Exhilaratingly Slow

This week, an indie favorite, time travel, and Denzel Washington tracking a demon in the 90s. Some spoilers below.

From the Grave.

Three ideas from horror cinema's past.

◆ A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, dir. Ana Lily Amirpour, 2014.

Slow. A distinguishing feature here is the slowness of Amirpour’s characters. It’s almost as if they’re underwater. The comparison points for me are Kuroswa’s High and Low and Sergio Leone westerns (a comparison with Leone’s storytelling is made here). One effect is the same across all these works: scenes positively bursts with anticipation. Slowness here doesn’t feel slow. It feels alive, vulnerable, and fragile. For a horror movie about incipient romance and difficult, morally gray choices, the speed is the right one.

Elastic. The characters move with resolute slowness, but the music doesn’t always. This contrast is the other standout stylistic flourish in the film. "Death" by White Lies makes a propulsive soundtrack for the first romantic meeting of our leads, both moving, naturally, excruciatingly slowly. The music accentuates the slowness of the movement but also seems to capture the emotional speed of the scene—they’re barely moving, but the emotional state and, presumably, the beating of their hearts, tracks the music. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night creates, ultimately, a world in which time is exhilaratingly elastic.