going to be a heavy slash. I too am going to be slashing this movie. I'm gonna confess that I was watching this while I was on a treadmill. And you might think, mmm, what a great time to be distracted. But truly, this movie had my focus so much, so intensely. And I won't say that it's perfect. I think the pacing is a struggle, especially in a certain part kind of midway through. But it is so outweighed by how good the performances are, how good the relationships are, how good the storyline is, uh, and you know, there I guess a couple of storylines that kind of tie together. Like, I just think if you know what you're going into, because that's a really big part of this, if you know what you're going into, I think that you will really enjoy watching this movie. And I think I'll agree somewhat with Mac. It's definitely one of the better movies we've ever reviewed, especially when you look at like film as an art form and not just film as like entertainment. Like this movie feels very foreign, very like uh this probably won some foreign film festivals. That's what it feels like for me. But it's it's so good. It's good in black and white, good in a language that you don't know, good in a city that doesn't exist. Like, I don't know. It there's things to say about this movie that aren't perfect, but mostly it's so good you can't complain.

SPEAKER_03 18:20

I can largely echo those statements. I can complain a little bit about this movie in a couple underwhelming parts, but realistically, this movie has so much going on. It's got vampires, it's got daddy issues, it's got broken relationships, it has CD underbelly of a city, it has the chaos of city living and the worry of what happens to the youth within that city, but most of all, it has feminism. And one of the things that I really appreciate about this movie is how it can take symbols of male oppression and turn that on its head into a vigilante and an anti-hero who actually sends a message that I think a lot of people can appreciate. So I'll keep that brief. Obviously, this movie is a slash. Now, the really cool thing is that you can find this movie streaming online. So go ahead, check it out because a girl walks home alone at night has earned a universal slash. Once you check it out, join us in the second half so we can unpack all those details together. We'll see you in a bit.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

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SPEAKER_03 20:29

Now we have a lot to get to here, but before we get into the specifics of our ratings, we have the matter of gore to attend to. Ryan, what's the gore score for this movie?

SPEAKER_02 20:37

So I think we're pretty much all on the same page. The gore is pretty low for this movie.

SPEAKER_03 20:41

Astonishingly low, considering it's a vampire movie.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

Right. You know, I I wish we had a little more. There, there's certainly a yearning, but at the same time, I don't think this movie was meant for more gore. It just really wasn't.

SPEAKER_03 20:54

I was satisfied by the missing finger, you know?

SPEAKER_02 20:56

The finger was really good.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

Yeah, that was a really cool scene. And obviously, like drug dealer douchekin do dying, I think that's all of our favorite kill. Can we agree?

SPEAKER_03 21:05

It's the it's the good kill. Honestly, fuck that guy, Ten Ways from Sundays. He's terrible. I was so glad to see him go not only first, but in a way where he was clearly like putting on his like this bravado, this machismo on display, completely not threatened by the woman in front of him, and I love how she turns it around on him, luring him into this false sense of security. I absolutely love that moment.

SPEAKER_02 21:31

He literally picked up the tens for a pump sesh with the boys. Okay, he's trying to trying to get some pump while the girl is there, which is definitely not the move. You gotta do that beforehand so that your muscles look good when she gets to your house. Not while she's there. You don't pick up the tens while the girl is there. Like, what are we doing here?

SPEAKER_01 21:53

The the finger felt really deserved, and especially because it was a nice callback to the earlier scene where I one, I don't understand. It's kind of disgusting. What's underneath your nails? It's probably really dirty and you're gonna get a mouth infection.

SPEAKER_03 22:06

It is very gross. I will absolutely say that.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

Yeah. So it was really satisfying to see it just left a bloody stump.

SPEAKER_03 22:11

You're a lesbian. You can't use fingers as a gross thing. No, here's the thing. This isn't about lesbians and fingers, Ryan. This is about some dude putting his finger in someone's mouth. You know what I mean? It's a thing. Not that like it played this away, but like I just this idea, like, fucking men are disgusting, first off. Second, who knows where that hand has been? They don't wash their hands out of the bathroom sometimes. Disgusting. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

One, this could apply to a lot of things. Two, I think it's not just speaking completely outside of this. It's not about enjoying having your fingers sucked or enjoying sucking a finger. It's just like a thing that you do to get to the next step, I think. I think that was the whole point, right? She's a she's a lady of the night. She's trying to show what she can do. She's making an she she's basically asking the question and he's saying yes. He's responding. She's using that to ask the question. Is this how we're gonna get this done?

SPEAKER_03 23:09

I fully acknowledge it is it is a commonplace thing that is very normal. I am I'm fully aware of that. However, I just think about like the role reversal there, and it's it's just like I think about my mind goes worst-case scenario, and I just think people are gross generally.

SPEAKER_02 23:26

Well, I don't think you're wrong. And since we're talking about how gross he is and his gross little fingers, I'd like to bring up my favorite visual element, which is when they first get to his house before he loses a finger. There's a shot where I I think it's mostly of like his living room. He's doing something. This is you know what? He's probably doing the drugs at this point. That's probably what he was doing. And in the back is a shadow, and it takes a moment, and of course, all these scenes kind of move quite slow, but it takes a moment to realize that it's her back there. She's still covered, and she just looks like a creepy shadow, but she's there. And she's been invited there. She's not like lurking or anything, but god, it looks so good and so creepy. There was a few scenes in that house that I really liked, but that was my favorite moment of visual beauty. I cause since there are so many in this movie.

SPEAKER_03 24:13

Okay, yes, there absolutely are so many moments that really could deserve to be printed and framed and hung up in your house somewhere. Mac, I wouldn't be surprised if that happens for you one day. But my favorite visual is gonna go actually way more simple, and that is her vampire form, and just seeing those little retractable fangs come down, right? It is just that moment where we see the fangs come down and know that she is still in possession of her like stunning beauty, she is no different, right? She's not some horrific monster, she's just using her natural weapons, and I absolutely love that. So often you see vampires and then they turn into this like unholy demon. And think about like the Lost Boys, for example, or even Fright Knight. But I love that this movie plays on keeping her natural form while also making her deadly and alluring.

SPEAKER_02 25:09

Also, just to add another one, the car in this movie is so cool. Arash's car. I love it. That's a great tiny visual element. The Thunderbird? Mm-hmm. It's just stands out so much in this terrible place, you know.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

It is a thing of beauty. Like every time he every time that car came into frame, it was just like, show me more of the car, get in the car, drive in the car, do a little car review. I just want to watch like a 57 Thunderbird roll around. It just a gorgeous Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:35

So I'm gonna be very honest. So many times people ask a question, like, oh, what kind of decade would you live in if you could go back in time? And my heart always went to the 50s, and then I obviously got older and realized racism, homophobia, absolutely not. I could never. But 50s cars, 50s motorcycles, and 50s fashion is a large part of why I was always attracted to that. And oh my gosh, it was always one of my dreams to have a Thunderbird. And I got really excited when they started remanufacturing Thunderbirds, they look really weird now, but I have so many die-cast like metal Thunderbirds that are like sitting in our storage room for when I used to just be obsessed with it.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

Well, I was obsessed with the contrast in this movie. That's my favorite visual element for sure. There are some scenes and some shots that are truly gorgeous, like when we're in the girls' I guess apartment or house or whatever it is with a Rosh and they're like doing their little love thing, and there's like decorations on the wall, and the the whole place just seems really lived in, and you don't imagine that vampires have that kind of a setup, like everything has to be really minimal. But she's living her life and she's got like a cool little stripe tee going on, cute short hair. Love, love the whole vibe, but the contrast here is great. The black, the white, the grays, when they use each one of those things and how much we get of each one of them. They made really great use of light sources, and that's obviously very important in black and white. There's some amazing shots where we're walking down like a sloped hill, and you get that street light giving us that nice directional light going from like top right to bottom left of the frame, and we walk from shadows into light, and honestly, masterful. Like it's really hard to do. I gave up on that in the one photography class that I took because it was so hard to do, and just they nailed it here. Initially, though, I was going to make my favorite visual element a shot from my favorite scene, and this is a bit cheating because it's early on, but it's the opening scene where Arash is like just walking down the street in this seemingly western town with his cat, and he walks past the dead bodies in the ditch. Because initially that shot was like so profound. It was like, what is happening? I love this. But like that whole setup of bringing this into this movie sets the tone for like the town or the city that we're in, for the level of dialogue we might get in most of the scenes. And then to get that in the background and make no mention of it, there's no zoom, there's no focus, it's just you either know or you didn't catch it.

SPEAKER_03 27:50

Yeah, it's like this really everyday occurrence, right? And I really love the element of world building that that in particular contributes. My favorite scene is one that's related to him, but it actually comes towards the end, right? In the third act, and that is the moment where he is talking to her about like leaving and she's getting everything together, and then he sees the cat, and it becomes this oh shit moment of you had something to do with my father dying. And you see this uh this struggle and you see this realization, but then he's trying to keep it together and he's trying to keep it cool because there has been this really like romantic connection with them, even though you don't see them kiss, you don't see them be particularly intimate. They just have the intimacy of a connection that isn't marred by a lot of the horrors that you see naturally within the city. And I thought that moment, this like this test, so to speak, absolutely love that.

SPEAKER_02 28:44

Yeah, they have an interesting connection. It's almost like their two souls know that the other one is good in respect to the other things happening in the city. Like, oh, oh, I see you. I I don't we don't need to talk about it. I don't need to kiss you. We just we just know each other. Yeah, it's interesting. I I actually kind of struggle to find a favorite scene in this movie because I think so many of these scenes are good because of the one that came before it or the one that comes after it. So it's hard for me. I think probably one of them is when the girl is walking out of the mob dude's house after she's killed him, and Arash is coming in and like realize like, you know, he's trying to come in and like find out where his stuff is, right? But they like kind of pass each other at the gate. And I I think that's a very interesting moment. And I I don't know that it's ever clear that he knows that that was her that he passes, but it was just a lot happening, you know, a lot just happened with her, and then he's just like, Man, I'm gonna go get my car back. Like, well, good luck. You're gonna have everything.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

I do like the idea of a vampire either keeping trophies or just like robbing the dead, because it makes sense, you know, logistically as well.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

Yeah, I mean, I think she was really on a roll here. I feel like the people in this city, what they're doing, especially the guy, you know, how he treated um Addy, the the sh the woman of the street, the sex worker. And I just I just feel like there was so much bad, and like you could see the drugs and everything that I'd, you know, admired what she was doing. I get it. She's just kind of hanging around. I mean, I'm not so much on like the homeless guy kill or, you know, the guy on the street, but you know, she's she's handling business otherwise, getting rid of a bunch of real trash people.

SPEAKER_03 30:18

Yeah, and I love how r really well formed she is in that and how clear her motivations are. And one of the things to consider, right, is we have this little boy that we see who's asking for money, and you know, there's like some innocence there in youth, but then you stop and realize, oh, she's been around for a long time, and she's seen all these little boys become terrible men. The pimp, who's to say that she didn't see him when he was a small child before any of this toxicity crept into his mind. It's really like this systemic problem, and I love that moment that we get, as terrified out as I was for him, I love this threat that she gives him of be a good boy. And I think that just goes to show what her pure intentions are, right? Like she's not someone who's just out to kill anybody, but she's gonna give you the opportunity to rise to the occasion and be a good person.

SPEAKER_01 31:14

And I love the moment we get where it's not clear how she's gonna do like skateboarding up to our dude, you know, because like she has the look of I'm watching him and I'm gonna figure out what he's about. And he just kind of he's obviously coming down off of his high and just really innocent in that moment with her. Um and it looks like she in her mind like kind of stumbles a little bit, like she's kind of torn. Like, how do I feel about this dude? Without saying a damn thing, she's able to portray that on screen, which was so impressive, by the way. But her just like looking at him, trying to like sort him out, size him up, was kind of amazing, especially when she's like, Oh, you can go back to my place. And that's of course, like, oh, come back to the den and I'll eat you there, but instead we just get more great moments.

SPEAKER_03 31:55

Yeah, I'm gonna be honest, I wasn't expecting a meet cute in this movie. I really wasn't expecting this whole this whole connection between them, and I really loved this hilarity of her seeing him with his own cloak, right? And him being Dracula. I think that as much as they don't even talk about vampires in this movie, they do use the name Dracula, which is hilarious to me.

SPEAKER_02 32:20

Yeah, I think so too. While we're talking about characters, my actual like standout performance, aside from kind of the obvious, is from Orash's dad because I felt that character uh intensely. I felt it felt so real, and you can you could feel how the two of them are really like struggling with it. And also, like people who are addicted to something saying that they're sick is such a real thing, like it it's it becomes I don't know, it it's just intense, but that performance I think gave so much fuel to I mean, the whole ending couldn't exist, right, without that, because Orash had to feel those feelings with his father to be able to come around and be okay with it in the end. And if you've never felt anything like that, maybe it doesn't matter as much, but that was for sure my favorite like standout B character.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

When they were walking, him he and the he and the girl were walking like side by side in the shadows late at night, and he's like on the sidewalk and trying to like figure her out. Like he's waving his hand, she's waving her hand, and then eventually he just like runs away was kind of hilarious at that moment. But when Arash kicked him out, I was like, that's game over. That dude's dead. There's no way because he wasn't able to sustain himself in any kind of good way. He was just too kind of bottomed out. And even if it weren't for her, it would have happened. It would have happened some other way. And I think that that moment at the end where we get Arash like dealing with this when he steps out of the car when they're driving away and he's just like going back and forth, pacing, trying to decide what to do, and ultimately just gets back in. It was kind of like even if she wasn't there, and and even if she's not the one that killed Hussein, he would have had to have that moment at one point where he had to figure out like how do I feel about what's happened because it was it was gonna happen to Hussein eventually.

SPEAKER_03 34:00

Yeah, you raise a good point, and I understand and respect the emotional complexities of that moment. Looking at their fraught relationship, look at the level of love he clearly had, but also the level of pain he carried every day because of his relationship with his father and his father's condition. I just didn't quite buy the step out of the car, grapple with this feeling, then get back in the car. I don't, I don't know what they could have done differently, but it was almost like it was too brief of a consideration for me to actually be sold on it. And that actually was the worst part of the movie for me. I know I talked about the third act being among the best, right? This realization, oh shit, you did this to my dad. Here's the cat. The cat's literally out of the fucking bag at this point, but there's just something there within that third act that just felt for as slow as we moved to get to this point, why are we rushing right now? You know what I mean? Like I feel like we could have rethought some of the pacing in other moments to really flush this moment out a little bit and struggle with it a little bit more. But even that being said, as good as this movie is, that worst part is barely a a nick in the surface.

SPEAKER_01 35:11

Okay, so the ending wasn't perfect, and that part in particular, I honestly expected the movie to end with her driving away with the catalogon. For some reason, before we got to see that he was in the car, I assumed that she was gonna have to take this dude out because he couldn't deal with it. So it doesn't make a lot of sense that he dealt with it that fast, but obviously it makes us happy for the characters that he did. I have trouble though picking a worse part. There is a camera pan that truly bothered me, and that is when the girl is tailing somebody. I forget who it was that she was tailing, but she's tailing somebody, and they're walking, they realize she's not like walking behind them, and they stop and turn. And all the other stop and turns like that have been really good. This particular one, it felt like the camera was like really just kind of like jagged. It was not a smooth pan, and that's the worst part was like a three-second little blip where the camera kind of sucked a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 35:57

Okay, so Max really reaching for something deep there, if that's the worst part. I think I have a I I do have a worst part. It's a little different. It is kind of in the middle of the movie. Um, there's two scenes that are incredibly slow, and I believe they're back to back, if I'm remembering properly. The bedroom, not quite a kiss, but basically a kiss scene, was truly an eternity. Okay. The amount of time it took for her to lower her head onto his chest, it was just it was just a bit too long. Even though I was completely plugged into that moment, it's it it it was only because of how good everything else had been that that wasn't the moment that turned me off. And then if I'm not mistaken, and I could be, but if I'm not mistaken, right after that is like someone dancing by themselves outside for a long time. And again, it just like didn't do it for me. I've really never enjoyed anybody dancing, like a dance moment in a movie. Like I'm pretty sure I've hated all of them, even Jamie Lee Curtis. So it's not surprising, but for me, those are the two big glaring pacing issues in this movie. And I I could have done without them and just like, you know, speed it up, let them kiss. Let's move on.

SPEAKER_03 37:06

Let the record show that whenever I make my first movie, I'm gonna find a way to work in a clip of Ryan dancing at Mac's wedding to I'm gonna dance with somebody, and then we'll see if she still hates dancing in movies.

SPEAKER_02 37:18

I will definitely hate it more than normal because it's me. What do you mean? Those were great moves, and you looked great. I mean, I got good dance moves. It's not about that. I just like don't ever it's like a combination of people dancing. It's always a solo dance. It's a combination of like the solo dance, the music. It's always too long. I always don't care. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 37:37

Hey, Napoleon Dynamite did it really well.

SPEAKER_02 37:39

I didn't see it, but I'm pretty sure I didn't care about that either.

SPEAKER_01 37:43

Well, what I do care about, obviously, is this movie. Great watch. I would totally watch this again. This is one where if I bought a projector at some point and like wanted to watch a bunch of black and white films projected onto a wall, this is this is up there. Like bicycle thief is up there, this is up there.

SPEAKER_02 38:00

I don't think that I'm like running to watch this again. And this one I I would find to be quite difficult to like recommend to somebody or or want to watch with somebody because you really, you know, I kind of went through this with like his house, is like it's not like an easy watch. Not because it's a hard watch, but it's just like I don't know, you gotta make sure you tell the again, they gotta be the right people, they gotta be intelligent, they gotta be able to understand without without words. Like, I don't know. I can't just recommend this to anybody. I can I can recommend it, but I'm not I'm not eager to like watch it with people.

SPEAKER_03 38:29

You had this problem with his house, and yet you recommended his house to literally everybody.

SPEAKER_02 38:34

True, but I also asked people to watch his house and put it on for them, and then experienced them watching it halfway. And I was like, what are you doing? It's a masterpiece, you're not paying attention. So there's a thing, you know, when you care too much about a movie, you have to be careful with it.

SPEAKER_01 38:51

So shout out to Friend of the Pot, Alan. Obviously, that's like the one person that the tough watches you can easily recommend because you got that same that same wavelength.

SPEAKER_02 39:00

I was actually thinking, I'm so excited to go be like, Alan, I saw this because I'm sure that he'll have seen this before, and he's one of the best people to talk about horror movies with. So that's exciting. But I don't know if I need to watch it again. I need a moment for the for the romantics to sit with me.

SPEAKER_03 39:15

Yeah, I'm gonna be honest, I don't plan on watching this again. I think it's great. It's good where it is. I could see myself potentially mixing it into a lineup Mac, like you said, if I was in the mood to just watch a bunch of black and white movies all day. But even then, I think there are a bunch of other movies I'd probably put on before this. This is a movie I think I would maybe watch if I wanted to watch a particularly vigilante feminist film, but I have to be in a very specific mood, not just like a casual rewatch. But I will encourage a lot of people to watch it because this movie was actually great, and there you have it, folks. A girl walks home alone at night, has earned a universal slash, certainly worthy of recommendations. Now we've certainly had a lot to talk about here, but it doesn't end here by any means. We want to know what you think. How did you feel about the ending? Were you bored by the movie's pacing? Let us know. You can join in on the conversation by hanging out with us for free in our Discord. Click the link in our show notes to sign up.

SPEAKER_01 40:15

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SPEAKER_03 40:26

We'll see you next time, folks. And remember, idiots and rich people are the only ones who think things can change. Ciao.