Speak No Evil
Director: Christian Tafdrup
Year Released: 2022
Rating: 2.0
While on holiday in Italy, Danish family Bjørn (Morten Burian) and Louise (Sidsel Siem Koch) and their little daughter Agnes (Liva Forsberg) meet Patrick (Fedja van Huêt) and Karin (Karina Smulders) and their son Abel (Marius Damslev), have a fun time with each other, receive an invitation to stay with them at their home in the Netherlands, actually take them up on their offer ... and then things get very strange as Patrick and Karin start to "taunt" them. Tafdrup, who's mostly worked as an actor (it's his third feature), does a better job building up and maintaining a sense of tension than more seasoned filmmakers ... except that's about all it has going for it, since it isn't exactly the most rigorously thought out story, and leaves too many questions out there to be a semi-satisfactory experience (here's a simple one: "Why?"). I had a hunch there was something was wrong when I saw Patrick still has a cassette tape deck in his car....