2015 October Horror Challenge #53 "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night"

Everyone is raving about this movie.  That always makes me equal parts excited and worried.  Excited, because I love horror movies and I'm happy when one gets a lot of praise.  Worried, because often when everyone else loves a horror movie, I wind up being disappointed by it, and then everyone has to tell me how I'm stupid and I just didn't "get" the movie if I didn't like it.  Condescending sanctimony!  My favorite thing!

The movie relies a lot on trippy, dreamlike imagery (because most of the characters are high a lot) and this can get annoying, but it does work to set the mood because it seems otherworldly, so when the vampire shows up and starts vamping out, it almost seems like a natural extension,  like the whole movie is one long nightmare.  It's also black and white, which harken back to classic horror films of yesteryear.

The movie takes place in a very male dominated world, so the presence of a female vampire, the most powerful creature in the movie, turns everything on its head.  I have to admit,  it worked for me.  The vampiric reveal perhaps took a little too long (I may have yelled "come on, get on with it!  I got the point 20 minutes ago!" at the screen) but once it happens, it's awesone.

You have to remember, I like horror movies.  I like them when there's just a vampire or a monster eating people, and it's not trying to make some larger point about feminism or sexist or the impermanence of man or whatever.   There's nothing wrong with trying to make such a point, and horror movies, tapping into our primal fears if death the way they do, are often the perfect vehicle to make some larger point about society.

All I'm saying is that I resent the implication that a horror movie is worthless unless it's a pretentious piece of art house shit trying to deliver some "message," and I will always judge a movie more harshly the more people are blathering on about how "deep" it is, as though other horror movies are trash, along with the people who like them.  This movie though, it IS a monster movie, and it DOES make some larger points about society, but it's not the movie's fault if people are waxing pretentious about it.  It's a good, thought provoking movie on its own, and I appreciated it, abd it's fan club can go take a hike if they think they're better than me because they don't usually like horror movies.