Movie Review: “Speak No Evil” (Sundance Film Festival)
Director Christian Tafdrup’s Speak No Evil (Gæsterne; Denmark/Netherlands, 2022) may be the most uncomfortable horror film in recent memory, as it puts social niceties, including acting “correctly” and politely, under a microscope and plays with the ideas of what horror is before delivering an absolutely harrowing third act. Danish family Bjørn (Morten Burian), Louise (Sidsel Siem Koch), and their young daughter Agnes (Liva Forsberg) meet Dutch family Patrick (Fedja van Huêt), Karin (Karina Smulders), and their young son Abel (Marius Damslev) during a trip to Italy. The two families strike up a casual friendship during the trip, and a few months later, Patrick and Karen invite Bjørn, Louise, and Agnes to spend a weekend with them at their home. Things start off a bit uneasily when Patrick insists that vegetarian Louise taste the wild boar he has prepared for their first meal together, and things get increasingly uncomfortable from there. Speak No Evil starts off as pitch-black comedy of manners
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