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A Bite at Archetypes:
A Reading of “ A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” as a Postmodern Horror Film

Maria Christina A. Calachan

MLL 298
Paper No. 2

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History has a lot to say in the development of the horror film as a movie genre, with
so many studies that have been made in pursuit of tracing the changes that have taken place
in the plight of the production of classical horror, then later on, the postmodern horror film.
What is particularly important in the endeavour of discussing how horror films have evolved
through time in this film analysis is their capability to enthral audiences albeit the continually
changing narrative landscape they have gone through over many decades. And despite these
developments that have transpired in the horror film as a genre, its essence as a work of art
has continually served its purpose of exposing the repressed sentiments of mankind: fear,
loathing, death and all sorts of mysteries that rarely ever get dealt with in everyday
conversations (Pinedo, 1996, 25). And this is what the reading of this film is all about: to
uncover those underlying emotions and sentiments that we all share as human beings, to treat
the film as an avenue for the portrayal of characters to whom we can identify ourselves with,
and most importantly, to realize the value-judgments that govern the way we perceive or
receive the narrative and representations that the film offers.
This paper shall first tackle the film as a genre that falls as a postmodern horror film.
This is particularly important to show how the genre elements have aided in delivering a
narrative that is quite different from that of a classical horror film. (Ibid, 19). The critique is
therefore predisposed toward drawing a distinction between how classical and postmodern
horror film present truth in a way that follows certain structures and techniques. Second, this
paper shall also delineate the cinematographic effects used relative to the theme, tone and
motif that prevail throughout the film. And finally, the film shall be closely analysed to infer
meanings and extract symbolisms and archetypes that particularly tackle gender, political and
economic issues which reflect how we understand the world and ourselves on a deeper level.

Genre elements and narrative techniques used in the film

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a film directed by Amir Lily Amirpour and was
released in year 2014 as an American spaghetti western movie with a plot that takes place in
a fictional setting called “Bad City.” The film is about a nameless female vampire who
hunts and kills immoral men. Apparently, horror films have aesthetically been popular for
their preoccupation to certain cinematic conventions and narrative techniques that helped
fossilize their structure and narratives as a genre. There are three three main elements that
constitute a postmodern horror film: a) an open-ended narrative b) a minimal plot and
character development c) the difficulty of audience identification with underdeveloped and
unlikable characters (Ibid, 18). These elements may ring true as they actually match certain
elements that have become prevalent and apparent in the progression of the film.
The film uses minimal character development and has a plot that is surprisingly
simple; however, it is not to be misconstrued as plain and bland the way it might have seemed
at first sight, as it is actually teeming with symbolisms that tell a lot about the kind of
audience that we are, instead of the film itself. One can clearly notice through the first few
establishing shots that there is nothing quite much to be seen in the setting: a picture of a
village which doesn’t have much activity to it except for continually moving machineries
from an oil factory. One must essentially notice the black-and-white motif, a decisive
technique used by the director to give emphasis to the seemingly desolate atmosphere of the
setting. The opening shots subsequently introduce the characters of the film: Arash, a man
clad in white shirt and black trousers, carrying a cat and quietly traipsing along the wide

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expanse of a city road, passes by an Iranian prostitute who throws him a flirtatious look as he
walks on until he gets to his car. A boy breaks the silence in the place when he asks Arash for
money. He answers the boy by saying he doesn’t have much to give and stresses how hard he
has worked to be able to buy himself a car. The simplicity of the setting is referent to the
typical Middle Eastern country and its culture, where people are typically reserved and
modest; however, this quietness also ironically symbolizes the wickedness that lurks in it.
The conflict of the film begins upon the introduction of the antagonist, Saeeid, a pimp
who supplies drugs to Arash’s ill father, Hossein, a heroin addict. Hossein’s addiction to
women and drugs got him indebted to Saeeid who now forcibly attacks him and coerces him
to pay. Since Hossein has nothing to give Saeeid, the pimp forcefully takes Arash’s car
instead, leaving the two penniless and hurting. At night, Saeeid finds himself with a prostitute
inside his car. A few moments later, he notices a girl wearing a black veil and thinks of her as
one of those women who roam the street at night in search for men who pay for sex. Saeeid
invites the girl over to his house and starts to do his thing with the girl. The girl allows for a
moment to let Saeeid come closer before attacking him, biting his finger off, and sucking
blood from his neck to death. Meanwhile, Arash coincidentally visits Saeeid’s home to take
back his car only to find out that the pimp is already dead, thereby, giving him the chance to
steal all of Saeeid’s money and the car that originally belonged to him.
One may say that the first half of the movie is allotted to establish the main theme of
the film: the horrors of societal ills that emanate from immorality, fleshly desires, and
mankind’s self-centeredness. Just like any postmodern horror movie, the film deviates from
the classical portrayal of monsters or supernatural beings as the perpetrator that destroys the
natural order of things. Since there is a need to restore social order, the destruction of the
monster is necessary as a form of narrative closure. In the case of Amirpour’s film, the girl
who turns out to be a vampire is an advocate of goodness instead of a monster who kills and
destroys.
Another thing worth noting, at this point, is the characterization of the vampire as the
film’s protagonist. Postmodern horror films are also known for how they make use of
women’s role in the attainment of certain ends, such as the portrayal of sexual or gender-
related roles. In this case, the vampire who serves as the female protagonist of the film
therefore serves a different purpose which is to portray females as a mother or ‘light in the
midst of the dark”. One may notice that the girl vampire wears a black veil and is overall
plain in appearance. The vampire is depicted as an epitome of women who do not need to
glam up in order to feel powerful and acceptable in the society. The female vampire is also a
conscious decision of the director to break free from the conventions of classical horror films
where male protagonists, in the person of scientists or those with extraordinary knowledge to
fight monsters, are usually portrayed as heroes.
Taking into consideration the other roles taken up by other women in the film, the
prostitute, for instance who entertains Hossein, was portrayed as a glamorous and gorgeous
woman who does not like what she does for a living. This particular scene is also a validation
of women’s vulnerability to exploitation, rather than an implication of their immorality as
they use their bodies for easy money.
The middle part of the movie portrays how Arash meets the girl vampire one night
and decides to come over to her house. Arash falls in love with the mysterious quality of the
vampire as she is different from the other women whom Arash gets acquainted with at night
clubs. The next thing Arash finds out is the death of his father after he sees him lifeless on a
street the next morning, surrounded by the people of Bad City as they remain clueless about

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the responsible person behind such murders of immoral men. These scenes again typify those
postmodern films that deviate from the patriarchal paradigm which downplays women by
assigning them certain roles that reify them as “sex objects”.
Another important element worth recognizing in the film is the principle of
undecidability -- a technique used to spawn an open-ended narrative instead of giving the
audience a sort of narrative closure just like what classical horror classical films do. Horror
films produced earlier than 1960s have monsters killed at the end in order to attain the
normative order which is the narrative’s idealistic ending. ( Ibid, 19). As opposed to this
classical way of storytelling, the girl vampire in the film outlives her victims and remains
uncaught and marries the mortal Arash.
Stereotypes and Archetypes as a film techniques
What is equally interesting about the film’s characterization techniques is its apparent
use of stereotypes, taking the function of hinting the audience of the characters’ personalities
through their perception of certain symbolisms that are stereotypical to particular identities
( Kidd, 2015, 26). Most of the time, critics look at films in a way that makes them think that
they are above it -- that they can read it by peeling through its deeper layers. In this film, the
use of archetypes says a lot more about how the audience actually makes sense out of
symbolisms that confront their understanding.
Certain stereoptypes appear in the film’s representation of various characters coming
from differing social positions and backgrounds. Taking for instance the most obvious
stereotype of a pimp taken up by the role of Saeeid, the audience is led to notice that pimps
have tattooes and piercings all over their bodies, and that they are sex-starved, utterly selfish
and are invariably inclined to committing crime and violence. Another archetype that is
prevalent in the film is the characterization of streetwalkers or prostitutes. Prostitutes are
portrayed in the film as women who excessively wear make-up and are always just after the
money of those men they entertain. They are portrayed as helpless women left without choice
and are being enslaved by men who can afford their services. On the positive side, the
character of Arash serves as the prototype of a simple man whose goodness comes from his
intention not to get rich but to actually be able to earn a living by working hard.
On a deeper note, the use of archetypes has also been necessary in the effective
delivery of the film’s plot in such a way that audiences are aided with mental maps that help
relate better to certain human experiences; For instance, the “SEX” tattoo on the neck of
Saeeid leads the audience to associate the word to crime, pain and violence because of the
personality of the tattoo’s bearer when in fact, the word “sex” in other contexts ,may actually
mean other things. Another instance is the portrayal of machineries as connotative of the
vicious cycle of life – that it is somewhat a roller coaster that sometimes takes you up and
takes you down. Such representation also serves as a symbol for mankind’s endless toils and
travails concomitant to his or her earthly existence.
Such employment of symbols therefore leads the critic to believe that the conscious
decision of the director to use symbols not only incites interpretation, but it also serves as an
avenue for rethinking certain stereotypes that have long been ingrained to the popular
audience due to overfamiliarity in mediated texts -- films in particular ( Ibid, 26).

Surreal yet in-style cinematographic effects

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Giving way to a feel of contemporariness and a sort of a dream-scape viewing

experience are the strategic camera work employed by the director in producing the film.
Despite the use of black-and-white picture, the film still imbibes a spirit of currentness,
considering the setting of the scene where factories and machines are strategically shown and
the way the characters are clad with clothes that are of modern fashion. The black and white
picture is a strategic device used by the director to foreground more important things while
downplaying minor aspects that could attract the attention of the viewer. Several close-up and
medium shots can be noticed as each character is framed on screen, giving emphasis to how
they feel and think, which evokes feelings of empathy from the viewers. This film
foregrounds characters’ emotions as it is primordial in establishing the film’s melancholic
mood and tone.
Another cinematographic element worth recognizing in the film is the choice of
musical background which further adds to the film’s contemporariness. These songs add
further to the surreal spirit of the film, most especially when used in slow-motions scenes in
the night club, where Arash is depicted as being “high” on drugs. These slow-motions scenes
in the night club are a metaphor for a desire to escape the unstoppable time and all its
pressures as well as all the wickedness living in the Bad City brings. Such scenes appeal
more to the audience’s psyche to think of the film as a metaphor to life where everyone can
relate to the harshness of living in the dark, and that there is a universal desire and need to
finally find the light.
The strategic use of light can also be noticed in the film. Most scenes are taken during
nighttime, as the night literally means “darkness” and this supports the metaphor of the Bad
City. The absence of light in scenes symbolically represent the hopelessness of characters
living in the Bad City brought by a life stricken with poverty and immorality. Very few
scenes are taken during daytime wherein factories and machineries signify the unending
cycle of socio-economic challenges and capitalism at large in the Bad City.

Conclusion
The film A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a film about filmmaking as it serves
as a catalyst for rethinking certain conventions and familiar archetypes that have long been
made familiar and commonplace to popular audience. The critic deems this film as a post-
horror cinema that deviates from the classical paradigm of producing horror films --
glorifying human rationality with hopes of restoring the natural order of things -- which is
far from the principle of “undecidability” wherein uncertainty is but the only constant
element in facing all evils and horrors of living in a dark world.
The film also celebrates the use of archetypes to remind critics that certain
symbolisms may serve as mirrors that make the audience reflect upon their own ways of
thinking and making meanings. This further proves that film as a form of literature is self-
reflexive in a way that it exposes its own cracks and underlying structures as much as it is a
work that can be enjoyed because of its logical arrangement.
Finally, the film is actually an invitation towards reflecting on life’s metaphors: the
Bad City which is a symbol for darkness and the vampire as the supernatural being that gets
to protect mankind from all forms of evil. The film is also a portrayal of human limitations
and weakness; nevertheless, it is also representative of mankind’s need to flee from evil and
a desire for goodness, belongingness and, most importantly, the chance to be able to give
love and be loved.

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REFERENCES:
Kidd, Mary Ann. 2015. “Archetypes, Stereotypes and Media Representation In a Multi-
Cultural Society.” In Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 236 (2016), pp. 25-
28.Accessed August 20, 2021 at www.sciencedirect.com
Pinedo, Isbel. 1996. “Recreational Fear: Postmodern Elements of the Contemporary Horror
Film.” In Journal of Film and Video, Vol. 48, No.1/2, pp. 17-31. University of Illinois
Press. Accessed August 21, 2021 at https://www/jstor.org/stable/30688091.