Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
In the Iranian ghost-town Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople are unaware they are being stalked by a lonesome vampire.
Ana Lily Amirpour's debut is a genuinely singular piece of work — an Iranian-American black-and-white vampire western shot in California, oozing with atmosphere and a distinctive deadpan cool. The cinematography is stunning, with Lyle Vincent's widescreen compositions drawing heavily from spaghetti westerns and art-house noir to create an utterly hypnotic visual language. Its novelty is sky-high: the blend of Iranian cultural identity, feminist subversion of the vampire myth, and slow-burn loneliness is wholly one-of-a-kind. The plot, however, is deliberately minimal to the point of thinness — it prizes mood over narrative momentum and the romance underpinning it can feel undercooked. Acting is adequate and stylistically committed but largely one-note by design. The ending drifts into ambiguity that feels more inconclusive than earned, leaving the emotional arc unresolved in a way that disappoints rather than provokes.