MUTE WITNESS

UK, 1995, 95 minutes, Colour.
Marina Sudina, Fay Ripley, Evan Richards, Mystery Guest Star (Alec Guinness).
Directed by Anthony Waller.

The 1990s saw more and more small-budget comedies and thrillers which usually made appearances only at festivals. This one is a thriller, very clever (or smart) which relishes the conventions of the slasher thriller.

It is set in Moscow where an American film crew is making a thriller which turns into the real thing. The beleaguered heroine is a special effects and make-up expert who cannot speak and witnesses murder – or does she?

Funny and scary and with an uncredited cameo appearance from the least likely of British actors, Alec Guinness. Inexpensive rather than cheap thrills.

1. Small budget thriller? Slasher movie and its conventions? Comic touches? Suspense?

2. The Moscow settings, the studio, apartments, the streets, studio warehouse rooms, lift shafts…? Authentic atmosphere? The musical score?

3. Americans filming in Moscow, language difficulties, local personnel – and Russian actors, including the leading lady, appearing in this film?

4. The opening, the murder, the frightened woman in the apartment, the audience gradually seeing the crew and their smiles, laughter, the serious director? The exaggeration in performance and the climax? Planning to film again? Timetables and union rules?

5. The introduction to Billy, Karen’s sister, mute but unable to speak? Her work on the set, make-up, the mask? Audiences interested in her? Attractive?

6. Karen and Andrew, Americans in Moscow, his work as a director, cooking at home, Billy’s phone call, problems with the dinner, Karen in the shower, communicating, then Karen’s fear?

7. Billy, locked in the studio, going to the set, the sex scene, the mask, the woman about to be killed, the blood, Billy’s horror?

8. Billy’s terror, hiding in the building, using her wits, unable to scream out loud, the pursuit by the men, the knives, rooms, the lift shaft, her falling, the rubbish, their torches, eventually caught, the disk going under the furniture, her being able to escape?

9. The snuff movie, director, actor, the killing of the woman, the police elaborating the background of the porn business, The Reaper? The thugs and connections?

10. Billy, support from Karen and Andrew, the police investigations, interrogations, the director and the actor, saying that it was fake, the fake blood, the sweet taste?

11. Billy at her apartment, the bath, the actor at the door, her phone call, Karen hearing, desperate to call the police, the intrusion, unbolting the door, the chase in the apartment, the actor bashing the door, rushing through, hitting his head, electrocuted in the bath? Billy and her escape?

12. The undercover policeman, his offer of help, going in the car, being pursued, Billy suspicious, handcuffing him, his rescuing her? The information about the disk? Going back to the studio? The thugs and surrounding the studio, on guard? Karen and Andrew climbing over the fence, disarming the guards, the
guns, Andrew’s awkwardness?

13. Billy, rushing outside, in the light, the thugs, The Reaper, her being shot? Karen and Andrew and their attacking the undercover policeman? Going outside, Billy and her using of the special effects blood? And making a date with the undercover policeman?

14. The twists, the solution, an enjoyable slasher thriller?