Airbnb
horror is a relatively new phenomenon, but it follows squarely in the tradition
of hotel horror. Some of the genre’s best have been set in hotels and motels,
like The Shining, the Psycho franchise, and Horror Hotel,
starring the great Sir Christopher Lee. Maybe we our just intuitively unsettled
by the experience of temporarily making your home in a strange room, knowing
full well people you’ve never met also have the key. Try to sleep tight. An
expat Iranian couple definitely won’t when they check into a hotel with a 100%
vacancy rate and a check-out time of maybe never in Kourosh Ahari’s The
Night, which had its world premiere at the 2020 Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
Babak
and Neda’s marriage suffered while they were apart, but they have tried to make
up for lost time after she joined him in America. They both take pride and
delight in their baby, but there is still tension between them that always gets
aggravated when Babak drinks. This is one of those nights (boy, is it ever). He
is too proud to crash with their friends after the dinner party winds down, but
Babak agrees to stop at a hotel when he gets a little too woozy during the
drive back. Unfortunately, fate directs them to the wrong hotel.
It
certainly is quiet, but that is because they are the only ones staying there.
Yet, they are plagued by a mysterious prankster pounding on their door and
crashing sounds coming from above the ceiling. Then weird time and spatial
things start happening. They soon try to leave, but the hotel won’t let them.
It
turns out Persian horror is a real thing and it is consistently good. Ana Lily
Amanpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night and Babak Anvari’s Under the Shadow are both superior films, but The Night can still hang in
their company. Arguably, it could probably also be classified as “elevated
horror” or “post-horror,” or whatever critics are trying to call films like
Eggers’ The Witch these days, but Ahari’s slow build eventually reaches
some pretty malevolent and surreal heights.
The
Night is
definitely note-worthy for the presence of Shahab Hosseini (the star of Farhadi’s
The Salesman) as Babak. In fact, he rather plays him as if he were a
Farhadi protag—the kind who constantly dig themselves deeper holes through
their acutely human faults and foibles. He radiates bad vibes and anxiety,
while Niousha Jafarian counterbalances his simmering presence as the more reserved
and fatalistic Neda. Horror fans will also appreciate George Maguire’s sinister
smoothness as the hotel’s night receptionist.
Ahari
and co-screenwriter Milad Jarmooz will not shock experienced genre fans with their
third act revelations, but they should definitely be impressed by the eerily
entrancing look and vibe of the film. Indeed, the ominously striking work of cinematographer
Maz Makhani transcends category and provides the bedrock foundation of every
scary moment. Very highly recommended, The Night screens again tomorrow
(1/20), during this year’s SBIFF.