Horror Movie Review: Speak No Evil (2022)

Rarely does a film come along that proves to be an uncomfortable watch from beginning to end. A film where you sit on the edge of your seat throughout, scream at the TV through frustration, and come away feeling mightily depressed from what you have just witnessed.

This sums up the Speak No Evil experience. A psychological horror/thriller directed by Christian Tafdrup from a screenplay he co-wrote with his brother Mads. It stars Morten Burian, Sidsel Siem Koch, Fedja van Huêt, Karina Smulders, Liva Forsberg, and Marius Damslev.

Bjørn and Louise are a mild-mannered Danish couple on holiday in Greece with their young daughter, Agnes. They end up meeting a Dutch couple, Patrick and Karin, who are also have a child called Abel around the same age as Agnes. The groups bond, spend time together, and part as friends.

Sometime later, back home, Bjørn and Louise receive a postcard from Patrick and Karin inviting them to come and spend the weekend with them at their country home. Louise, unenthused as they barely know them, is convinced to go though by her husband, who is sees it as impolite to refuse the invitation.

Along with Agnes, they head off to the Dutch countryside to stay with Patrick, Karin, and Abel. What begins as an awkward experience, two different sets of people coming together and finding out what those differences mean, turns into something much more shocking. Bjørn, Louise, and Agnes are about to have the worst weekend of their lives.

The goal of this film is to make you feel completely unsettled, and on that front, it absolutely delivers. Not just from a visual and audio perspective, but from a character and actor perspective. However, because of this obsession it means the writing has to take some serious liberties, not just with plot points but with how the characters are portrayed.

Bjørn and Louise’s marriage has becoming stale, and their focus on Anges has meant they have lost touch with each other. They are awkward together, at times uncomfortable, and sleepwalking through their middle-class lives. It’s why Bjørn is so taken in by the confidence of Patrick, a man who says what he thinks and expresses himself emotionally. You can tell that Bjørn wants to be the sort of person that Patrick is, but simply doesn’t have the belief or self-worth to do it.

His, and his family’s nightmare experience here is born out of politeness. Too polite to say something when things are getting a bit out of control. To polite to ask questions in fear of offending, and to polite to stand up for themselves when pushed. Something that is relatable, up to a point.

A point that exposes Speak No Evil’s biggest problem, the diminishing plausibility of the story and the characters actions as the film goes on. Not only does it become distinctly unbelievable that characters would act in a certain way at a certain point, but it also becomes downright frustrating. You’ll be screaming at the TV for Bjørn and Louise to do something, anything to protect themselves and, more importantly, their daughter.

The lack of logic surrounding certain actions will damage the immersion and Speak No Evil works hard to keep you immersed. Even though it’s immersed in darkness all the way through.

There’s nothing wrong with that, but this is a film that really could have done with a ‘hope spot’ or two. Even if the end result had been the same, it would have at least made the experience more realistic.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because you let me.”

No truer words are spoken in this film.