• Meet Jana
    • Press
    • Cookie Policy
    • Disclosure Policy
    • Privacy Policy
    • Sample Policy
  • Contact
  • Giveaways
    • Enter Our Current Giveaways
    • Winner’s Page
    • Winner’s Form
  • Social Media
    • Geek Girl DIgital
  • Shop our Faves
  • Gift Guides
    • 2022 Holiday Gift Guide
    • Father’s Day Gift Guide
    • Mother’s Day Gift Guide
    • Pride Month – Merch That Gives Back
    • National Pet Day
    • Bourbons for National Bourbon Day
    • National Merlot Month Wines
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • Pinterest
    • Snapchat
    • Twitter
    • YouTube

Whisky + Sunshine

Northeastern Travel Blogger, Entertainment Writer & Lifestyle Blogger

  • Entertainment
    • Film Reviews
    • TV Reviews
    • Celebrity Interviews
    • Disney
      • Disney Channel/Disney XD
      • Marvel
      • Star Wars
    • LGBTQ
  • Travel
    • Disney World
    • Disneyland
    • Cruises
    • United States
      • Alaska
      • California
      • Florida
      • New York
        • New York City
      • Oregon
        • Portland
      • Vermont
      • Washington
    • International
      • Belize
      • Canada
      • Costa Rica
      • Colombia
      • France
      • Honduras
      • Kenya
      • Mexico
    • Hotels/Accommodations
  • Food/Drink
    • cocktails & mixology
    • food
    • recipes
    • wine
      • wine pairings
  • At Home
    • Autos
    • Beauty/Fashion
    • DIY
      • crafts
      • home
      • printables
  • Tech

February 1, 2021 By Jana Leave a Comment

The Night – Film Review and Kourosh Ahari Interview

Sharing is caring!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Yummly
  • Flipboard
  • Reddit
  • Mix
  • LinkedIn
  • Buffer
  • Email
the night FILM REVIEW AND KOUROSH AHARI INTERVIEW

The Night is the most thrilling movie in subtitles I've seen since Parasite. There's a reason I've never loved dark, remote, secluded hotels at any time of day, and The Night certainly has reminded me why.

If you loved the claustrophobic feel of The Shining, Director/Writer Kourosh Ahari’s The Night is the psychological thriller you didn't realize you'd been waiting for.

 

the night promo poster

The Night Film Review

Filmed mainly on location at the Hotel Normandie in Los Angeles, CA, The Night is an introspective psychological thriller that explores the darkest fears of the main characters as they are trapped inside a brooding hotel, reminiscent of the remote Overlook Hotel in Kubrick's The Shining.

 

The Night still image

Babak (Shahab Hosseini), Neda (Niousha Noor), and their daughter check into the boutique, eerie Hotel Normandie after a night out with friends and a near accident. From the moment they spot the hotel in an otherwise normal-bustling section of a city, and park their car in what makes the hotel feel like it is then isolated, strange things happen.

Throughout what seems like an endless night, the couple realized they are not only locked in the hotel but are also being haunted by mysterious forces seemingly real enough to drive anyone mad.

It turns out that guilt and secrets can do more than just haunt you psychologically. And a gentle reminder—not everyone is who they seem.

The Night still image

What Works with The Night

The use of cinematography is brilliant in this film. While filming at night certainly aids in the creation of the muted color palette, the crew also photographed the early scenes with several older Leica lenses—prime lenses they found at a friend's house, as Ahari told us when we interviewed him. Later on at the hotel, they switched to other, more traditional lenses for a deeper, more saturated feel.

The use of shadows to focus on internal emotions and fear offered effective, emotional looming visual cues the crew used in much of the hotel cinematography. Maz Makhani as the cinematographer was clearly the right choice for this project, though interestingly enough, the bulk of his experience is in music video work. I look forward to more of his work.

READ NEXT  Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, and the Music of Pixar's SOUL

As it should, sound design plays an integral piece in building tension, terror, and fear. Nima Fakhrara has scored a hauntingly beautiful work to guide the viewer through the night at the Hotel Normandie, mixed with dripping water, buzzing lights, and the sounds of the city. Even the simplicity of the quietness when Babak wakes from his nightmare and opens the window, and you hear the city noises again is a critical piece of that sound design.

the-night-babak

What Doesn't Work with The Night

Overall, not much doesn't work with The Night. The early part of the film before we get to the hotel drags on a few minutes too long for my preference. I prefer less tension when I know it's simply tension we're building. To me, it's wasted time in my day.

Similarly, when we're well into the mysterious hotel occurrences, it felt as though that dragged on a little too long before we got to the crux of why the couple was being haunted. All in all, the 105-minute movie could have been reduced to 95 minutes or so and been just as effective, or maybe even more so.

BTS of The Night

Kourosh Ahari Interview

I chatted with Director/Writer Kourosh Ahari the weekend The Night premiered in the U.S. We had a Q&A to learn about his background and filmmaking, as well as ask questions about The Night, his first full-feature film with Mammoth Pictures.

Ahari has a background in psychology and has always had an interest in exploring that element in his films. Ahari said he set out to make a psychological thriller to make the viewer address the fears we all have within. “That’s what matters to me, to us [Milad Jarmooz is his Mammoth Pictures cohort]. I want to be able to tell human stories,” Ahari said. “I like telling stories of the unknown. That’s scary because you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

the-night-neda

Because the story takes place at night, the crew opted to shoot the film at night. While that made it a bit more authentic and helped with the muted, dark shadowy feel, Ahrai said filming at night made things a bit slower than during the day.

One of the lessons Ahari said he learned as a first-time filmmaker (for a feature film) is that you have to be very involved. “That was something I had to manage along with directing, and that definitely affected the time and space I would have given for directing,” Ahari said. “Next time, I would want more time to tell the story in making sure it comes together the way I want it to.”

READ NEXT  Best of the NYICFF 2021

Much like Ahari's previous works, The Night is a story that looks at ideas that matter and that have an impact on the audience. “We go deeper into psychology and internal fear.”

painting in The Night

In the film as the couple check in to the hotel and head toward their room, we see a painting of a young man with his gazing into a mirror, only the reflection isn't mirrored, it's a repeat of what you are looking at—the backside of the man looking at himself in the mirror.

I had burning questions for Ahari surrounding this painting, for several reasons, including the fact that it is mirrored in one of the ending scenes of the film. I wanted to know if perhaps the young man in the painting could be the hotel clerk trapped in the hotel after all these years. “It is not him,” Ahari told me. “But the movie should answer what happens to him. All the questions are meant to be answered in the film.” The painting is a reimagination of a piece of art Ahari had seen somewhere and thought was a perfect representation of something he wanted to present in the movie.

“It was a great way to highlight what is happening with the character internally in the movie—not being able to look yourself in the mirror,” Ahari said. The shame and the feeling of guilt over hiding something from someone you love.

The Night is the first American-produced film to receive a license for theatrical release in Iran since the 1979 revolution, so it's important for it to be shown in theatres there, though because of the pandemic, The Night has yet to be shown in Iran. Ahari said all the key departments were Iranian or Iranian-American. Theatres are still shut down, and they really want it to be seen theatrically in Iran, it has yet to be released there at all. 

 

The Night

About The Night

After a night out with friends, an exhausted married couple, Babak (Shahab Hosseini) and Neda (Niousha Noor), and their baby take shelter in the grand but eerie Hotel Normandie. Throughout a seemingly endless night, mysterious disturbances ruin their night’s rest as Babak and Neda soon realize they’re locked-in with a malevolent force that hungers for the dark secrets they’ve kept from one another.

READ NEXT  Interview with George Igoe of "George Goes Everywhere"

With The Night, director Kourosh Ahari made history for being the first U.S.-produced film to receive a license for theatrical release in Iran since the revolution. The psychological thriller follows in the footsteps of The Shining, luring viewers into a hotel that is both ominous and inviting, where the ghosts of the past still linger around each corner. The terrors that lurk in the corridors are more real and terrifying than any movie monster in a mask. The Night will make you never want to spend a night away from home again.

The Night Official Trailer

 

Have you seen The Night? Let us know your thoughts below!

 

the night FILM REVIEW AND KOUROSH AHARI INTERVIEW

  • About
  • Latest Posts
Follow me
Jana
Jana Seitzer is a writer, traveler, podcaster, and geek. Although well-versed in many fictional universes, Star Wars & Marvel have always been her favorites.
Follow me
Latest posts by Jana (see all)
  • All the Easter Eggs in TEEN WOLF: THE MOVIE - January 26, 2023
  • Best Quotes TEEN WOLF The Movie - January 26, 2023
  • TEEN WOLF The Movie Review - January 23, 2023

Sharing is caring!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Yummly
  • Flipboard
  • Reddit
  • Mix
  • LinkedIn
  • Buffer
  • Email

Filed Under: Celebrity Interviews, Film Reviews Tagged With: Kourosh Ahari, The Night

About Jana

Jana Seitzer is a writer, traveler, podcaster, and geek. Although well-versed in many fictional universes, Star Wars & Marvel have always been her favorites.

« WandaVision Cocktail – The Devil’s In the Details
Malcolm & Marie Review – It’s a Wild Ride »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Meet Jana

Jana Seitzer is a writer, traveler, podcaster, and geek. Although well-versed in many fictional universes, Star Wars & Marvel have always been her favorites. Read More…

Get Essential Oils to Keep You Going

Amazon Services LLC Associates Program

Whisky + Sunshine is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases at Amazon.com.

You Might Also Like

eli lacrosse no 11

All the Easter Eggs in TEEN WOLF: THE MOVIE

derek hale teen wolf movie

Best Quotes TEEN WOLF The Movie

teen wolf the movie still

TEEN WOLF The Movie Review

Ant-Man and The Wasp: Cassie Lang Comics To Read Before Quantumania

Ant-Man and The Wasp: Cassie Lang Comics To Read Before Quantumania

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond

Copyright © 2023 · Jana Seitzer | Whisky + Sunshine

PRIVACY POLICY