Speak No Evil

Sometimes the true horror lies in the awkward sneaky uncomfortableness that slowly ratchets into the nearly unbearable. The place where passive-aggressive steadily becomes aggressive. A slow burn becomes pure hell. Funny Games meets Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

Horror is my life, from z list splatter to the arthouse. However, a film that truly makes me uncomfortable is a rarity. As someone with social anxiety, this was my idea of torture. It may not be for everyone, but the crawling tension and discomfort was horror enough for me. Speak No Evil fully proves that Hell truly is other people.

Seen during the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.

This probably isn't the best review you'll read as it's been a while since I've posted anything. However, for this film, I'm happy to make the effort.

Words cannot describe how uncomfortable I felt watching the film. The social awkwardness, miscommunication and remote setting make this a very uncomfortable movie to watch. Not to mention the last 30 minutes, where the film turns from a psychological thriller to a twisted horror with horrendous graphic violence (I mean that in the good sense).

I was not yet familiar with Christian Tafdrup's work, but he is definitely putting himself on the map with this film.

Suitable for: People who don't want to sleep at night and have had a lot of fun watching movies like Hereditary and Midsommar.

Not suitable for: People who are going to watch this with their partner. You will get bruises and tears will flow.

PS. I'm from the Netherlands myself, and we're not that bad. As long as you do what we say.

An increasingly unnerving & uncomfortable psychological horror that invokes an air of unease from its opening scene and ultimately descends into an inescapable nightmare, Speak No Evil hints at dark machinations at play even when nothing is happening and makes deft use of the genre elements to deliver a film that's wicked, unforgiving, gut-punching & downright nihilistic.

Co-written & directed by Christian Tafdrup, the premise is simple but the setup isn't hurried as Tafdrup takes his time to acquaint us with the families before disturbing details start surfacing. While it isn't difficult to figure out where the plot is headed and how the unraveling events may play out, it doesn't make the ride any easier as the sense of discomfort only escalates with zero respite.

Brimming with an atmosphere that builds up quietly and is smothering in its intensity once the intentions become clear, the film also benefits from its disconcerting score that forewarns the audience of awaiting malice with its foreboding tracks. The actors chip in with solid inputs but the Danes making awful choices even after several red flags does hurt our investment in them and it only gets worse later.

Overall, Speak No Evil intends to shock, provoke & upset its viewers with its brutal take on the extent to which people choose to stay polite in the face of misdeeds & unpleasantness and at times end up playing an incriminating role in their own torment. And the film takes that idea to the extreme in the finale which will frustrate some. In short, this Danish chiller is a harrowing blend of The Strangers, The Invitation & Funny Games.

This is a peculiarly brutal horror-thriller centered on a Danish family visiting new acquaintances in Holland, who turn out to be more than they can handle. Starting from such a minimalistic and low-key premise, the team builds up its characters through several layers of tension, toward a grand finale, all the more horrifying for being perfectly predictable.

The writing is well-paced, concise and visual, and the characters, their inner life and the tension among them is captured in a few elegant and subdued strokes. The two male leads are particularly impressive, the one providing a great 'on-the-edge' character, the other a particularly subtle rendering of midlife crisis, peppered with masculine insecurities, class issues masquerading as culture shock, and fantasies of authenticity.

The wives are get less air-time but both offer relatable and credible performances. The kids both have thankless roles and the movie might have cured me from ever wanting to start a family.

Finally, the sound is also unusually interesting for a film of this type, for example when setting the mundane hell of adulting, against ominous orchestral music.

This is a very subtle and subdued horror thriller, which has all the qualities of Nordic cinema and few of its defects.

The film has a great start. The WTF moments start to appear here and there and you get on that "what the hell is going to happen" ride and you enjoy it as a viewer and you think you are in for a treat. The first part of the film has plenty of these to drag you in, leave your room and be there with them and feel those subtle signs that something is very wrong and then I hated it, worst victims ever.

1st half - it was so uncomfortable to watch that I loved it; 2nd half - the victims have ruined that amazing atmosphere built in the 1st half.

Overall, I am just disappointed because it had the potential to be a great horror film without ghosts, evil spirits just mean intentions and pure terror.

It's a 6 for me just for the 1st half.