I came into this with an open mind and not knowing too much about it besides some buzz here and there. And while there is alot that I admire about this film I feel quite conflicted on how I really feel about it. It’s both fascinating and frustrating all at the same time and those two things were always at odds with one another in my mind.

Speak No Evil follows a Danish family who befriend a Dutch family while on holiday and are then invited to spend the weekend with them. During there stay the Danes try there hardest to stay polite in what descends into a rather unpleasant atmosphere. 

What I thought was done really well with this was how well it captures the awkward social dynamic between the two families. You have one who on the surface seems more liberated on how they deal with there own relationship, work and lifestyle while the other family is on the opposite end of the spectrum. The only thing that really sets them apart from one another is there approach to raising a child which is disturbing to say the least. 

Even though this film comes at a runtime of 97 minutes it really drags on. I get that this is meant to be a slow burn that requires patience but it did start to wear thin due to pacing issues. I couldn’t help but feel like this was going for a more Audition approach with its narrative combined with the unforgiving nature of a film like Eden Lake in how it handles violence against children, something I honestly find to be quite distressing and triggering to watch. 

I don’t really have all that much to say about the films visuals besides it being picturesque and the setting itself is quite gorgeous. I will say that I did like how the atmosphere changes over the course of the film given the films passive aggressive style storytelling which I thought was used to great effect. 

One thing I did enjoy quite immensely was the performances from all the actors. Everyone plays off each other really well and that is something I believe is crucial for a film like this since it’s all about an underlying sense of anxiety and discomfort when meeting new people and being in an unfamiliar setting. 

I can’t deny that as soon as this ended I came out the other side feeling unhappy and almost angry at what I saw. I feel like that because of how some of these characters were treated and just how almost mean spirited it was in nature. If you are curious then I’d enter with caution just because of some distressing imagery towards the end.