50 Movies Where Evil Won

Plot: Bjorn (Morten Burian), Louise (Sidsel Siem Koch) and their daughter Agnes (Liva Forsberg), a Danish family, go to stay with a Dutch family they met on holiday, but the behaviour of their hosts soon becomes completely unnerving.

Speak No Evil is one of the cruellest, nastiest horror films in recent memory. So much so, many actors refused to be in it.

It turns out that the Dutch couple, Patrick (Fedja van Huet) and Karin (Karina Smulders), are serial killers who murder families, and their apparent son (Marius Damslev) is a child they kidnapped from their previous victims. Most no doubt expected an ending where Bjorn, Louise, and Agnes escaped... that's not what happens at all.

Director Christian Tafdrup designed the movie as a satire of excessive politeness, and the Danish couple's reluctance to risk offending their hosts ultimately leads them to a harrowing end.

Patrick and Karin kidnap Agnes and cut out her tongue, before taking her parents to a quarry. Bjorn demands to know why they're doing this. "Because you let me," replies Patrick, just before he and Karin force Bjorn and Louise to strip naked and then stone them to death in an almost unwatchable sequence. Then, Patrik and Karin are shown going on holiday again on the hunt for their next victims, with Agnes now being forced to pose as their child.

Horrible. Brilliant, but horrible. This one is probably too grim to watch a second time, and it's telling that the Hollywood remake was given a happy ending.