THE NIGHT
Directed by: Kourosh Ahari
Starring: Shahab Hosseini, Niousha Noor, George Maguire
After a dinner party with friends, Babak and Neda make the long journey home with their baby daughter. However after a terse argument they decide to spend the night in a hotel, little knowing that neither of them are going to get any sleep…
The Night is the first American film to be given a cinema release in post-Revolution Iran, and its kind of easy to see why. The fact that the main protagonists are both Iranian living in the US, and all that befalls their characters could be seen as a warning to audiences about the perils of emigrating.
The film's main strategy, for a lot of its running time, is to try and wrong-foot the audience, presenting us with situations which alter perspective to reveal something else. The opening scene for example sets us up to think something sinister and /or supernatural is already ensuing, however it turns out to be a parlor game being played by the dinner guests.
The hotel that Babak and Neda stay in seems normal enough but they are plagued by loud noises coming from upstairs, banging on the door by a small child who smiles at Neda without saying anything. The front desk clerk also seems really weird, delivering a monologue regarding his travels and all the death he's witnessed.
It becomes clear that something supernatural may be happening and centering on both Babak and Neda. The film's excellent sound design helps sell everything that is happening, especially when a ghostly voice calls out in the empty room. There are hardly any visual fx needed in the film at all, it is purely down to the audio and editing.
The Night's main issues are twofold. Firstly, the film is too long and during the middle section there is the feeling that the plot is spinning its wheels, forcing the couple through the same scenarios. The second is that Babak isn't exactly a sympathetic protagonist. He starts off boorish with his insistence of driving, despite having been drinking and smoking weed with his friend. Then later, when its revealed that by confessing to a hidden dark secret (as Neda does) they could stop all the haunting stuff, he refuses to do so. He'd literally prefer being hounded by spirits rather than admit he'd done something bad in his past.
THE VERDICT
With good editing and excellent sound design, The Night manages to be genuinely scary without any major special effects. There are a couple of jump scares but they are not the sort we are used to seeing. As mentioned above though, the film is too long by about 15 minutes and its difficult to sympathise with Babak, especially when you learn he has the power to stop what is happening. But as you will see in the final shot, that in itself is kind of the point.
7 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)
THE NIGHT WILL BE RELEASED ON DIGITAL PLATFORMS 2ND APRIL 2021