Remember the Hulu comedy Vacation Buddies, in which John Cena plays the vacation pal who overstays his welcome? The new Shudder film Speak No Evil is like the horror version of that, and based on the reviews out of Sundance it’s a film that will make you not want to speak to anybody while on vacation ever again.
Directed by Christian Tafdrup, Speak No Evil centers on a Danish and Dutch family who felt a connection to one another while vacationing in Tuscany among a group of other families. This prompts an invitation to the Dutch family’s home, only to find that their free-spirited nature clashes mightily with the Danish’s conservative values. As the tension between them escalates, it’s inevitable that things will take a nightmarish turn.
Based on the footage here, the film will play around with our perception of both families. Is one truly being awful to the other, or is there some overreacting going on? One thing is also abundantly clear: this movie is going to pull no punches, which is something you can expect from most films of Nordic origin.
Starring Morten Burian, Sidsel Siem Koch, Fedja van Huêt, Karina Smulders, Liva Forsberg, and Marius Damslev, Speak No Evil opens in select theaters on September 9th, followed by streaming on Shudder beginning September 15th.
On a vacation in Tuscany, two families – one Danish, one Dutch – meet and become fast friends. Months later, the free-spirited Dutch family extends an invitation to the more conservative Danish one for a holiday weekend getaway at their countryside home. However, it doesn’t take long before things gradually get out of hand as the joy of reunion is replaced with misunderstandings. The Dutch hospitality quickly turns unnerving for the Danes, and they find themselves increasingly caught in a web of their own politeness in the face of eccentric…or is it sinister…behavior.
