[Film Review] The Night (2020) review

Chilling, dark, and tormented are a few words to describe The Night (2020). Writers Kourosh Ahari, Milad Jarmooz, and director Kourosh Ahari take us on an all too familiar journey.

An obviously strained marriage plagued with an irate, alcoholic husband and a wife with an infant to care for while adjusting to a new location. Husband, Babak Naderi (Shahab Hosseini), may seem like your typical family man, but it is clear from the start that something haunts him. His wife, Neda Naderi (Niousha Noor) has been apart from her husband for a little over five years, which has taken a toll.

The film opens with the couple playing a game with a group of friends, Baback seems sluggish from the start and complains of a toothache for most of the opening of the film. Neda helps the other wives prepare dinner as they talk about children and she explains that she and Baback recently acquired matching tattoos, a circular rune-like tattoo that neither of them places any meaning upon as they simply chose it from the tattoo artist’s book. Throughout the film, this fresh ink causes both of them pain with excessive itching, redness, bleeding, and becomes suggestive of a curse placed upon them, but never is it further explored. This idea seemed more like a public service announcement on thinking twice before getting a tattoo yet never reached its full potential in serving the characters nor the story.

In the other room while Baback and his friend Farhad (Armin Amiri) drink and smoke, they talk about the couple arguing often, however, Baback believes they are happy. Baback tells of his toothache, that it’s bothered him all night and he drinks to soothe the pain. The evening is getting late so the couple leaves refusing a friendly offer to stay the night. It is during the drive that the couple can’t seem to make it home. Baback swerving off the road and a malfunctioning GPS leading the couple and their baby to pull over and spend the night at a hotel. Even before getting to the door an uneasy feeling sets in as a black cat growls aggressively and a man standing outside the hotel grabs Neda whilst saying something inaudible. Once inside, the hotel manager (George Maguire) refuses to acknowledge the strange events and gives them their room keys.     

The family settles in, exhausted and everything appears normal as they all go to sleep. It is then that strange events begin to occur once again. From hearing voices to seeing things, the couple along with their baby find themselves alone with no one around to help them. Director Kourosh Ahari’s style seemingly takes inspiration from Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining (1980), from the unhinged drunken husband to the hotel and even to the inspired shots throughout. The Night gives us classic false alarm jump scares, long-held nerve-wracking scenes, and an eerie musical score to accompany it all. What Baback and Neda soon learn as their isolated horror grows more consuming during their stay at the hotel, is that there is no escape. With each attempt to run away, the hotel and its entity do the most to keep them trapped. Neda is tortured by a young boy she keeps seeing and hearing, while another woman with her wrists cut repeatedly appears to Baback.  

This terror creates an even larger crack within Baback and Neda’s relationship, blaming the events on his drunken hallucinations and she having no answer. With no other hotel guests around and the manager having vanished, they turn to the cops who never actually show up, just another apparition to torment the couple. It is here that Baback calls his friend Farhad who says nothing helpful and repeats, ‘There’s no way out’ over and over until Baback hangs up the phone realizing it wasn’t Farhad. The Night contains many aloof traits that we never revisit or gain an explanation to, from the tattoos to Baback’s toothache which seemingly acts as more of a tool for the audience to be aware that something is wrong; as his pain worsens consequently so do the events. 

It is here that Neda sees the young boy again and repeats to her, ‘Say it’ over and over until she can’t take it anymore and breaks down. Baback runs to her and she confesses a secret she has told no one; the loss of their first child that Baback never knew about. Her confession brings the hotel power back on and the air seems lighter for a brief moment as Baback refuses to truly unpack her truth and instead walks away. When they still can not get out of the hotel Neda asks Baback what he is hiding, as her truth sets them partly free, but he is reluctant to tell his secret. 

Irritated by her questioning he walks away to seek another way out, leading him further into a purgatory-like hallucination as he refuses to confess his truth. It is at this moment that Baback would rather die than reveal his secret, taking a scalpel to that tattoo in hopes his suffering will end but it doesn’t and in fact, the movie ends instead, with the mischievous set up that Baback was only dreaming but in reality, he remained stuck looking at his own back through the mirror. Leaving the viewer to search through all the metaphorical oddities to make sense of what was presented. Whether it comes off as a conclusion without resolve or a psychological masterpiece is going to be up to you ghouls.     

The Night does not present us with the classic horror formula packed with creepy imagery, gore, and special effects. This is a slow-burning psychological horror movie that makes you feel unfinished and that you are missing something. Visually stunning and believable acting is enough to give it a watch and reminds us that we too must look past the mirror and speak our truth.

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