The Night is dark and full of jump scares in this exclusive clip from the Iranian American horror thriller
The Hotel Normandie’s buzzing neon sign isn’t the only thing keeping Babak (Shahab Hosseini) and Neda (Niousha Jafarian) awake in The Night, Kourosh Ahari’s nerve-shredding new psychological horror thriller. After a night out with friends, the fraying couple find themselves beset by mysterious voices, frantic knocks, and strange visions after settling into the eerily vacant hotel. And, in this A.V. Club exclusive clip, a visit from a police officer offers them neither comfort nor answers.
Here’s a synopsis:
The Night is a psychological thriller that follows an Iranian couple, Babak and Neda, and their one-year-old daughter, Shabnam. Returning home from a friend’s gathering, Babak drives drunkenly, too stubborn to let Neda drive with a suspended license. When Babak’s driving threatens the safety of the family, Neda insists they stay the night at a hotel. Once they check-in, Babak and Neda find themselves imprisoned, forced to face the secrets they’ve kept from each other. And though the clock moves forward, “the night” never ends.
As the above clip ably demonstrates, Ahari’s got a knack for delivering a good jump scare. Credit, too, the chilling score and immersive sound design of Nima Fakhrara, whose work is essential in turning the hotel into a psychological prison.
The Night plays in select theaters and on VOD on January 29.