A gruelling slow-burn chiller that no one with children should watch, Speak No Evil is a grimly effective if deeply upsetting warning against making friends on holiday. Danish couple Bjørn and Louise (Morten Burian and Sidsel Siem Koch) are holidaying in Tuscany with daughter Agnes (Liva Forsberg) when they are befriended by an apparently charming Dutch couple named Patrick and Karin, plus son Abel (Fedja Van Huet, Karina Smulders and Marius Damslev).
Bjørn and Louise’s marriage has grown stale, whereas Patrick and Karin seem exciting and fun – especially to the stagnant Bjørn, who feels stuck. Thus Bjørn is all too happy to take up the invite to their new friends’ Dutch countryside retreat, where events soon darken turning into a massively unpleasant finale.
With Michael Haeneke’s Funny Games looming large, Speak No Evil takes its time before revealing the horror. Initially, there just seems to be a clash of parenting styles – Patrick and Karin apologetic at the minor squabbles that happen, Karin telling Agnes how to behave, serving meat to pescatarian Louise – but a night out in a restaurant turns matters odder still, with a mystery babysitter, drunk-driving and a loud radio. A blunt pair of scissors proves a foreshadowing instrument as the film goes down a pitch-dark path that does not relent.
Writers Christian and Mads Tafdrup do not let their impotent characters off the hook, shining a light on the cringing worry about social offence turning into something far more fearful. Speak No Evil is a blisteringly dark film: vice-like in its grip, beautifully shot by Erik Molberg Hansen and with a score dripping with dread by Sune Kolster. Very well performed by its cast, yet likely not a film you’ll want to watch more than once.
Dir: Christian Tafdrup (18, 97 mins)
Speak No Evil is streaming on Shudder now
words KEIRON SELF
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