Speak No Evil

In the interests of avoiding confusion, it may be worthwhile mentioning that at this point in time, production studio Blumhouse are releasing their newest film, starring James McAvoy, called Speak No Evil. It is a remake of the Danish horror film of the same name which was released two years ago, and as you might expect, has nothing to do with the film we are reviewing today.

So, today’s offering from WM Productions, writer/director Shayaan, and co-writer Kieran Rees, is a four-minute short containing only one character and a short TV cameo from Boris Johnson. We follow our unnamed protagonist (Osho) as he gets himself jazzed up, ready for a night of low-level terrorism; dancing around his kitchen, pointing finger guns at himself in the mirror, and putting on his faintly creepy Phantom of the Opera mask as he heads out onto the streets of the city.

Boris has been on the telly lying to the public and the Home Affairs Select Committee, and we see him bumbling over his words as our guy flits past in a pirouette as he’s warming himself up for the night ahead. The first scene plays a lot like a music video, with some wild and winsome tones getting us all in the mood while our guy throws some shapes on the kitchen dancefloor. With no dialogue forthcoming it looks as though this might be all we get – and that in itself would have been no bad thing – but soon the mood shifts, the music takes a much more sinister tone, and the visuals show us that our man may not be the happy-go-lucky optimist that he first seemed.

There is a great attention to lighting throughout the whole of Speak No Evil, which Shayaan uses to fill their frames and highlight their character. Similarly, the sound design creates a real sense of atmosphere and plays a large part in expressing the intentions of the main character to the audience. It’s just unfortunate that there are no credits from which to reference the skilled workers behind these technical aspects, and if it so happens that Shayaan did all the work behind the scenes theirself – in what was a one day shoot and five hours of post-production – then they should be commended greatly for the level of outcome achieved.

It’s not so easy to determine a message or a moral from Speak No Evil’s denouement, ending as it does on a bit of an arthouse note. The title obviously alludes to the theme of the film, but still it’s hard to figure just who or what is being aimed at, even if the only spoken words in the film are “Fuck Boris”. It is unclear whether Shayaan is suggesting we take the law into our own hands, or that we should speak truth to power through demonstrable acts, or if those in power should speak truth to the people lest they suffer the consequences, or what. There is a slight niggling sensation that Speak No Evil could be glamourising or endorsing terrorist acts, but to be honest everything is so low-key and vague that anything expressed is unlikely to have any impact at all.

Still, the film looks good and the music’s great, so even if you don’t agree with the sentiment, or the message gets lost along the way, there’s still lots to like in this four-minute short.