Mute Witness

1995 "She Can't Speak. She Can't Scream. She Can't Beg For Mercy."
6.7| 1h35m| R| en| More Info
Released: 28 September 1995 Released
Producted By: Comet Film Produktion GmbH
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Billy is mute, but it hasn't kept her from becoming a successful makeup artist. While in Russia, working on a film directed by her sister's boyfriend, Andy, Billy finds herself trapped in the studio one night and is horrified to see a snuff film being made. Billy escapes and, with the help of her sister, Kate, alerts authorities about what she saw. Unfortunately, in doing so, she makes an enemy of the Russian mafia, who funded the snuff film.

Genre

Horror, Thriller

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Director

Anthony Waller

Production Companies

Comet Film Produktion GmbH

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Mute Witness Audience Reviews

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Paul Magne Haakonsen I had never heard about this movie prior to finding it by sheer random luck during a visit to the local secondhand DVD store, and at less than $2, it was an affordable chance to buy it.And having seen the movie already, I must admit that I sat there with a lacking sense of entertainment. The story in "Mute Witness" just wasn't particularly interesting or captivating. But giving the story the benefit of the doubt I stuck with it to the very end. But the story just never turned the interesting corner.The acting in the movie was actually okay, but the actors and actresses had very little to work with in terms of storyline and direction.I was surprised to see Alec Guineness making a short appearance in a movie of this type. Sure, his mere presence added something to the movie, but it just wasn't nowhere near enough to do anything to this train wreck of a movie."Mute Witness" just isn't really worth the time or effort.
Andres Salama An entertaining if not very well known thriller/horror film from the 1990s. In Moscow, a slasher film is being shoot at midnight in an old, decrepit studio (the setting is a plus for the movie, since in the 90s, Moscow had a reputation as an anything goes, mafia infested city). Billy, a mute make up artist (played very well by Marina Zudina, a beautiful Russian actress) accidentally witnesses a porno shoot there, done after hours, that soon turns into a real murder. When she is discovered, the homicidal crew of the snuff film starts pursuing her. More things happen that I won't reveal; the film is obviously not for everyone but is entertaining for those who like horror films, even though the ending is a bit of a letdown. The movie is also remarkable as Alec Guinness' last film: he has a cameo a sort of a mafia don.
Trelloskilos It is always a well-known, and important directorial device to set up the atmosphere of a film within the first 5 minutes. In the crucial opening scenes, the film should assert itself and make the viewers take notice and get interested in the rest of the film. Here, in "Mute Witness", we find a prime example of this.*Scene spoiler* In the first 5-10 minutes, the film opens to a very Hitchcockian scene of a pretty blonde lady in her apartment, with the radio on. She's wandering around, applying lipstick, dolling herself up, and ignoring the news report of a serial killer on the loose. Of course, the serial killer is in her house, and monitoring her moves, knife in hand. She hears a noise, looks in a room, and there is her partner in a pool of blood. At the very point of her screams, she turns around to be faced with the knife-wielding maniac, who stabs her repeatedly in a brutal and horrifying act.......then something odd happens. As the woman convulses in her death throes, the killer sits down and takes out a cigarette to watch his victim perish. Before he finds his lighter, his cigarette is lit...from someone else in the room! The camera pans out, and we realise that there are more and more people in the room, some taking notes, some filming, some recording the death, and that the lady is taking an awfully long time to die, and making a very hammy job of it too. When the audience realises what's going on, and the whole scene is part of a film, the suspenseful and horrific scene takes on an element of humour.*End Scene Spoiler* I have highlighted this opening scene for several reasons. Firstly, it portrays the atmosphere of the whole movie perfectly. A thriller in the style of Hitchcock or De Palma, with some very disorientating, and even blackly humorous moments. - It conveys a central subject matter (that of the difference between a 'movie screen death' and a 'snuff film death', an issue which is elaborated on later in the film), and finally, it introduces the viewer to the characters, all as silently as possible.The plot of Mute Witness centres around Billy Hughes, an American special effects make-up artist who is working on the set of the film, being shot in a large warehouse in Moscow. Billy cannot speak, but she communicates in sign language through her sister. After the end of an evening's filming, Billy inadvertently finds herself locked in the warehouse by accident, and in her attempt to escape, is witness to two of the crew making what first appears to be a porno film, but turns out to be a snuff movie. Suddenly, her escape from the warehouse is a matter of life and death.Without doubt, the first half of the film is powerful and absolutely gripping. Billy's saving grace, and her handicap is the fact that she isn't able to utter a sound. (In fact, in my opinion, one of the best aspects of the film is the fact that it isn't chock-full of women screaming). There are some utterly disturbing moments, and some superb set-pieces of real suspense (The corridoor, and the elevator shaft are perfect examples). The timing is fluid, and the whole first half is an incredibly satisfying experience in itself.The second half of the film introduces new concepts. While there are still several suspenseful moments, the focus is on plot twists. New characters are introduced, and it is ambiguous as to whose side they are on. While there is nothing wrong per se with the second half of the film, it just doesn't quite measure up to the first half. There are some neat moments of black humour that perfectly juxtapose and punctuate some very dramatic scenes, but there are also some very lame comedy moments (coming specifically from Billy's sister and her fiancée, who happens to be the director of the movie Billy is working on), that almost ruin the film, just because they are badly misplaced and/or mistimed and ruin the pace. - At the end, the twists keep coming at a rapid-fire speed, and the climax of the film is, appropriately, as tense as the first half.There are several things that really make the movie work. The barriers of communication that Billy must face, both as a mute, and as an American in Moscow, mean that even an emergency call for help becomes a dangerous situation. The actress that plays Billy, Natasha Zudina, does a wonderful job in the film, with an engaging on-screen prescence, and a brilliant performance, and finally, the direction as a whole, but most particularly in the first half of the film, which truly is a study in Alfred Hitchcock's suspense/thriller film techniques.As I have already said, though, the let-downs in the film are from some terrible comic relief moments that really do not need to be added. There is already a consistent and effective streak of dark humour that appears in the film without the need for the characters of Karen Hughes and Andy Clarke (The sister and the moviemaker) to turn their scenes into some unusual sit-com. However, despite these shortcomings, the film is a thoroughly enjoyable thriller, and ideal for a group viewing at halloween. (Certainly better than the usual slasher horror film...!)
Backlash007 ~Spoiler~ Mute Witness is a brilliant suspense film that is completely undermined by the last 30 minutes. The entire first hour is a relentless edge of your seat thrill ride unlike any other. In the film, a mute girl, Billy Hughes, accidentally witnesses a snuff film being made and the killers must eliminate her at all costs. Through narrow escape after narrow escape our heroine isn't allowed a moments rest, and neither is the audience. I wish the whole film would have taken place in the studio with Billy trapped and the killers in pursuit. It was just so damn good. The lighting and camera work is amazing throughout this sequence and the acting by everyone is also quite good. However, seemingly out of nowhere the film changes tone and becomes a cheesy spy movie with everyone looking for some diskette! Let's not forget the goofy American couple running around in completely slapstick fashion. What the hell went wrong? It's like two people were writing the script and they didn't consult one another. The stupidity of the second half is made far worse by the near-perfection of the first. That first hour contained some of the best suspense I've ever seen in a film of this type. It's a shame because Mute Witness could have defined the genre. I still strongly suggest checking it out, but beware the insulting finale.