“Don’t you want to go to a more crowded one?” is the first line of dialogue in the trailer for Kourosh Ahari’s hotel horror film The Night. Of course the answer should be yes! Do not stay in the creepy empty hotel!
Needless to say, the tired couple and their tiny child join in the grand cinematic tradition of staying in the creepy empty hotel.
The Night follows Babak and Neda as their night in the Hotel Normandie drags on forever. From things that go bump in the ceiling to an unnerving receptionist to eerie children in the corridors, the hallmarks are all there: something is very wrong in this place. Here’s the official summary:
After a night out with friends, an exhausted married couple, Babak (Shahab Hosseini), 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.
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 linger 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.
I don’t know; at this point I’d still like to (safely) spend a night away from home again someday. But maybe this movie will change that? The Night arrives on VOD on January 29th.
