SPEAK NO EVIL (2022)
Label: Acorn Media International
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Cert. 18
Duration: 94cMinutes 2 Seconds
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen
Director: Christian Tafdrup
Cast: Morten Burian, Sidsel Siem Koch, Liva Forsberg, Fedja van Huet, Karina Smulders, Marius Damslev
unnerving, dread-inducing and unrelentingly gripping social satire of a chiller gets its home release this winter.
The Danish terror film Speak No Evil (2022) is directed by Christian Tafdrup, a dread dripping tale of a Danish family comprised of husband Bjorn (Morten Burian), wife Louise (Sidsel Siem Koch) and daughter, Agnes (Liva Forsberg) – who while on holiday in Tuscany, Italy meet a seemingly fun-loving Dutch family by way of Patrick (Fedja van Huet), his wife Karin (Karina Smulders) and their mute son, Abel (Marius Damslev), who they say was born with no tongue. The couples hit it off while in Italy and spend some quality time together, and later when the Danes return home they receive an invitation to come and stay with their new Dutch friends at their rural home in a remote area of the Netherlands. They find it a bit odd to receive the invitation from people they've only just met, but politely accept. Travelling to the Netherlands they are welcomed with open arms and big smiles, but soon the Dutch couple's friendly hospitality begins to crack, giving way to a darker more insidious nature, revealing drunken outburst, Patrick making fun of Louise's vegetarianism, wildly inappropriate public displays of affection, and peeping in on the couple while they're having sex.
The Danes find their hosts behaviors upsetting and disturbing, but it is not until they find their young daughter sleeping in a bed next to a naked Patrick that they attempt to flee at the crack of dawn without saying goodbye. They get away clean but end-up returning to retrieve their daughter's favorite stuffed rabbit. That's when they are confronted by the Dutch couple who gaslight them and convince them that these uncomfortable situations are merely misunderstanding and that the rest of the weekend will be much better, and so they stay on... big mistake.
This reminded be quite a bit if Funny Games, wherein there's a sinister game of malevolence versus manners is afoot, the Danish couple detecting something amiss but too damn polite and worried about a social faux paus to act vigorously on their instincts which are, or should be, screaming for them to get the fuck out of there. It reminded me of the time my wife and I went at a new restaurant we'd never been to before. Right off the bat I was getting the icks from it, but I didn't say anything because I felt that my wife really wanted to check it out, and I want her to be happy. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to me she was getting the same icks, but she thought I was super-keen on trying out a new dinner spot. So, neither of us said anything to the other, we sat there and ordered, ate our food, secretly disliking it, and only once we were in the car afterward did admit to each other how gross the place was. We had a laugh about as we discussed it, but the laughter was short lived as we later on proceeded to puke our guts out for the next two days from food poisoning. If either of us had spoke up and simply said "nope" and turned around when we got those ick vibes we could have saved ourselves a truly vile gastronomical disaster. That's sort of what happens here, this couple both felt the weird vibes, they were seeing things they could not abide, but never truly acted on it in a definitive way, until it was perhaps too late, putting themselves and their child at risk, because they didn't want to make it awkward.
There is currently an Hollywood remake of this at the cinema, and it is quite good, I just streamed it on Peacock. It's quite familiar, pretty much a note for note remake, up to a point, but come that point they are two completely different beasts. I give the edge tot he original, I admire where it's willing to go, where these actors were willing to let themselves go, and without spoiling anything, let me just say that the Hollywood remake, while quite excellent, does not go where this goes n- not even close. This one is like taking an auger to the guts, it really pulls it out of you this one, with it's cold brutality and heinous outcomes. It's a potent and visceral experience, and the sad part is that the film broadcast dread and doom from early on, we all know it's coming, but the poor too polite Danes, so careful not to tread on others, only realize how dire their situation actually is when they are literally being lead to the slaughter.
Audio/Video: Speak No Evil (2022) arrives on region-free DVD from Acorn Media International, the SD presentation is fine, good color and black levels, though SD imperfections via compression does eek through the encode. Audio comes by way of a mix of English, Dutch and Danish, mostly English, via Dolby Digital 5.1 surround with optional English subtitles. The lossy track is clean and well-balanced, the tense and dread field score by Sune "Køter" Kølster broadcast the impending terror from the very star of the film and sounds solid. There are no extras for this release, just a static menu and subtitle options. This was originally announced by Acorn media as a Blu-ray and DVD release, but it was pulled back to a DVD only release, which I found strange considering the remake has been quite successful, and this might have been a decent seller piggybacking on the success of the remake. I know there are Blu-ray releases in the Netherlands, let's hope we see a US friendly Blu-ray of this one at some point, it's well-worth owning in HD if your a fan of bleak outcomes.
Special Features:
- None
