A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night(2014)
#1
Dir. Ana Lily Amirpour
Hidden gem
Studiocanal Presents Amazon ChannelSimilar →
Best Iranian and Persian-Language Horror Films
Iranian horror is one of cinema's most constrained genres. Strict censorship has historically made it nearly impossible to produce horror films inside Iran, which means the category includes diaspora filmmakers working in Farsi abroad, pre-revolution experiments, and the rare post-revolution films that slipped through. The result is a small but distinctive filmography where every entry had to fight to exist. This is an honest list — there aren't 20 great Iranian horror films in any database, so we haven't padded it. What's here is genuinely worth watching.
9 films· Updated 10 Apr 2026
Best pick
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night(2014)
Studiocanal Presents Amazon Channel
Dir. Ana Lily Amirpour
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is this list so short?
Iranian censorship has historically prohibited horror filmmaking. Most horror-adjacent Iranian cinema is allegorical or oblique rather than overtly genre. The films here represent the genuine horror output — we'd rather have 8 strong entries than 20 padded ones.
Is A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night an Iranian film?
It's an Iranian-American film: directed by Ana Lily Amirpour (Iranian-American), performed entirely in Farsi, set in a fictional Iranian city, and steeped in Iranian visual culture. It was shot in California. Whether it's 'Iranian' depends on how you define the term — we include it because it's the most significant Persian-language horror film ever made.
What should I watch first?
Under the Shadow (2016) if you want accessible, taut supernatural horror with a political backdrop. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) if you want something stylistically unique — a black-and-white Farsi-language vampire western.