Speak No Evil, 2022.
Directed by Christian Tafdrup.
Starring Morten Burian, Sidsel Siem Koch, Karina Smulders, Fedja van Huêt, Liva Forsberg, Marius Damslev.
SYNOPSIS:
A family go to stay with another family they met on holiday, and soon wish they hadn’t.
We’ve all met them, and if you think you haven’t then you probably are one. One of what? One of those people you meet on holiday who says “We really must keep in touch”, and they do. The romance of the holiday environment has long disappeared, the food and drink you tried on holiday that you liked doesn’t taste the same at home, and those people you got along with so well when away from the monotony of everyday life now become a little bit overbearing when you just want to be left alone.
This is what happens to Danish family Bjørn (Morten Burian), his wife Louise (Sidsel Siem Koch) and their young daughter Agnes (Liva Forsberg), who meet Dutch family Patrick (Fedja van Huêt), his wife Karin (Karina Smulders) and their young son Abel (Marius Damslev) when on holiday in Tuscany. Naturally, they all hit it off and when everyone returns home, Patrick and Karin invite Bjorn and his family to stay for a few days, which they do, although Louise is a little sceptical as they don’t really know each other that well.
However, Bjorn seems almost smitten with the other family’s hospitality, even when the red flags start to appear and the vibe seems totally off, as Patrick’s increasingly bizarre behaviour causes the previously mild-mannered Bjorn to question his own masculinity, culminating in a nightmare weekend that makes Bjorn and Louise wish they had ignored the invitation from that lovely family they met on holiday.
A pitch-black satire on the middle classes, Speak No Evil is an unrelentingly intense ride through the emotions that come with having a young family, not knowing your place in the world and all the other insecurities that come with age. All of this is encapsulated in Bjorn, a man who clearly doesn’t wear the trousers in his own house as the much stronger-willed Louise is the one who seems to make all the decisions, except the important one about accepting Patrick and Karin’s invitation, so there is a lesson to be learned there.
That said, Patrick and Karin are very persuasive and turn on the charm when Louise does make the decision to leave. This is still quite early on, and although Patrick’s weird behaviour hasn’t really resulted in anything more harmful than some passive-aggressive comments about Louise being a vegetarian and a bit of OTT public displays of affection that make Louise and Bjorn uncomfortable, as a viewer you can feel yourself telling the innocent couple to get away.
Perhaps in real life most people would, as the writing does make Bjorn a little too much of a wimp, but the performances are strong and Karin’s pragmatic reasoning against Louise’s concerns are quite difficult to argue against when she lays it out so matter-of-factly. It also helps that the writers have perfectly encapsulated the various ‘things’ you do as a parent to young children, which explains a lot of the decisions the characters make. Damn that bunny rabbit!
Ultimately, Speak No Evil spends most of its time building towards something that we know is going to be sinister, and when it gets beyond the point of no return for all the characters the movie gets incredibly bleak, but the eventual payoff is worth the wait. A little extreme? Possibly, but we are here for a horror movie, and that is what we get.
With an American remake fresh in cinemas and receiving positive reviews, this home entertainment release of the original has arrived just in time to be appreciated alongside it. Displaying all the awkwardness and fake pleasantness that comes with just trying to be polite so as not to offend anybody, Speak No Evil will speak very loudly to a certain demographic but will also come as a warning to others, and even more pleasing is that as well as being uncomfortable – for all of the right reasons – to watch, it is also impossible to turn away from. For director Christian Tafdrup, Speak No Evil was his first genre movie – let’s hope it is not his last.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
