The Night is a relatively good Iranian horror film, shot in the best traditions of “The Shining” by Stanley Kubrick. Everything is sustained in this horror: intrigue, atmosphere, plot. But at the same time, the meaning of the film The Night (2020) The Night remained a mystery to many viewers. What did the director want to say? What message was this film supposed to convey to the viewer? Let’s try to answer these questions in our review.
Country : USA, Iran
Genre : horror
Year of production : 2020
Directed by : Kourosh Ahari
Cast: Shahab Hosseini, Nyusha Noor, Lea Ohanian, Gia Mora, Elester Latham
What is the movie about
Let’s start the explanation of the hidden meaning with an overview of the content itself. This is an Iranian film, although there is no local flavor in the film. Except for the names and covering the head of the main character. The action of the picture takes place in America, where the family of emigrants moved: Babak Naderi and Neda. Here the couple had a daughter, Shabnam.
The horror film The Night (2021) begins with our heroes visiting their friends and spending the evening playing Mafia. Then the men take a drink, the women bustle about in the kitchen. At night, Babak and his wife are going home. The man has a toothache, so he is irritated. Despite the fact that Babak drank, he gets behind the wheel. However, the spouses were not destined to reach the house.
The navigator in the car fails, Neda gets the man moralizing, he is distracted, and accidentally crushes the cat. As a result, the couple decide to spend the night in a hotel and continue their journey in the morning. The closest is the Normandy Motel, a dubious place lost in the alleyways. The hotel administrator reports that of all the rooms only the suite is free, and the doors are locked at night.
Immediately after the settlement, the horror begins. Someone knocks on the door, the clatter of feet is heard along the corridor, and an unfamiliar boy calls his mother. Babak goes out with his daughter into the corridor, where he talks to the administrator. The employee tells the man that many events took place before his eyes, including the murders of children. At the same time, the administrator is touched by little Shabnam and feeds her milk from a bottle.
Frame from the film.Neda appears, who says that she will rock her daughter herself, and Babak returns to the room. However, it soon turns out that it was not his wife, but one of the shadows that live in this gloomy hotel. The couple doesn’t understand what’s going on.
They constantly see some people, the police officer who came to the call mysteriously disappears. And was it a policeman? Exhausted by a sleepless night, the couple are trying to leave the accursed hotel. They go outside, but here it turns out that Babak forgot his car keys, so he has to go back.
A black homeless man approaches Neda, who has remained on the street, who monotonously calls on her to repent, otherwise dawn will not come. The woman gets scared and also returns to the hotel. The spouses are no longer able to leave this place again. The lights go out in the hotel, the doors are locked, it’s almost 6 in the morning, but it’s night outside. Babak tries to call his friend Farhad to ask for help, but the voice on the phone says there is no way out.
Neda confesses to her husband that when he left for America, she realized that she was pregnant. However, she did not know if her husband would return, so she did not want to raise the child alone, and decided to have an abortion. After the confession of the woman, the hotel lights come on, but the doors remain closed. Now it’s Babak’s turn to reveal the secret of his past, but the man doesn’t.
The man tries to find another way out of the hotel, and he succeeds. Returning to the hotel for his wife, he sees a woman from his past who accuses him of lying. Babak realizes that he is dealing with a ghost, tries to defend himself with a knife, but accidentally turning around, plunges the blade into the stomach of his wife who has run up.
Frame from the film “The Night”.After that, the man begins to have visions. He suddenly finds himself in the hospital, and watches how he tried to resuscitate the girl the day before. Behind the doors is a dark forest. When the man wakes up, he finds himself in a hotel room. Nearby, his wife and daughter sleep peacefully. He goes to the bathroom, and suddenly discovers that his reflection has a life of its own. The duplicate babak in the mirror turns its back on the original, which creates the picture of the hotel that was shown earlier in the film. There really is no way out of this trap.
What is the meaning of the ending? To understand this, you need to analyze the very idea of the film.
The Night Plot analysis
The general concept of the film “The Night” is based on the secrets of the past that every person has. Our heroes made identical tattoos for themselves, symbolizing two separated halves. Perhaps this became an activator key that launched a chain of subsequent events.
Against this background, the Normandie Hotel becomes a kind of purgatory, where sinful spouses are invited to purify their souls, dropping the burden of secrecy. No wonder the administrator talks about the deaths that he had to witness. Despite his assurances, the hotel is empty, so the place can be called a personal hell for our heroes.
Frame from the horror “The Night”A black cat, which periodically flickers in the frame, can symbolize a conductor. Perhaps this is the posthumous incarnation of the girl that Babak tried, but could not save. The man himself sees Sofia. Her image in the film is revealed briefly. Babak had an affair with this girl when he had just moved to America, leaving his wife in Iran. However, the man deceived his passion. As a result, the poor thing decided to take her own life by opening her veins in the bathroom. Babak saw this picture when he returned for the car keys.
With Neda, it’s easy. She is haunted by the ghost of a five-year-old boy. This is her unborn son, who just wants maternal warmth and care. At the same time, the child, apparently, does not hold a grudge against the mistaken mother. The ghost boy, like the strange tramp, also urges the woman to confess, and when she does, lights come on in the hotel.
It remains only to open the door. Babak can do this if he confesses his sin, but a man does otherwise. He’s not going to admit mistakes. Therefore, the man remains locked in the hotel – the dungeon of his thoughts and experiences, where even his own reflection turns its back on him, going to the next circle of hell.
The meaning of the ending The Night
Based on the final, the explanation of the meaning can be as follows. You have to pay for everything you do in life. At the same time, fate or evil fate gives a chance to realize their mistakes. Ned understood this. She listened to the voice of reason and her ghost, so a light came on for her. She received the forgiveness of her unborn son.
With Babak, everything is more complicated. He refused to admit his mistakes. The dark forest shown at the end of the film “The Night” very well symbolizes his soul. But at the same time, the man is a doctor, he saves people, and even before the events shown on the screen, he tried to help the girl, but could not, which he sincerely regretted. Did he get it? Maybe. After all, the tooth that tormented the man throughout the film stopped hurting after waking up. However, this is not the end yet.
He woke up next to a calmed daughter and a repentant wife. The family is back at the Normandie Hotel, dawn is dawning outside the windows. Everything seems to be going well, but the mysticism continues. This is indicated by a frozen, and then turned back reflection in the mirror.
It can only mean that the man got his second chance. When Neda wakes up, he will tell her about the accidental connection with Sophia, and the doors of the hotel will open.