Speak No Evil is a Danish Psychological Horror film written and directed by Christian Tafdrup (though writing duties were shared with his brother Mads).
A Danish family, the couple Bjørn and Louise and their daughter Agnes, are vacationing in Tuscany, where they bond with a Dutch family, consisting of Patrick and Karin and their strange mute son Abel, over their common status as tourists and eventually strike up a friendship. Patrick and Karin end up inviting Bjørn and Louise to visit them in remote rural house in the Netherlands. The family arrive after a long eight hour drive, but their hosts soon start acting increasingly strange, and the long weekend quickly becomes more unpleasant and nightmarish for all concerned.
A 2022 film, it premiered at Sundance before being acquired by IFC. It was released on Shudder in September 2022.
An American remake starring James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Aisling Franciosi, and Scoot McNairy is currently in the works. It will be released on September 13th, 2024.
"Why are you Troping this?"...:
- Abusive Parents: Patrick yanks Abel around roughly and later screams at him when he fails to perform a dance adequately, which greatly disturbs Karin. It makes sense for him to be callous, since Abel isn't his child but his victim, and he's planning to kill him soon anyway.
- Book Ends:
- The film begins with Patrick and Karin (names and identity unrevealed as of yet) driving down a dark, lonely road late at night, and then cuts to some time later in Tuscany for Bjørn's introduction. It ends with Patrick and Karin driving down another dark, lonely road, where audiences learn they're disposing their previous victims in the prologue - with Bjørn and Louise about to follow.
- Lamento Della Ninfa is played in an outdoor opera in the beginning, and in the end when Bjørn and Louise are stoned to death. And continues with the revelation of Agnes becoming the Dutch couple's new "daughter" as they went on to search for more victims, all the way into the credits.
- Bystander Syndrome: A case of Bystander Syndrome applying to one's own family. Bjørn and Louise clearly love Agnes a lot, but neither of them stand up for her, whether when Abel is acting out or when Patrick and Karin lie next to her naked.
- Cathartic Scream: Patrick and Bjørn do this at Patrick's encouragement in a Skyward Scream.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Shortly after the Danes arrive, Patrick (still pretending to be nice) offers to show Bjørn his indoor pool. Patrick and Bjørn do get to chill in that very pool later on before Bjørn realized Patrick's true colours after finding out Patrick has drowned his "son" Abel in it.
- Karin complains to Louise about a dull pair of scissors while gardening. She later uses it cut out Agnes's tongue.
- The rock quarry Patrick brings Bjørn for practicing Screaming Therapy is a Chekhov's Location. It's the same quarry Bjørn and Louise are stoned to death in the ending.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Before accompanying Bjørn and Louise to a restaurant, Patrick and Karin hire Muhajid to babysit Agnes and Abel. He later shows up to aid the Dutch couple in the kidnapping of Agnes.
- Cover Drop: The poster above depicts a scene actually in the film. Specifically, the part after Agnes was kidnapped and mutilated, with Patrick and Karin driving away with their captives, Bjørn and Louise, the latter helplessly banging on the windows to no avail.
- Creepy Child: Abel never smiles, acts strangely, screams at night and tends to just stand around with an unsettling stare. Subverted in that he is off-putting, but is completely justified in being that way, as he's a maimed kidnapping victim whose parents were murdered, and who likely knows that his time is coming soon.
- Creepy Souvenir: When Bjørn is finally able to investigate the shed on the property, he finds it full of the luggage of past victims, and papered on the walls of the second floor are photographs of all of the other families they've murdered.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Patrick and Karin drive the Danish couple to an abandoned quay, order them to strip naked, and then stone them to death while their victims quietly wait for death.
- Dies Wide Shut: When the camera pans to the Danish couple's dead bodies in the morning, Louise's eyes are wide open.
- Double-Meaning Title: The title refers to the proverb of the three wise monkeys
. While the original meaning is that one should not say anything evil, the modern meaning refers to someone who keeps quiet when they should speak out. Similarly, throughout the movie, the Danish family are conflicted whether or not they would be rude for criticizing the Dutch couple's strange behavior. The title then becomes a Literal Metaphor with the reveal that the Dutch couple cut out the tongues of their stolen children. - Downer Ending: Bjørn and Louise are killed, and Patrick and Karin's cycle continues with Agnes as their child.
- Drone of Dread: The soundtrack, especially the prologue at night which reveals that Bjørn and Louise are not Patrick and Katrin's first victims.
- Evidence Dungeon: The log cabin is where Patrick and Karin keeps photographs and leftover luggage from their previous victims.
- Exact Words: Patrick tries convincing Bjørn and Louise (who's about to pull a Screw This, I'm Outta Here from their place) to stay for another night, because "today's going to be a great day". The following day will indeed be great... for Patrick and Karin, the serial killers about to claim another family as their victims and can keep Agnes as their new captive kid to torture. For Bjørn and Louise, not so much.
- Extreme Doormat: Exploited. Patrick and Karin deliberately seek out passive, meek people who don't speak up, stand up for themselves, or choose to leave. In the end, the Danes literally lie down quietly and let themselves be stoned to death.
- Faux Affably Evil: The Dutch couple seem like Fun Personified at first, and perfectly hospitable to the strangers they invite out to their home. As time goes on, Patrick lets this façade slip more and more, revealing an unpleasant Jerkass personality, while Karin continues to serve as his "politeness translator", ultimately becoming a Soft-Spoken Sadist when it's revealed what they're really up to.
- Foreshadowing:
- Abel's disturbing and violent behavior makes a lot more sense when the ending rolls around.
- Abel is nowhere to be seen when the Dutch greets the Danes with Patrick casually demonstrating he has no clue where he could be.
- They also leave him (and Agnes) at home when they go out to the roadhouse for dinner, apparently because they want an adults-only dinner. Once the ending is revealed, it's more likely that they didn't want local businesses catching on to the fact that they acquire a new child (one who was recently seen with them in the company of another family, no less) every few months...
- Karin authoritatively corrects Agnes on how to set the table properly and spends lunchtime speaking to her directly and giving her orders (in Dutch no less, a language Agnes doesn't speak), all of which upsets Louise. Since she will soon abduct Agnes and make her be the couple's new child, it makes sense that she needs to make sure she follows orders and becomes familiar with Dutch.
- On repeat viewings, seemingly pedestrian scenes by the Dutch family make better sense in their scheme of vetting the most passive victims possible:
- Patrick asking Bjørn if he could take the chair that Agnes was using while just away for a dip in the pool.
- Bjørn being complimented by Patrick as a "hero" for going out of his way to find Agnes' lost bunny in Tuscany.
- Karin's response to Louise asking if she should take her shoes off upon entering the house is to tell her she can leave them on. Or take them off. Repeatedly.
- Karin implies to Louise that she's an inadequate mother to Agnes, but Louise doesn't challenge her.
- On the very first night when Patrick and Karin are still maintaining a friendly facade before their guests, Patrick actually smokes without asking if it's alright.
- The night at the roadhouse is one big test after another. Despite showing earlier in the film that they normally are communicative and set boundaries with their babysitters, Bjørn and Louise awkwardly allow Patrick and Karin to prevent Agnes from joining them at dinner, and let them leave her with a complete stranger. Louise lets Patrick's antagonism of her vegetarianism go unchallenged, and the couple let the Dutch order for them without regard to their tastes nor requesting a translation of the menu. Bjørn then allows Patrick to leave him with the check, and reacts meekly to Louise begging him to have Patrick turn the music down (while driving drunk, no less). Then, later that evening, Louise stays paralyzed with surprise when Patrick walks into the bathroom while she's showering, and Bjørn reacts in the same way when he catches Patrick watching him and Louise having sex.
- The mug Patrick hurls and breaks in anger during the dance performance was the same gift from Bjørn and Louise during their first night of visit, highlighting how little the Dutch couple values their guests' souvenirs. After all, why keep the presents when they're going to murder their guests anyway?
- Patrick urges Bjørn to do cathartic screams in an abandoned quay which means that once he drives the couple to that location at the end, Bjørn knows that there's no hope of rescue as no one can hear them scream there.
- Gaslighting: Bjørn and Louise's issues with the Dutch couple — the drunk driving, the combative attitudes, the abusive treatment toward Abel, the discovery of Agnes sleeping beside the naked couple — are perfectly legitimate, yet Patrick and Karin artfully dismantle their concerns and paint them as being overdramatic, fussy, and unable to speak up.
- Here We Go Again!: The film ends with Patrick and Karin selecting their next victims.
- Heroic BSoD: Bjørn and Louise completely shut down after they witness Agnes being mutilated and carried away, and allow themselves to be killed.
- Hope Spot:
- The Danes almost get away after silently leaving in the morning, but turn back to retrieve Agnes's doll — which turns out to have been under the seat the whole time.
- After picking up the Danes, Patrick stops the car to take a piss. Bjørn looks at the car keys, wondering if he should try stealing the car. He hesitates for too long, and the opportunity for escaping is quickly lost.
- Improbable Infant Survival: Surprisingly played straight. Patrick and Karin's son, Abel, turns out to not be their son and dies. However, though Bjørn and Louise are murdered, Agnes survives, even if it might have been better if she'd died.
- Ironic Name: Bjørn, whose name is a Norse word meaning "bear", often associated with bravery, toughness, and NOT really appropriate for an Extreme Doormat of a character.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While it serves a precursor to much of Patrick's unpleasantness, his criticism of Louise's willingness to eat fish on the basis that it's supposedly better for the environment isn't wrong.
- Kill the Parent, Raise the Child: Played for horror with the seemingly-friendly Dutch couple, Patrick and Karin, and their mute son Abel. It turns out Patrick and Karin are serial killers who murdered Abel's parents, abducts Abel and severs his tongue before forcing Abel into playing their fake son so they can lure another family to their dooms. An Evidence Dungeon scene near the end reveals Abel to be the 50th or so abducted, maimed child victims kidnapped by Patrick and Karin after murdering the parents.
- Left Hanging: Why do Patrick and Karin kidnap children? Are they pedophiles and/or sexually abusive towards them? Do they simply want to destroy Bjørn and Louise as much as possible? Nothing like that is ever explicitly shown.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Twice, from both Bjørn and Louise, cementing their Too Dumb to Live status. Louise discovers her daughter Agnes missing in her room and finds her sleeping next to a naked Patrick, where she then grabs Agnes and simply informs Bjørn "we need to leave" without telling him why. Later on, Bjørn uncovers the truth that their hosts, Patrick and Karin, are serial killers and family exterminators, had just executed their "son" Abel and is about to target Bjørn's family next, where he then insists to Louise they're leaving without telling her his discovery. Inevitably, their escape hits a snag when Bjørn drives into a ditch, the unaware Louise calls Patrick and Karin for help, and they're screwed.
- Not the First Victim: The photographs in the shed confirm that Patrick and Karin have done this dozens of times, as Bjørn connects, with horror, that they continuously replace their current child with the child of their next victims.
- Politeness Judo: Usually a comic trope, here played very, very seriously. The Dutch family are generally polite, despite many incidents of concerning behavior which escalates as time goes on, but they ultimately end up winning over the Danes every time. Until they ultimately murder Bjørn and Louise, maim and kidnap Agnes.
- Poor Communication Kills: Bjørn fails to warn Louise about Patrick and Karin after they make their late-night escape, presumably to not worry Agnes. However, this leaves Louise to unwittingly walk right back into Patrick and Karin's grasp.
- Red Herring: A rather minor example in the ending; when Bjørn and Louise finally decides to leave (after Bjørn uncovers the truth behind their hosts) the camera lingers closely on the fuel meter of Bjørn's vehicle, seemingly setting up the possibility of the family running out of gas and the murderer couple catching up. Turns out that's not the case, Bjørn safely made it to a gas station and got himself a full tank of fuel, but then doesn't consider alerting the relevant authorities or calling for help right then when he had the chance. Their car ends up running into a ditch, Bjørn leaves to get help only for the oblivious Louise to call Patrick and Karin, and their fates are sealed.
- The Reveal: Patrick and Karin are serial killers whose modus operandi is to befriend a couple with a young child, invite them to their (remote) home, and then abduct and maim their child before killing them.
- Shameful Strip: At the end of the movie, Patrick and Karin force Bjørn and Louise to strip naked for no reason other than to humiliate them further before they're stoned to death.
- Shout-Out: Bjørn and Louise are stoned to death in what seems to be a reference to The Lottery.
- Spoiler Cover: The shot of Bjørn and Louise screaming while in their car occurs in one of the final scenes, and spoils that Patrick and Katrin are definitely up to something sinister.
- There Are No Police: Patrick and Karin have murdered dozens of couples while abducting/maiming their children, yet there seems to be zero police investigation. Given that they never move locations, apparently they're always able to find couples who never tell anyone where they're going or who they're visiting.
- Tongue Trauma: Abel doesn't have aglossia congenita, his tongue was severed the day Patrick and Karin killed his family and took him as their "son". The two murderers have done the same thing to dozens of other kids they abducted, with Agnes as their next victim.
- Too Dumb to Live: Bjørn and Louise ignore every gut feeling and red flag possible, easily allowing the Dutch couple to convince them that their (very valid) concerns are meaningless and don't even put up much of a fight at any point. Bjørn even goes along with the Dutch in the end despite knowing well at this point that they killed Abel and kill all of their other couples (and eventually, their children) that meet with them, because Patrick assures him that nothing bad will happen if he just does what he's told. However, this is an outright plot point, as they were selected specifically because they were overly trusting and weak-willed.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Abel's disturbing, creepy behavior borders on an Enfant Terrible. It turns out to be justified since Abel was a victim of kidnapping and is trying to alert the Danish family that something's amiss.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- After returning from Italy and prior to their fateful trip to the Netherlands, Bjørn and Louise visits Bjorn's brother and sister-in-law and in their subsequent dinner, offhandedly mention about being invited to the Dutch countryside. Bjørn's well-meaning brother encourages him to accept the invitation, even suggesting "why not drive?" to Bjørn and commenting "What could possibly go wrong?"... the answer turns out to be everything.
- Agnes is another example - the Danes almost get away the first time, but Bjørn decides to go back to find Agnes's stuffed bunny. It turns out the toy was in the car the entire time.
- Wham Line: Because you let me. Cue Bjørn and Louise realizing that all of their spineless attempts to be a good guest, not rock the boat, and go along with whatever the Dutch want is exactly what kills them in the end.
- Would Hurt a Child: Patrick and/or Karin drowns Abel towards the end of the movie, and it's evidenced by their souvenirs of other victims that they've done this many times. During the climax, Karin also cuts off Agnes' tongue before she and Patrick kidnap her.
- "Because you let me."
