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While playing a game of “mafia,” Babak (Shahab Hosseini) and Neda (Niousha Noor) are tasked with figuring out who amongst them (it’s an evening with friends rounded out by two more couples) are gangsters and who are citizens. The idea is to therefore lie if you’re the former. Pretend you’re innocent and point your finger elsewhere in hopes that the majority of players choose to “kill” the wrong person. A poker face is king and in this case salvation for those searching for one last victory before kababs are grilled and conversations move to more serious matters. That’s not to say this sort of deceit doesn’t also bleed into those matters too. Secrets are inevitable. They sometimes prove necessary. The question becomes whether you can stomach the guilt.

As a sudden toothache reveals, Babak’s constitution for keeping his shame at bay might not be as strong as he thought.

Demons of the mind come alive in a cavernous Los Angeles hotel in “The Night,” a scary and stylish psychological horror thriller by Iranian American director Kourosh Ahari. Featuring excellent performances by Shahab Hosseini and Niousha Jafarian (“Here and Now”) as a married couple with a baby daughter and a frayed relationship, this predominantly Farsi-language production sneaks up on viewers and delivers a knockout final act.

The first U.S. production approved for commercial exhibition in Iran since 1979, “The Night” has been acquired by IFC Midnight, which aims to release it in North American cinemas in January 2021. Comparisons with Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” are inevitable for just about any film about people stuck in a haunted old hotel building. Ahari and co-writer Milad Jarmooz take this in stride, nodding here and there to Kubrick’s classic while stamping this visit to a hostile hostelry with its own distinct personality.

Exclusive: The Kourosh Ahari-directed psychological thriller The Night has landed a license for theatrical release in Iran. This is a historic benchmark for the country’s filmmaking community as it is the first U.S.-produced film to receive a license for theatrical release in Iran since the revolution.

Iran’s strict guidelines about what can be released theatrically in the country and its impact on artistic expression has received backlash from Iranian filmmakers including Mohammad Rasoulof (There Is No Evil), Asghar Farhadi (A Separation) as well as Rakhshan Bani Etemad. The country’s guidelines also require films to obtain a permit on a script before going into production. The Night, which is a U.S. and Iran co-production, managed to receive this permit before the Trump Administration’s new Iran sanctions at the end of 2018.

Shot stateside, The Night marks Ahari’s feature directorial debut and stars Shahab Hosseini...

Stars: Rebecca Reaney, Gus Barry, Elester Latham, Lara Lemon, Peter Lloyd, Shawn McDonald, Vic Stagliano, Adam Birdsey, Ian Birdsey | Written by Diana Townsend | Directed by Rebekah Fortune

It’s fair to say, I am on a pretty big indie-movie kick right now… Trying to rekindle my love of the the movie gems you can find out there if you just look past the Top 10 of the moment. In doing this we have created a spin-off of our podcast in which we will endeavour to promote indie cinema and indie releases on such formats as VOD, because not everything has to be capes and spandex – or break a billion at the box office!

Deadly Intent is a movie I would stick in the above category. A low budget, few thrills, intense psychological horror/thriller, that lives up to all that it promises. Think The Babadook and you’re somewhere close. This...