Aan Shab
Samenvattingen(1)
Een Iraans expatkoppel, woonachtig in L.A. met hun dochtertje, keert huiswaarts na een etentje met een ander stel. Echtgenoot Babak heeft een paar drankjes gehad, maar staat er toch op dat hij rijdt. Als hun GPS het begeeft en ze in rondjes blijven rijden gaan ze naar het dichtstbijzijnde hotel. Hier wordt hun nacht pas echt een nachtmerrie, en eentje met een flinke scheut Lynchiaanse bizarheid. Twee kwesties staan centraal in The Night: te lang genegeerde huwelijksproblemen en het gevoel van ontheemding dat deel uitmaakt van het expatbestaan. Deze kwesties uiten zich zowel in paranormale gebeurtenissen als in meer wereldse onheilspellende voortekenen: een zwarte kat, een bedelaar die in Farsi mompelt, enzovoort. Dat de hoofdrolspelers ouders van een klein kindje zijn maakt de film des te effectiever, omdat elke scène de potentie voor ontvoering of verwonding van de baby heeft. De mengeling van Iraanse en Amerikaanse cinema werkt hier wonderwel en resulteert in een voortreffelijke horrorfilm, met een flinke scheut Lynchiaanse bizarheid. (Imagine Film Festival)
(meer)Recensie (2)
I really enjoyed this. Serious, adult horror and an atmospheric delight. The story is about an Iranian couple living in the US who get lost on their way to a friend and have to spend the night in a hotel. The guy is grumpy because he has a toothache and the woman is grumpy because the hubby was driving under the influence and wasn’t paying attention, and they ended up there. A ruined night. And they still don’t know that the hotel where they’re staying in is like a blood brother of the Overlook from The Shining :) First of all, The Night is a very well made movie, the atmosphere is thick from the start, even when nothing weird is happening yet, and it holds throughout. The actors are excellent, too, and the script has a couple of good ideas. The end is a bit too “festival-y”, so people expecting a clear mainstream resolution might end up disappointed, but I think the fans of more ambitious stuff will be satisfied.
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Yawn a MEH! I will have to go against the current, but The Night is atmospheric, but in layman's terms, tedious, boring, uninteresting, tiresome, and dull. Horror? More like a mystery drama. The film presents an Iranian couple having dinner with friends. They spend an unnecessary 20 minutes talking about nothing, with uninteresting dialogues and even less interesting characters. And if I thought that something would change when they move to the hotel, I was mistaken. For me, the atmosphere is in a cemetery, a castle, a monastery, a mortuary, caves, or underground dungeons, but I really don't know what is atmospheric about a cheap 2-star hotel with no one around and nothing interesting is happening. It is worth mentioning it lacks typical horror elements. There’s no gore, no jump scares, no tension, no chilling or goosebumps, no unease, and the apparitions are meaningless, with no danger to the characters. I liked the trend of scaring with old naked people, but scaring with a little boy and a relatively attractive woman, whom I imagined more in bed than being afraid of? That is absurd. The cinematography doesn't look cheap, but I don't intend to praise the visuals, as they don't intend to show anything interesting. The characters are unlikeable, the wife is especially annoying to the point of pain, and the final resolution is something I've seen in every other movie, so I can't give any points for that either. Not to mention that the film is almost two hours long and, with its sleep-inducing pace, doesn't bring any joy. And just to add insult to injury, towards the end, you have more questions than answers, which is again not praiseworthy. I really don't know what I was supposed to like here, as everything I seek in horror films is absent. Nowadays, a film where the lights are turned off is considered horror. Not as good as tea from Persia. Maybe I'm not intellectually evolved enough to enjoy such a film. Story***, Action>No, Humor>No, Violence>No, Enjoyment**, Music***, Visuals***, Atmosphere***, Tension*. 4/10.
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