Two female-themed, foreign-focused spook films, one a new feature and one a restored video rerelease, have made it to town just in time for Halloween. Each is a ferocious feast of idiosyncratic entertainment.
"A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night," showing Oct. 24, 25, 26 and 31 at Walker Art Center, imagines an Iranian crime haven called Bad City invaded by a seductive, skateboard-riding vampiress. Though it features an Iranian cast, it was actually shot in California, usually in the dark. It delivers its tale in the hip, downbeat tones of a Jim Jarmusch avant-garde satire. Ana Lily Amipour, who wrote and directed, aims of cool tones throughout. American actress Sheila Vand, whose pretty face resembles a cloudy night with cold rain threatening, plays a lonely blood drinker whose fangs are triggered by abusive male seducers. Moving through a subculture of drug junkies, prostitutes and gangster bosses, she slowly and gradually brings the townspeople to her form of justice. But how will she respond to the sincere admiration of a handsome, honest young lad? The film, with references to New Wave revenge thrillers and stylized pop soundtracks, gradually takes its time but doesn't outlast its welcome. For screening and ticket information, visit http://www.walkerart.org/calendar/2014/girl-walks-home-alone-night
Minneapolis-based Euro-film marketer Raro Video's fresh offering "Werewolf Woman" is a 1976 Italian grindhouse shocker of stupendously overwrought bloodshed and nudism. It may be the most wildly sexist and hilariously awful horror film ever made. Would-be actress Annik Borel plays an Italian heiress who fantasizes that she is the spirit of an ancient lycanthrope, killing every man and woman with a seductive attraction to her. She baffles medical science, causing her physician to declare "It's imperative to make sure her brain's energy isn't released due to tension the cause of which we don't really know." During her regular losses of conscience she delivers naked hula dances. In spite of that, she remains the most relatable character in the film. Director Rino Di Silvestro (a Quentin Tarantino exploitation idol) displays a homemade dramatic style, meat-cleaver editing and dime store makeup effects that make a film watched for nonstop humor, not terror. Available from rarovideousa.com
