Horrorx52: 2026
2/52

Despite this being an overwhelmingly uncomfortable viewing experience, I have not been able to stop thinking about it since watching which is a quality I LOVE in my horror films!

Speak No Evil explores how people end up and remain in dangerous situations due to an inability to go against social convention, and the complacency that results from ceding your ground. The story follows Danish couple Bjørn, Louise, and their young daughter Agnes. While on holiday in Italy, they meet and befriend a Dutch couple, Patrick and Karin, who are traveling with their son, Abel. Sometime after returning from holiday, the Danish family receive an invitation from the Dutch couple to visit them at their countryside home in Holland, despite not knowing them well.

Upon their arrival, Patrick immediately tests the water by pressuring Louise to eat meat despite having previously expressed that she is a vegetarian—just to see if she would do it to be polite. The Dutch couple repeatedly takes advantage of their guests’ accommodating culture and systemically violate their boundaries, starting small and gradually increasing in severity, feeling out what they can realistically get away with and how much or how little fight the Danes ultimately possess.

Bjørn and Louise’s repeated inaction in the face of neon red flags and blaring sirens is a point of major frustration for a lot of viewers, but I am of the belief that their inaction is the entire point of the film. So while it’s maddening at points to watch them make decision after decision that you would never make, this experience is not outside the realm of possibility. I have three distinct lines of thought relative to Bjørn and Louise’s repeated inaction:

One: The film juxtaposes exaggerated portrayals of the two couple’s respective cultural differences—the pushy mannerisms of the Dutch versus the overly accommodating and friendly to-a-fault Danes—and pushes this concept to the extreme. I think it’s necessary to view this film through the lens of Danish conflict avoidance because a lot of cultural idiosyncrasies will seem otherwise illogical. The unique intensity of Danish politeness culture is Louise and Bjørn’s ultimate undoing. The degree to which they are concerned with the opinions of a couple they barely know may seem absurd, but they were raised with particular, rigid social courtesies built into their upbringing which heavily influence how they make decisions and interact with others. So yes, while their inaction felt unfathomable and immensely frustrating at points, I saw it more as writer/director Christian Tafdrup exploring this theme to its fullest extent.

Two: Patrick and Karin have done this repeatedly as evidenced by the wall of photos in the final act, which suggests that they have a certain type of family that they target—like how abusers seek out partners that have low self-esteem and seem less capable of standing up for themselves. They want victims that they can manipulate, not people who will fight or flee when backed into a corner. I think during those first few days of the Danish couple’s visit, they wanted to ensure that this family would make ideal victims: pushovers reluctant to rock the boat for fear of being seen as impolite, who won’t put up a fuss about their needs, and will ultimately submit easier than others because they’re the kind of people whose fear will push them to inaction. It may not be exceedingly common for a couple to freeze when their child is being actively tortured and abducted in front of them, but people like that absolutely exist. Depressingly, there are parents out there who will, in fact, people please to the detriment of their child.

Three: People frequently watch horror flicks and talk big game about how they would escape or fight back with everything they have, but I think a lot of people incorrectly assess their theoretical response. The unfortunate truth of ‘fight, flight, or freeze’ is that freezing is far more common than people assume, and it’s very easy to end up stuck in inaction with decision paralysis when you’re actively experiencing trauma and severe shellshock. I myself am a freezer, and as someone who has ended up in dangerous situations because of my own previous inclination to compulsively people-please, this film spoke to me on a primal level. While there were frustrating character decisions throughout, I think they work in service of the message the story wants to convey and within its wider cultural context.

Some other assorted thoughts:
• Providing the audience with Danish subtitles makes them more relatable to the audience, and not providing Dutch subtitles adds to the ambiguity of the couple’s intentions and puts the audience in a similar position to Bjørn and Louise. Love that.
• One of the most infuriating aspects of this film is the complete and total lack of communication between Bjørn and Louise. The degree to which they withheld information from one another directly led to that final sequence unfolding the way it did. Bjørn keeping his family ignorant to imminent danger in the midst of their final attempt to depart was by far and away the most exasperating aspect of the film. I understand their poor relationship is the point and that they don’t communicate needs and concerns with one another but come onnnnnnnn
• Bjørn’s low self-worth is at the root of so much of this. He wanted to be more, and experience more, and initially seemed drawn to the energy/vibe Patrick emitted because Patrick made him feel that way (the earliest example of this is when they meet in Italy and he commends Bjørn for his ‘bravery’ retrieving his daughters stuffed rabbit). I think this mindset fed into how dismissive he was of his wife’s valid concerns and his daughters’ safety. On that note, fuck Bjørn for how unconcerned he was with the wellbeing of his daughter or comfort of his wife. Louise, on the other hand, is seemingly incapable of saying no to anyone or anything—with repeated instances of being too polite to ask or too scared to tell the truth.
• This film feels like it could also serve as an allegory for abusive relationships, between normalising nonadherence to boundaries, ignoring red flags, fear of fighting back, and knowing you should have left sooner but repeatedly being persuaded to stay, even when you desperately want to leave.

This was a genuinely unpleasant watch. My anxiety with this film was through the roof, I could feel my heart beating in my chest from the moment they arrived at Patrick and Karin’s home (admittedly three coffees worth of caffeine in my bloodstream didn’t help). I could never predict what the Dutch couple was going to do next, which resulted in a sustained level of unease and stress for the entirety of the film.

And that ending...OOF. I suppose I should have expected a degree of child violence with Abel missing his tongue and all, but I naïvely assumed it would happen off screen. I was mistaken. The final ten minutes or so were a harrowing watch. I also foolishly assumed that when they arrived with Bjørn and Louise at the quarry, they were going to shoot them, not STONE THEM TO DEATH???

The final scene felt very Funny Games-esque with Patrick and Karin casually moving on, driving with Agnes in the backseat, presumably off to do this to another family—very bleak. A wholly distressing experience. My kind of horror!

#34: Non-English film #3 (Danish)