Mute Witness (1995)

Best movie of this year hands down!

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The appealing Russian actress Marina Zudina plays Billy Hughes, an American makeup effects artist working on a slasher film being shot in Moscow. Also on the crew are her sister Karen (Fay Ripley) and Karens' boyfriend Andy (Evan Richards, "Society"), the director of this little epic. One night, Billy is accidentally locked inside the studio after hours. Soon, she stumbles onto the filming of an honest-to-God snuff film. And when these cretinous filmmakers suspect that they've been witnessed, they start relentlessly pursing poor Billy.Admittedly, writer / director Anthony Wallers' movie is at its most absorbing in the early going. It begins on a hilarious note, with a hammy actress overdoing a death scene to the point of absurdity. And Waller doesn't take too long to plunge his leading lady into danger. Some of his action and suspense scenes are *very* riveting, and you're on the edge of your seat (to use an over-used phrase) rooting for Billy to escape the villains. Fortunately, Billy *is* a resourceful character. One of the nicest touches happens when Waller uses special effects trickery to make a hallway seem to stretch out endlessly, as Billy is on the run.But Waller lessens the effectiveness of "Mute Witness" by having the plot get less interesting as it goes along. When a cop character named Larsen (Oleg Yankovskiy) is introduced, it's just not the same when our heroine is given some sort of assistance. Waller does manage to make Larsen continuously ambiguous, as you keep wondering what side he's on. And Waller turns Karen and Andy into goofy comic relief characters; Karen, at least, is proactive and fairly resourceful herself, but Andy is such an incompetent idiot that you keep hoping that the bad guys will kill him off.The pacing is effective for a while, and the filmmaking pretty slick. Zudina is wonderful in the lead, and receives strong support from Ripley and Yankovskiy. Richards is okay, but again, his character is annoying. Igor Volkov and Sergei Karlenkov are spooky as the bad guys. There's a real joy in seeing the "special guest star" who pops up in two scenes as criminal mastermind The Reaper.Even with its flaws, "Mute Witness" is so damn good during its better portions that it still comes recommended.Eight out of 10.

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.

I tend to chew on a fingernail or two during great fights and great movies and that doesn't happen very often. Not saying this movie is an all time classic but it is indeed a supreme nail biter and should have a place among great suspense movies. I gave it a vote of 8 just because I wanted to do my part to get this movie over the current 6.8 rating and up to a solid 7 where it deserves to be. I found this movie on a single list of top 100 best suspense movies of all time while searching the internet for same. I had no real expectations about this title but wow, this low budget movie delivers big time. Name another movie made for $2.000.000 that delivers even 10% of the thrills and chills. It feels like an American movie shot overseas even though it is a joint effort from Russia | UK | Germany. There are no over the top gore scenes and only one or two gratuitous nude scenes which for me is a big plus. I don't mind a nude scene in its place or a little blood letting but many of todays so called horror and suspense movies have absolutely nothing to offer except some weird competition to see who can be more creative (grosser) at removing body parts. Todays movie goers are lazy, they don't want to think or use their imagination, they just want everything laid open in front of them and explained down to the last detail. They have to see the knife in slow motion entering the body from every angle to be entertained. If a character says " they found her head in a hat box" I don't have to see the head, thank you, I do have my own imagination. I see many reviewers calling this director a Hitchcock wannabe but who in the business wouldn't want to be compared to a great director like Hitch. I see this guy closer to Brian De Palma with his quite, nerve twisting pace. I promise you this movie will have you on the edge of your seat almost from the title screen and constantly guessing whats coming next. SEE IT!

This may be the most tension-filled movie I have ever seen.In fact, it's so nerve-wracking, I haven't been able to watch it again after viewing it two years ago, but I will since I have the DVD. There were a couple of scenes in here that are almost too much to watch....so if you've got problems and need to "escape" for an hour-and-half this film will get your mind off anything else. The Russian actress Marina Zudina did a super job in facial expressions alone, which she had to do since her character in here is a mute. She plays a cute and wholesome makeup artist for a sleazy filmmaker. After the day's shooting is done and "Billie" is about to leave, she hears something. She takes a peek into the room where they were filming and discovers they are now shooting a "snuff film" and actually killing someone. Billie's eavesdropping is discovered and she runs for her life as the killers go searching for her in this big warehouse-type building.There are two extended scenes in which our heroine is running for her life and both of them will wear you out. The first I described above. The second scene, the climactic one, goes on too long and isn't as well done as the first. In fact, the film should have been trimmed a bit but, overall, since it's so good at keeping our attention, then it served its purpose as entertainment.