Mute Witness (1994)

Director:

Anthony Waller

Writer:

Anthony Waller (written by)

Release Date:

15 September 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

She Can't Speak. She Can't Scream. She Can't Beg For Mercy.

Plot:

Billy Hughes, a mute makeup artist working on a slasher film being shot in Moscow, is locked in the studio after hours...

Plot Keywords:

Mute | Murder | Fake Knife | Film Making | Nudity

Awards:

3 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Marina Zudina	...	Billy Hughes (as Marina Sudina)
Fay Ripley	...	Karen Hughes
Evan Richards	...	Andy Clarke
Oleg Yankovskiy	...	Larsen (as Oleg Jankowskij)
Igor Volkov	...	Arkadi
Sergei Karlenkov	...	Lyosha
Alec Guinness	...	The Reaper (as Mystery Guest Star)
Nikolai Pastukhov	...	Janitor
Stephen Bouser	...	Lovett
Valeri Barakhtin	...	Mitja (as Valeri Barahtin)
Olga Tolstetskaya	...	Actress
Denis Karasyov	...	Fake policeman
Igor Ilyin	...	Fake policeman
Oleg Abramov	...	Double
Vladimir Salnikov	...	Lab assistant

Also Known As:

Stumme Zeugin (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence and a strong scene combining sex and violence.

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

Germany | UK | USA | Russia

Language:

English | Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Brazil:14 | Iceland:16 | South Korea:18 | Argentina:16 (re-rating) | Argentina:18 (original rating) | Australia:R | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 (video premiere) | Germany:16 | Peru:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Moscow, Russia

Company:

Avrora Media

Trivia:

Director Anthony Waller filmed Alec Guinness' scenes nine years before the rest of the film from an earlier draft of the screenplay. Guinness gave his performance in one morning before catching a plane. When Waller needed an additional scene, he used the film from earlier and reversed it.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Karen is holding the gun inside Billy's apartment, it suddenly disappears from her hand. A few moments later, it appears in Andy's hand.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Scream 2 (1997)

Late Night Surprise -- Suspense!

I couldn't stop watching this movie, though it was far past my bedtime.

Comparisons to Hitchcock are deserved -- this thing really plays with you. It walks a wonderful line between real, immediate suspense and a dark, distancing humor. Like many of Hitch's heroes, our doe-eyed mute witness has innocently stumbled into something truly horrific -- and we are taken on quite a ride with her, at turns identifying totally and feeling her fear, at turns watching in thrilling suspense as she is placed further in jeopardy.

The filmmakers have put in a lot of tender care in working this out. Right from the opening shots, they engage and challenge you to determine what is real and what is fabrication; who is to be trusted and who is a monster. The plot twists and turns unpredictably. Suspense is created with a combination of carefully chosen camerawork, imagery, music -- but most simply THE EYES of the characters, which sends raw fear right into you.

A warning: there is some frighteningly real gore, as well as some nudity. The horror scenes are done in an emotional way that make them far more scary and disturbing than in any teenage-slasher pic.

And a teen-slasher pic it AIN'T. The characters are quirky and feel like real people, for one thing -- a couple (including the heroine) you may even find endearing as I did. There will be no mistake you're watching a movie made for grown-ups. I mean, Alec Guinness is in it, briefly, and you know he didn't NEED the work!

Pop this in the VCR some night when you can't sleep. . . and don't want to, yet.