The Night

A goosebumps-inducing affair, "The Night" is at its most effectively unsettling when the focus is to evoke fear as opposed to when it physically shows what's haunting the characters trapped in their respective secret tragedies.

Spooky and unsettling, director Kourosh Ahari's eerie suspense yarn The Night got under my skin.

It's all mood, and I don't know if it necessarily adds up.

I thought it really was effectively creepy... There's a pervasive sense that something is off.

It's a slow build to collapse, escaping the traditional trap of such supernatural suspense films in that both of them have secrets, and it's not the acts themselves but the deceits that have led them to this place.

A knockout debut feature -- so assured that it stands on its own as a filmmaking achievement apart from its historical significance, which is considerable.

The Night is more about sustained creepiness than actual big scares

The Night unfortunately does not live up to the expectations it sets for itself and the expectations of a genre.

It's a carefully laid-out picture, albeit perhaps a bit too restrained to become anything more than solidly unnerving. Still, strong moments abound.

The film results more formulaic than twisted.