The Night

Saw this at the Imagine filmfestival, usually in Amsterdam but now 100% online. There were a few eerie, creepy moments (no jump scares, luckily) but it generally failed to deliver on its promising plot and the even more promising location in the form of a large yet apparently near-empty hotel.

It took us some time to be made aware that the lead couple had hidden secrets and a few other issues. It would have been more effective to include this somewhere earlier in the story to become an integral part of the tense situation. Now we only have the eeriness and the daunting location during the first hour to worry about, and not their relational problems popping up too late to become interesting.

One more example of what some Polanski's films of the past can help today's directors and screen writers to find inspiration. This movie is Ok for me, not more not less than others of the same kind. Some good sequences, scary, efficiently enough to keep you awake. I am also glad to have seen an Iranian horror film; at least spoken in Farsi - I guess. And there is also a bit of SHINING too. Good film, above average in the horror mystery genre.

This movie is a mixed bag: acting, photography and the general mood are very, very good. Some scenes are very effective and, indeed, so haunting.

On the other hand, the pacing is kinda slow and too much precious times gets lost with cliché jumpscares and other tricks.

I wouldn't recommend this movie to everyone, but if you like fu**ed up family dynamics and dark places, you should give this a try.

For all those negative reviews because "I didn't understand story, it was pointless" etc. I don't even know what to say. You need average IQ and maturity to be able to comprehend what's going on, it really isn't that complicated.

Plot is great. It is somewhat slow at the beginning but those "irrelevant" small details play part in the third act. As movie progresses it gets more and more interesting and the film devours you.

I will say though, it uses a couple of tropes, not just one or two. Most things are predictable, some aren't, and those that aren't make this movie good because it catches you off guard.

Dark and witty, this film demonstrates that everything has a consequence. 7/10.

I have to start by saying that since this is the debut feature film of Kourosh Ahari, he did a fairly good job in re-imagining the Iranian version of Kubrick's The Shining and the whole haunted house archetype (in this case a hotel) in an American setting. However, the very slow pace of the movie, its predictability, its stereotypical build-ups and jump-scares will fail the movie in making any dazzling impact.

The superb performances by Cannes winner Shahab Hosseini and Niousha Noor should not go unnoticed.