Christian Tafdrup (director)
Acorn Media (studio)
18 (certificate)
98 min (length)
02 December 2024 (released)
04 December 2024
This Danish-Dutch Co-production from 2022 is the original psychological horror-drama SPEAK NO EVIL and not the 2024 American remake starring James McAvoy. Which is fine, because we all know that the Scandinavians in particular are rather accomplished when it comes to horror – psychological or otherwise. Oh, and did I mention it also won several awards and was nominated numerous times? Despite the accolades, this slow-burning tale of a Danish couple, who befriend a Dutch couple during a holiday only to regret their decision to accept an invitation to the Netherlands, isn’t quite as flawless as it may sound.
While holidaying in Tuscany, Danish couple Bjorn (Morten Burian) and Louise (Sidsel Siem Koch), together with their young daughter Agnes (Liva Forsberg), enjoy the Italian atmosphere and the landscape as well as the local delicacies. By chance they make the acquaintance of a Dutch couple, Patrick (Fedja van Huet), his wife Karin (Karina Smulders and their son Abel (Marius Damslev), a boy with an apparent speech impediment and roughly the same age as Agnes, although later it transpires that the poor lad has no tongue. Staying in the same hotel, the two couples tend to bump into each other and soon begin to eat in the same little ristorante, having a good time. When Agnes loses her plush toy bunny Ninus, Bjorn manages to find it again and upon hearing what has happened, Patrick, whom they bump into in one of the many alleys, remarks that what Bjorn did was truly heroic. At first, Bjorn assumes that Patrick is making fun of him because he went in search of a toy bunny but Patrick means what he says… as we will find out later.
When vacation time is over, the families return to their respective homelands but vow to keep in touch. Sure enough, some weeks later Bjorn and Louise receive a letter from Patrick and Karin, to be more precise, it’s an invitation to come visit them for a couple of days in their rural and very remote house in the Netherlands. Weighing up the pros and cons (they have already been on holiday twice that year and don’t know the Dutch couple well enough to stay), in the end they accept the invitation, if only for the sake of being polite. Patrick and Karin’s remote house seems cosy enough, with a guest room, an additional cabin and even a little swimming pool. Surely they can afford such additional luxuries given that Patrick is a doctor. At first, the atmosphere is friendly and relaxed and only slightly soured by the fact that Patrick prepared a special welcoming meal, roast boar, which upsets Louise, who is a devout vegetarian. However, out of politeness, she eats a bite. Tensions soon arise when their hosts insist that Agnes sleeps on a mattress in Abel’s room, to keep him company and hopefully to make good friends with the shy and inhibited boy. The arrangement only leads to Agnes sneaking into the parent’s guest-room as she can’t sleep on the floor.
Louise begins to feel increasingly uncomfortable but Bjorn tries to calm her down by saying that it’s only two days more before they return to Denmark. Unfortunately, the atmosphere deteriorates further when Patrick and Karin invite the couple out for dinner in a restaurant (which seems miles away), which turns out to be a bit of a dive. Louise is already miffed even before they set off, because Karin has arranged for a child minder, a friend of theirs called Muhajid (Hichem Yacoubi), to look after the youngsters whereas Louise and Bjorn expected that the kids would come along to the eatery. Once there, Patrick proceeds to order food for everyone, with Louise once again pointing out that she is a vegetarian, although occasionally she eats fish. She refuses to eat meat out of respect for the environment and for animals. To which Patrick replies that such a statement would not only make her a pescatarian instead of a vegetarian but also a hypocrite, because sea life also suffers due to environmental challenges. Moot point, that! On the way home, Louise gets angry about Patrick cranking up the music in his car and driving while half drunk, not to mention the sexually provocative way in which the couple were dancing back in the eatery. And so it goes on until Louise finally persuades Bjorn to pack their bags, secretly sneak out of the house in the middle of the night and drive off. All would be good were it not for Agnes’ blasted toy rabbit, which she accidentally left behind. “We just have to buy a new Ninus” says mum and tries to calm her down, to no avail. Blubbering away, dad Bjorn takes a U-turn and returns to Patrick’s house who, it has since emerged, isn’t really a doctor at all but an unemployed soul who simply doesn’t believe in work (I’m sure our very own Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves would sort him out in no time). Sneaking back into the house to search for his daughter’s toy bunny, he also enters the cabin behind the house and to his horror, discovers something which makes his blood curdle…
The final 15 minutes are blood-curdling indeed and come as somewhat of a shock, given the fact that up until then, the film’s ‘horror’ was decidedly psychological. Still, the story (or the script, rather) leaves several questions unanswered… not only why Patrick and Karin, who outwardly seem to be a perfectly normal and respectable couple, turn out to be…well, you’ll see for yourself if you watch the film. Also, given that Patrick is a work-shy individual and Karen doesn’t seem to do much either, how can they afford the remote house they inhabit, how do they pay their bills and how can they afford to go on holiday? The dialogue is mainly in English though there are English subtitles throughout, as the actors speak with Danish and Dutch accents.
SPEAK NO EVIL (a Shudder original) is now available in DVD-format.