10 Recent Horror Reveals Nobody Was Ready For
2. The Utter Bleakness - Speak No Evil
Christian Tafdrup's Speak No Evil is such a tough film to digest. On the one hand, it's superbly made, full of exquisite performances, and is brimming with social commentary. On the other hand, it's likely a film that you will only ever watch once - such is its soul-crushing finale.
As this 2022 picture opens, Danish couple Bjørn and Louise and their daughter Agnes become friends with Dutch couple Patrick and Karin and their son Abel after meeting on their respective holidays in Italy. So much so, our Danes are extended an invite to visit the Netherlands and stay with their new pals.
Despite their reservations - mainly from Louise - the polite Danes do indeed visit Patrick, Karin, and Abel, though the Dutch hosts aren't exactly the most hospitable. They brutally berate their poor son, they feed vegetarian Louise meat, they get absolutely wasted, and they run up a huge restaurant bill that they decide to make their guests pay. All in all, Patrick and Karin are a couple of d**kheads. Still, it'd be deemed rude if Bjørn and Louise complained, right?
With it eventually revealed that Patrick and Karin are sinister sorts who set out to make new friends, kill them, cut out their child's tongue and present this kid as their own, things certainly take a turn for the terrifying in Speak No Evil's final act.
Given how we've been conditioned that good so often emerges victorious in such horror pictures, the shocking revelation here is that evil wins out in Speak No Evil. That realisation kicks in when young Agnes has her tongue yanked out, and Bjørn and Louise are stripped naked and stoned to death.