Speak No Evil Review

Speak No Evil review.

Speak No Evil is a Danish horror film about the dangers of making friends as an adult. Ok…so it’s about more than that. The main takeaway from the whole ordeal though is that strangers are probably best left as such.

New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.

Speak No Evil

Directed by Christian Tafdrup

Written by Christian Tafdrup and Mads Tafdrup

Starring Morten Burian, Sidsel Siem Koch, Fedja van Huêt and Karina Smulders

Speak No Evil Review

Speak No Evil waits an impressive length of time before it confirms what you already know. It correctly assumes that you will feel uncomfortable before it attempts to provide discomfort. It’s not a hard bet to win. All that’s needed for you to assume something is wrong very quickly into the experience is to have ever tried to make a new friend as an adult.

Bjørn (Morten Burian), Louise (Sidsel Siern Kock) and their daughter Agnes (Liva Forsberg) meet a seemingly nice family while on vacation. They accept an invitation to visit the family in the Netherlands. After differences between the families make the visitors feel uncomfortable, Patrick (Fredja van Huêt) and his wife Karin (Karina Smulders) attempt to ease the tension with a night out. After their young son Abel (Marius Danslev), who was born without a tongue, is on the receiving end of Patrick’s anger…the visitors decide it’s time to get out of town for good. Of course, it isn’t going to be that easy.

You probably aren’t meant to ever trust Patrick and Karin in Speak No Evil. The actors do a fine job making you question if your own real-world fears are being used against you for no reason. It is believable enough that the story of the movie could go completely the other way and you’d accept it. But Speak No Evil isn’t interested in a clever twist for the sake of one. What it is interested in is a slow, complete, descent into darkness.

When I say darkness…I mean total darkness. The endgame of Speak No Evil is about as stark and hopeless as you’re going to find. It also features some unshakable imagery in the climax. While the story works as a hopeless and dark one…it’s ending doesn’t come without taking a different kind of toll on its lead characters. We can’t get into why here…but we’ll just say that what should be a fully tense and horrific final act is undone one too many times by growing frustration with the lead characters. It isn’t just that they make some stupid decisions…those are expected. What hurts is the complete lack of action when it is called for. To the point where there is no other logical choice to be made…there is a frustrating lack of effort put forth.

This oddity aside, Speak No Evil is a very well-made slow burn thriller. The payoff will stay with you long after viewing. It features terrific performances in multiple languages. As the two families are from different countries, they speak to each other in native tongues…but when in a group (most of the film) they speak English to understand each other. It’s a neat thing. I almost think it would have been better if they didn’t put subtitles up for Patrick and Karin’s conversations to fully make us feel as odd as Bjørn and Louise. We are meant to be in their shoes after all.

Speak No Evil is also a beautiful looking film. Whenever the setting moves to the outdoors we are treated to some gorgeous scenery. Even though we know that it’s heading down an ugly dark road, the early portions are filled with light and beauty.

Beauty and kindness in the early goings can’t quite overcome basic human fears, however. Heading out of the country to spend a weekend with people you briefly met? It’s not exactly a situation you’re likely to find yourself in. It’s certainly not one that you are going to ever feel comfortable with. When faced with the choice of how to pay off those fears Speak No Evil must decide between defying expectations or confirming those fears. It doubles down on the latter. To a chilling, and lasting, effect.

Scare Value

The term “slow burn” is thrown around a lot. Many times, used to describe a well-made movie that is slow and doesn’t end up going anywhere particularly exciting. If that slow burn never catches something on fire…it’s just a slow movie. Speak No Evil‘s burn ignites the climax with unforgettable moments of horror and imagery that will stay with you long after the movie. You have to allow for some frustrating character decisions to get full enjoyment out of the movie. Not that the road it’s going down should be enjoyed.

3.5/5