Speak No Evil Director Talks About the Film’s Relatable Psychological Horror

0

Premiering at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, the psychological horror film Speak No Evil has made waves as a deeply disturbing film. Ahead of the premiere, the film was picked up by Shudder and will debut exclusively on the streaming service starting September 15, 2022.


Speak No Evil stars Morten Burian and Sidsel Siem Koch as Bjørn and Louise, a Danish couple vacationing with their young daughter (Liva Forsberg) in Tuscany. The family meets, and quickly befriends a Dutch couple, Patrick (Fedja Van Huêt) and Karin (Karina Smulders), who are with their young, mute son (Marius Damslev).

“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.”

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

Director Christian Tafdrup, who co-wrote the film with brother Mads Tafdrup, talked with MovieWeb about making this disturbing, yet relatable, thriller.


From Sundance to Shudder

MovieWeb: Christian, congrats on your Sundance premiere and on getting picked up by Shudder. Has this journey been a huge whirlwind for you since the screening?

Christian Tafdrup: It’s been a big ride since we started coming up with the idea. And it was difficult to ride, and to shoot because we were stopped during corona and the film was finished more than a year before it came to Sundance. So, I’ve been living with the film for so long, and I was very exhausted.

When it premiered at Sundance, I must admit that I did not know if it would go under the radar. Or if it was too disturbing, as I hoped it would be. If people would even consider it as horror because it’s more like a clash of different things, and I’m not used to making horror. I’m not very good at it; I don’t see a lot of horror films. So, I think I took a chance here.

But after the online premiere at Sundance, the comments have been overwhelming and also divided, of course. But it called for a reaction, and it hasn’t gone by in silence. That was what we really aimed for, that it would be a physical experience and a film that people would debate and reflect on after they saw it.

I love films that stick with you for a long time, and I can say now, after eight months, that’s what we succeed in. I also know a lot of people who hate it, but still, they hate it so much that they keep writing about it, and that’s also an engagement with a film.

Relatable Horror That Plays on Fear

MovieWeb: I would imagine the realism of the film plays into some of the audience’s discomforts and even dislike. The film goes to a pretty dark place and deals with not only family but also small children. Was it challenging to bring that horror to the screen?

Christian Tafdrup: It was satisfying because we wanted to make a realistic horror, or a horror that seemed scary because it was intimate and relatable. So, I was really looking, of course, into myself and how my life looked and also trying to be honest about what would be my greatest fear. I’m not afraid of a ghost in my house or a vampire or aliens from outer space coming down from the sky. I’m fascinated by it, maybe, but it’s not something that is my greatest fear.

Related: Best Psychological Horror Movies, Ranked

Becoming a father, having small children, and walking around in a pretty safe, civilized world here in Denmark, I was also being honest to myself and asking what would happen if I met evilness. If I met people who really wanted to do bad things or, on a more political level, what happened if war just started in Europe and all these bigger political questions? And the truth is that I think I would freeze out of being scared. Would I be capable of saving my children?

I’m not very proud of that, but if you don’t know violence and don’t know how to react, what would you do? Or worst, are you permitting bad things to happen because you want to believe that people want to do good? So, it was also a criticism of just always expecting that the world is good or not knowing the bad sides.

In the process of writing the script, my brother and I talked a lot about being a modern Danish man and then placed that with something very evil. That made a very original take on it.

MovieWeb: As you went into co-writing the film, how did you approach the psychology behind why people ignore their better judgment, or become afraid of offending others, even to their own detriment?

Christian Tafdrup: It’s a mechanism that I recognize a lot from myself but also from everybody. A lot of people deny it. I look at my own life and people I know and when we have conversations, I figured out how much I want to please other people. How many times have I sacrificed myself? Or let down that gut feeling or an inner voice saying get the hell out of here.

And then I was looking at small talk. If there is a pause in the conversation, you get really awkward. People struggle just to have a conversation and there is something brave about that, too. When you just start talking to people you don’t know, and you want to make a good impression.

After discussing that, we realized on a more intellectual level how dictated we are by social behavior and how we are formed by social rules since we are children. It’s very shameful to stand out from the group and sometimes. That is a very human thing and also a fun situation when it’s a horror film.

Related: The Best Documentaries on Shudder, Ranked

You could, of course, have characters better at saying no, but these people are not good at it. I realized how many people had a similar situation as in the film where they decided to stand the weekend out instead of speaking up about it or leaving earlier. They just try to keep up the good appearance. We realized more and more how common it is in the beginning.

I thought it was a Scandinavian problem and when it showed at Sundance, they said no this is a typical American problem. Now we showed it in South Korea, and they said, oh, this is a typical South Korean thing. So, I think it’s just a global human mechanism and that’s always a good thing to ride on. You want people from all over the world to identify with it no matter what culture they are in.

Finding the Perfect Young Cast

MovieWeb: Absolutely, I think we can all see ourselves in Bjørn and Louise. As the director, how did you prepare yourself and the set to have young child actors involved?

Christian Tafdrup: I was prepared very well because the worst thing that could happen is they have a bad experience. We picked two children that I knew could do this. We also had a lot of kids for the auditions, and we were also casting the parents. If the parents don’t understand what it is, then you should not cast the children.

Here we had two kids with very likable parents who were also present on the set. They were not watching the shootings, but they were there all the time. You have to pick children who know it’s a film and know it’s playful and fun and it’s not reality. They did not know the story and did not read the script, but they had a lot of fun on the set.

I think when you do very dark stories, you have to create very light sets, so there was a lot of fun and humor. And you must also imagine that a horrible scene in a film like this, when you shoot it in real life, can look silly. So I don’t think they ever experienced how crazy it was, and we also work with a stand-in sometimes.

The girl [Liva Forsberg], she saw the first 20 minutes and when she turns 15, her parents say she can see the rest of the film. So, she’s gotta wait like five years.

MovieWeb: That’s great, and what an exciting birthday. You mentioned you don’t watch horror, and you’re not good at it, but you made one of the best horror films I’ve seen this year. So, is this your horror swan song, then? Or are you considering working more within the genre?

Christian Tafdrup: I tried to come up with another horror idea, but it doesn’t work that way. When I did three features, they all have horror elements, but it’s on a more down-to-earth, everyday life take on it. The ideas that I have now are all dealing with awkwardness and cringe-ness and elements of uncomfortableness.

But it will never be a classical horror. And I like not to repeat myself but discover new things and move and place myself in fields where I’m not feeling so much at home. And then maybe combine it with the voice I have.

But I think because I dealt with this dark film for so many years, I need to go to a place that may be a little bit lighter.

Source link

Leave A Reply

Your email address will not be published.