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)

Tense and gritty little thriller!

I went into this film expecting a slasher, and while Mute Witness does take influence from said style of film-making, this is much more than just your average slash flick. There are a number of thrillers that focus on a certain disability - blindness is more common (Blind Terror, Wait Until Dark, Cat o'Nine Tails to name a handful), but the implications of having a mute lead in a thriller such as this are well portrayed, and actually integral to the plot as the fact that the lead character can't speak is often the reason why she finds herself in dangerous situations that would be easy for anyone else to get out of. Our mute witness is Billy Hughes, a make-up artist working on a horror film production at a studio in Moscow. She finds herself locked in after hours one night, and after attempting to phone her sister for help, she stumbles upon what at first appears to be the making of an illicit sex flick, but soon turns out to be a snuff movie! She tries to convince the authorities of what she's seen, but finds that no one believes her story...

Recently Hostel made the headlines for showing snuff movie making in a foreign country, but this film did it first and actually does a better job. It's maybe not quite as nasty as Eli Roth's opus, but the gore is more effective, and since director Anthony Waller (who went on to direct one of my favourite modern thrillers with 'The Guilty') implements a good sense of humour into the proceedings, Mute Witness is both sufficiently gory and fun to watch. The director certainly has a talent for crafting suspenseful thrill rides, as this one never stands still. The plot is put into action quickly, and Waller constantly introduces plot twists which give a big helping hand to the overall entertainment value of the film. The acting isn't bad for a B-movie, with young performers Marina Zudina, Fay Ripley and Evan Richards delivering good performances. The atmosphere is gritty, and the Russian locations are suitably unfriendly, which helps the film to retain a foreboding atmosphere. Overall, Mute Witness is a much better film than you might expect it to be. The plot flows well, and the atmosphere and tension are spot on.