I don’t know if they make bad movies in Iran, but I have yet to see one…and I’ve seen a lot.
That said, the new film ‘The Night’ by noted director Kourosh Ahari isn’t wholly satisfying if one is expecting something super scary. If you go in with expectations more along the lines of something creepy, something like an episode of a kind of Twilight Zone TV show, you’ll be more in tune with the film’s modest ambitions in the scare department. Being the father of an infant, I confess to a tight stomach where scenes with the baby are concerned, though.
Filmed on location in Los Angeles – think downtown seedy, not Beverly Hills- Shahab Hosseini (“A Separation,” “The Salesman”) and Niousha Jafarian (“Here and Now”) play a married couple with a baby daughter. On their way home from an evening at the home of friends, it becomes apparent that he’s had too much to drink and the couple decide to check in to a hotel for the night and finish their journey home in the morning. Big mistake. Huge.
Here the film is almost too classy – takes its time a little too much getting to the mildly frightening bits. The hotel, as you will have guessed, has its own secrets and you’ll probably find yourself singing Hotel California to yourself subconsciously.
What’s interesting about the story is how the circumstances force the couple to confess secrets to each other – things they’ve kept from each other, as married couples do often enough that it seems like there’s still more content that could be mined for future films. This is what makes it a “psychological thriller” and not a horror film.
The film is mostly in Farsi, but the two creepiest characters in the film (both in brief appearances) are, of course, American. One is the desk clerk at the hotel and the other is a cop who comes to check on them. These interactions are in English.
A bit of history: The Night is the first U.S. production approved for commercial exhibition in Iran since 1979.
2 ½ out of 4 Stars. Reviewed by Kyle Osborne. Running time: 105 MIN. (Original title: “An shab”) Photos Courtesy: IFC Midnight
