Out on Blu-ray and 4K UHD June 11th, 2024, from Arrow Video.
A mute woman witnessed a murder while stuck in the studio after hours on the set she is a makeup artist for a slasher film.
Written and directed by Anthony Waller is a thriller with strong horror elements, setting its story on the set of a slasher film, making its own horror story a bit meta, but not fully so. The film was released in 1995, between two meta horror film by Wes Craven, seemingly leading to some forgetting its existence amid the larger budget-more-famous-casts releases. Of course, this takes away from none of these films as they all add to the subgenre more than adequately. Mute Witness has a story that may be predictable in that the title gives away the crux of the story, the starting point to the thriller/horror of the story. That being said, the writing here is solid and creates a film that has actually surprising moments, makes an effort to be thrilling while being a bit less scary than other films of its ilk. This is a solid thriller with elements of horror and not as much a horror film. The direction here, following along with the writing, does well with the script and creates tension in many scenes following the murder at the center of everything. The film has a few sequences that are truly stressful to watch, giving the viewer thrills and chills.
The cast here is led by Marina Zudina (credited as Marina Sudina) who is perfect for the part. She is expressive without a single word being spoken, her facial expressions are just right and really show what she (or her character) is feeling and what she is trying to communicate. She also uses sign language, but in the majority of her scenes, she goes without that and just emotes like a queen. Her acting here sells the film and her charisma is just right to pull anyone in. Playing her sister is Fay Ripley who gives a good performance here with a few oddly chosen moments here and there, moments that made sense in 1995 and look a bit odd almost 30 years later. Joining them in fighting for their lives is the film-within-a-film’s director played by Evan Richards who turns in a performance that is sometimes a bit more over the top than the ladies’ but his character was clearly written this way. The rest of the cast has quite a few Russian actors (or actors playing Russian) mostly playing bad guys and being a bit predictable in both actions and acting. Their work fits mostly well here, but some of it is a bit flat and cold, something that could be due to the writing and direction. They do ok, but they all feel a bit interchangeable in terms of performances.
The film’s look here is best described as grungy, meaning very 1990s, definitely on a set for a lot of the film, and a bit dingy while still retaining good cinematography, decent lighting, and solid framing of the images. The look of the film is a bit dark, but it’s something that fits with the film’s story, its year of release, and the Russian settings. Of course, this cinematography by Egon Werdin works hand in hand with the editing by Peter R. Adam, which gives the film a good pace here and keeps scenes moving while allowing the viewer to see the action (unless they aren’t supposed to see all of it). The visuals created help make the film more appealing while keeping the style of the time. It looks very much like the mid-range mid-1990s horror thriller that it is, which isn’t a bad thing at all, it’s a style that fans of the era know and love.
This new release looks good and sounds good, offering a 4K restoration that has the approval of writer-director Anthony Waller. The images look as good as it’s going to get, keeping a certain amount of grain that helps maintain the style of the era, giving it room to be and space to show off a bit. The extras on this new release are solid with a new booklet with writing by Michelle Kisner as well as new art by Adam Rabalais. The highlights of the disc extras are the original location scouting footage, the original footage shot with Alec Guinness 10 years before the rest of the film, the visual essay by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, and the new audio commentary by writer-director Anthony Waller. This is one of those solid releases that fans of the film should be picking up.