Speak No Evil

In the understated horror film SPEAK NO EVIL, a foreboding sense of doom begins to percolate from the very opening shot. A car travels precariously down a dirt road with a sinister soundtrack bumping along with the jittery journey. The car then unceremoniously stops at a villa, a couple exits the vehicle, and the scene ends.  

The following morning, another couple, Bjørn (Morten Burian) and Louise (Sidsel Siem Koch) lounge by the pool while their daughter Agnes (Live Forsberg) swims. Bjørn kindly agrees to let another tourist snag the chair next to him, and in the next few scenes, we are shown glimpses into wholly average vacation fare. They swim, eat, and relax. At dinner, they are mildly charmed by another couple who apologizes for their late and loud arrival the night before.  

The following day, Bjørn, Louise, and Agnes are looking for a place to eat when Agnes realizes she has lost her beloved stuffed bunny. Bjørn makes a heroic quest throughout the village, looking for the missing stuffy. When he finally finds it and reconnects with his family, he finds Louise talking with Patrick (Fedja van Huêt) and Karin (Karina Smulders), the couple who had spoken at dinner the night before. They are also out enjoying the day, and have a son named Abel (Marius Damslev) who has joined them. Abel is extremely shy, but the families hit it off just the same. 

Shortly upon returning home Bjørn and Louise receive an invitation from Patrick and Karin to come stay with them for a weekend. After their delightful experience holidaying together, they can think of no reason to decline the kind offer. As another set of friends succinctly say when discussing the possibilities, “What is the worst that could happen?” 

The family makes the eight-hour journey and arrives at Patrick and Karin’s modest home. Bjørn and Louise discover that they will have a bedroom to themselves, while Agnes will be sleeping on a mattress on the floor in Abel’s room. Abel still doesn’t have a whole lot to say, but we learn that this is because the boy is missing most of his tongue as the result of an unfortunate medical condition.

SPEAK NO EVIL is a film of mounting subtle discomforts. There are benign sequences of everyday living that are punctuated by the jarring, sinister soundtrack first heard in the opening scene. Had any other music (or no music at all, even) been playing over these moments, they would be completely mundane. As Sune “Køter” Kølster’s score assaults the senses, though, the deep and worrisome tones lead us to believe that Bjørn has much more bubbling below the surface. At times, he seems distracted and placating; willing to smile and laugh when necessary, but also giving the viewer the distinct feeling that there is more to his story. Perhaps he is merely wearing a mask, and it is only a matter of time before the truth is unleashed. 

Director Christian Tafdrup does an excellent job with pacing, skillfully building tension and discomfort through a series of mild microaggressions. From Patrick’s insistence that vegetarian (okay, pescatarian) Louise try just a little bite of his wild boar, to the host’s blindside proclamation that the children will be staying with a babysitter while the adults go to dinner, to Karin’s scolding of young Agnes, these innocuous moments begin to snowball. As such, SPEAK NO EVIL preys upon social niceties and conventions, forcing us to question whether something is truly amiss or if it can all be chalked up to misunderstandings and cultural differences.  

When the truth in SPEAK NO EVIL finally presents itself, it does so in a swift, shocking series of events that will gut-check every viewer who dared to press “play.” During this unforgettable set of sequences, my wife turned to me with a nervous laugh and exclaimed, “Your face!” That’s all she could muster because not only had the scene left her virtually speechless, but she saw that my eyes were bulging, and my jaw was practically unhinged. Had the whole film been filled with graphic violence, this type of reaction would have never happened. But, to take this particular journey, only to end in the way it did, it was nothing short of masterful. It makes Tafdrup’s film one of the most memorable of the year, and one that has stayed with me for days after its merciful conclusion. 

SPEAK NO EVIL- A

(Now streaming on Amazon Prime)  

Brian Miller