Speak No Evil - Sin of Cowardice
Thoughts On: Speak No Evil (2022)
An introverted Danish family befriend an outgoing Dutch family.
Speak No Evil is a brilliant thriller easily misconstrued as a horror. It is structured as a serial killer narrative with the plot functioning like a haunted house story in which innocent and unsuspecting characters wander into a bleak trap. However, this is not the case. The true brilliance of Speak No Evil rests in the position of evil in the narrative. It is not strictly in the owners of the haunted house. It is instead those who wander into it that are imbued with darkness; they are, it is eventually revealed, haunted there by their own sin and evil. In such, the dark, vampiric owners of the house they enter function far more like righteously ambivalent punishers of inadequacy, arguably just in their violence. Breaking all horror narrative tropes, the 'innocent' characters of this film have their opportunity to escape and are those who initiate all trespasses. Their hosts expose their weakness of spirit and character, preying upon their deep-seated sense of powerlessness and insecurity that is masked by politeness and familial unity. The only moral virtue of the innocent family is their love for one another; however, it is not supported at all by backbone, will or strength. The couple are weak to a sinful degree, their inadequacies exposing them as rude and cowardly. They choose to welcome evil into their lives. And such is what they are told; evil comes upon them because they let it. The couple call their demise to them out of self-doubt, are lead to their grave by mere intimidation and killed with weapons at their feet for fear of putting up a fight. They lose their daughter to cowardice; an evil she is forever to be haunted by in her inability to speak. It is her parents who failed to speak evil - to be monstrous enough to survive and protect themselves - that granted her such a dark inheritance. And such only begins to echo the profundity of this sable and intriguing fable, one that breaks the mould of the horror genre with symbolic prowess. A tremendous watch.
Mad shout Serg
