Directed and co-written by Iranian filmmaker Kourosh Ahari, The Night (2020) is an English/Farsi-language psychological thriller that may be best summarized as a cross between The Shining (1980) and Hereditary (2018). Though I cannot say it is necessarily on par with these classic horror films, The Night is a well-made indie as far as production quality, performances, and writing, and it is the first U.S. film to be cleared for theatrical release in Iran since the revolution in the late 1970s.

The film follows an Iranian couple, Babak (Shahab Hosseini) and Neda (Niousha Noor), living in the U.S. with their baby girl. After leaving a dinner party, the couple’s GPS begins misdirecting and rerouting, leading them to decide to stop for the night at a hotel. They find and check into the Hotel Normandie where they seem to be the only residents, however, throughout the night they continually hear strange knocks, footsteps, and eventually begin having unsettling encounters with the culprits. Despite calling for help from the police and hotel staff, the couple finds that they won’t be able to check out so easily.

I feel almost certain that if you have so far enjoyed the works of emerging horror auteur Ari Aster that you would also enjoy Kourosh Ahari’s The Night. With a decaying romantic relationship at its center and a family being haunted by their personal demons, I experienced similar feelings drawn out from watching Hereditary. Not only narratively, but also visually and even in the music score, I would say that Kourosh Ahari might even take it one step further into horror by not only being horrific in its events but also genuinely scary in its images — the visual manifestation of the film’s monster, for instance, is understated but is as creepy as a Chesire cat smile.

Shahab Hosseini and Niousha Noor make this movie feel like real life, they seem to melt into their performances, making for a most believable dynamic as husband and wife. I do wish that the hotel, itself, had, had more character put into it, it would make the movie more memorable, rather than relying on jump scare noises and ghosts to do all of the heavy lifting on creating horror — it could have been made as dingy as the Bates Motel or as opulent as the Overlook, but this important aspect to the story seemed to be overlooked. But no matter, The Night still resonates and calls for continued reflection after viewing — due to its long-windedness, however, additional viewings might be rather cumbersome.

The Night had all the markers of my favorite recent horror films — psychological exploration of relationships and family bonds, Hotel California-like hotel, car accident early on to set the mood for disease and unsettlement, and do I sure love a good use of a taiko drum, which always seem to set an otherworldly mood. The pacing does dip somewhat in the middle, so if it were edited to be about 10 to 15 minutes shorter, perhaps by nixing some of the jump scares that are not as effective, this movie would have landed an even higher rating from me. The Night is due for release on January 29th in theaters and on-demand.

7 out of 10