Modern Classic: Speak No Evil (Christian Tafdrup, 2022)
With an American remake slated for September, I watched the original Speak No Evil by Danish filmmaker Christian Tafdrup. This psychological horror movie will make you feel genuinely uncomfortable.
It starts out with a situation that’s easy to identify with: while on holiday in Tuscany and sitting by the pool you are approached by another holidaymaker, who asks if he can borrow that extra lounger on which you just happened to put your stuff.
Before long you strike up a rapport and when you meet again later in the village where you are staying, you find yourself going out for a nice dinner with your wife and child and his family.
This is how a fast friendship begins - and usually ends. But when the Danish couple Björn (Morten Burian) and Louise (Sidsel Siem Koch) later receive a postcard from the Dutch duo Patrick (Fedja van Huêt) and Karin (Karina Smulders) with the invitation to spend a weekend with them in the province of Brabant, Björn in particular feels obliged to accept.
Louise has her reservations from the start, and that's also one of the strong points of the film: Louise is a bit of a whiner. That is why as a viewer you are inclined to condone the whims of Patrick and Karin. Patrick who turns up the music way too loud in the car, Karin who does not have a proper spare bed for the Danish daughter Agnes (Liva Forsberg), who also has to sleep in the same room as Abel (Marius Damslev), who for some reason doesn’t seem to have a tongue.
Abel is petulant and doesn't seem to care for any company. But hey, no matter how strange the situation may seem, there's no reason to run away right there and then. These are the annoyances that you can expect when you go to visit people you hardly know.
The first hour of Speak No Evil, written by brothers Christian and Mads Tafdrup and expertly directed by the former, consists mainly of uncomfortable family drama, complete with the kind of cynical dialogue that the four top European actors know how to handle just fine.
The Tafdrups also add nice touches, like the use of Dutch cult classic Saturday Night by Herman Brood during a pleasant evening out in a local restaurant, where mainly meat dishes are on the menu, one of the many things that upset vegetarian Louise.
While Karin begins to treat Agnes more and more like her own child, Björn looks to Patrick as an ally who allows him to let out his own pent-up frustrations, arising from the straitjacket of civilization in which he sees himself languishing.
Christian Tafdrup, who also works as an actor, based his third feature film - after Parents (2016) and A Horrible Woman (2017) - partly on his own experiences, even if they probably didn’t end as badly as they do here.
With Speak No Evil, Christian and Mads Tafdrup wanted to make a statement against culturally correct behavior that causes civilized people to put up with all sorts of unpleasantness and little transgressions without daring to stand up for themselves.
Speak No Evil bridges the gap between Ruben Ostlund's satirical drama and Ari Aster's folk horror. The sympathy that you will feel for the characters despite everything that’s going on, makes the gloomy and even sadistic horror of the last part even harder to swallow.
Note: Speak No Evil is available through various streaming platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and Google Play Films.
Note 2: An American remake, starring James McAvoy and Mackenzie Davis, is currently in post-production and will be released later this year.