Santa Barbara Film Festival Reviews: Kourosh Ahari’s THE NIGHT sent shivers down our reviewer’s spine
It’s a simple concept really: A couple’s secrets haunt them when they take shelter in a local hotel. What starts as a fairly straight forward haunting delves deeper into the psyche of these two characters displaying their dark pasts to us with cryptic scenes, camera tricks, and one phantasmagorical finale. This feature film, directed by Kourosh Ahari, beautifully lays the trap for it’s protagonists before us and slowly springs it over it’s one and a half hour run time. This Iranian-American movie delivers on unquestionable anxiety by portraying the slow breakdown of a couple in the gorgeously lit hallways of an alarmingly enchanting hotel.
This whole movie follows two main characters: Babak and Neda. On the surface they’re the beautiful couple they were always meant to be, but once you start poking holes and prodding them you find out something isn’t quite right. Much should be said for Shahab Hosseini who turns in a stellar performance as the patriarch. His slow transition from pained to confused to alarmed to angry to scared marked the emotional moments of the film so clearly. Niosha Jafarian compliments him perfectly as his worried wife. The two play off each other so perfectly realizing a full and significant relationship that you believe they’ve always been married. Together they deliver the emotional heft of this film from beginning to end.
This whole movie creeps and it creeps the most in it’s camera work and lighting. The textured lighting of almost every shot elevates the quality of this movie by an entire degree and I congratulate the Gaffer/DP for inventing such quality lights. Whether it’s the iron bar shadows across the character’s faces or the intelligent use of phone light something must be said for the overall quality on display here. This kind of lighting for something so small as this feels rare and powerful as it does some of the storytelling itself.
Clearly the movie’s firing on all cylinders as it takes full advantage of every technical aspect. Sound cues from off screen lead in to big scenes, small camera tricks deliver on practical effects that chill. The whole thing adds up to one long sense of discomfort and uncertainty. It never veers into the profane or violent really, instead crafting a masterful feeling of suspense throughout as you root for, and against, the two protagonists. Sure it slows down in between paranoia sequences but those moments, while slow, feel important as the camera/lighting/ sound all deliver on a powerful sentiment: angst.
Nothing goes to waste in this film and I cannot recommend it enough for lovers of thrillers. Hang in there for the finale as it explodes with creativity in a way I shouldn’t explain for you. Fans of the thriller genre will be impressed by the craft on display here.
