Speak No Evil? No...I think I will...heh heh heh

Has anyone ever thought “Oh wow this is a very uncomfortable and blatantly dangerous situation…meh it should be fine” well I have a movie you’ll LOVE.

Speak No Evil is a Dutch film that came out in early 2022 and I finally got around to watching it. I hadn’t heard much about it, but it seemed to be recommended and I wish I could say that I'd also recommend it.

"Speak No Evil" follows a family of a husband and wife (Bjorn and Louise), and their daughter Agnes who meet another couple (Patrick and Karin) and their son Abel while on vacation in Italy. After they return home they receive an invite to come stay at Patrick and Karin’s rural home in the Netherlands. When they arrive everything seems relatively normal, but slowly the host couple begin to act in such a way that you’d think “Wow, I think I should leave. This seems like a very uncomfortable situation to stay in and we barely even know these people.” The peculiar thing about this movie is… the family DOESN’T LEAVE. This is one of the most obtuse and dumb families I’ve ever seen in any horror movie, they ignore red flag after red flag after red flag to the point where I wanted to scream at my screen and say “JUST GO HOME OH MY GOD”. I can suspend disbelief only so much before I just accept that I’m watching one of the dumbest families alive navigate such an obviously hostile situation.

The movie was not all bad though! From the beginning there was a sense of dread slowly building that filled me with anxiety that I haven’t felt during a movie for a long time. It was wonderfully shot and acted, one of the standout performances being Fedja van Huêt who plays Patrick. His performance is uncomfortable and dances between charmingly charismatic to disturbingly unhinged and manipulative, it will absolutely leave you with the biggest sense of discomfort. It does bring up the question of “How much uncomfortable and sometimes hostile social situations are we willing to put up with for the sake of being polite?” The message couldn’t have been laid on thicker and it is almost spoon fed to you to the point of annoyance. Not only is the family of Bjorn, Louise, and Agnes beat over the head with very obvious red flags that would have anyone with sense breaking every speed limit to get far far faaaaaar away from Partrick, Karin, and Abel’s home. The cinematography is great with some absolutely beautiful shots(The wide shot by the windmill is one that immediately comes to mind), and also the style in general was very enjoyable, often pairing regular scenes with no audio besides some wonderfully haunting string music. There was a lot that worked with this film, but ultimately its glaring faults overshadow a lot of what is great about the movie. There was so much potential to have an incredibly unnerving, anxiety inducing, dread filled movie, but in the end it fell short by being a bit too direct and giving us one of the most annoyingly oblivious families in horror history.

3 of 5 stars

- F.A.