Patience and perseverance are virtues any aspiring film maker should have. That includes people like British film maker Anthony Waller, who had to wait almost a decade to make his feature debut. Like so many feature debuts, it was a low budget exploitation film, but the extremely long path to its creation inspired Waller to use production of low exploitation film as the main element of the plot. The result was Mute Witness, 1995 Anglo-German-Russian co-production that would later get something of a minor cult status and reputation as one of “the best horror films nobody saw”.
The protagonist, played by Marina Zudina, is Billy Hughes, mute American woman who, despite her disability, enjoys reputation of excellent make up artist and, as such, is employed by Andy Clarke (played by Evan Richards), film director and boyfriend of her sister Karen (played by Fay Ripley). The plot begins in Moscow when the trio is using huge but cheap film studio to shoot low budget slasher film. One night, after the daily shoot is over, Billy stays locked in studio and witnesses that someone else is using the same facility for their own production. What at first look like a pornographic film turns into nightmare when the woman actually gets killed. Billy is now faced to hide and try to avoid killers and when she finally manages to leave studio, police is reluctant to believe her story and more likely to view whole incident as bizarre misunderstanding. However, Reaper (played by Alec Guinness), mysterious head of international organisation that produces and distributes snuff films for rich and perverted audience around the world, wants Billy permanently silenced. She is again forced to use all of her skills and ingenuity to escape the killer, while Larsen (played by Oleg Yankovsky), police inspector who is supposed to be in charge of investigation, might not be who he claims to be.
Horror films and thrillers often serve as good starting point for film makers’ careers because they often require simple plots and, together with low budgets, allow their authors to concentrate on “pure” film making and, in the process, develop their skills. Waller displayed a lot of those skills in this film, which looked much more expensive and grander than it actually was, despite low budget and almost all scenes taking part in couple of interior locations, like semi-abandoned film studio and protagonist’s apartment. Waller also showed that the long time in developing the film was well spent and that the script and characters were well-conceived while the directing style showed influence of the masters of the genre, especially Hitchock and De Palma (including his classic Blow Out, which is referenced in the film’s opening). Waller was very effective in creating tension and suspense and one of the best examples can be seen in the first part of the film, which features heroine having to escape from the studio. This tour de force is followed later in the film during the scene that takes place in her apartment, which is followed by series of plot twists, although the last one, with which film actually ends, is little bit too predictable. Waller nevertheless manages to wrap his film nicely within standard hour and half of running time, showing himself to be not only talented but very economical film maker.
His achievement is even more impressive in light of circumstances during the production, which look like they could serve as basis for another feature film. Mute Witness originated almost by accident in 1985, when Waller as young film maker met legendary British actor Alec Guinness and talked him into making a brief cameo scene as Reaper. Waller spent years developing script around it. The plot, which had been originally set in 1930s Chicago, was later changed to modern times for budgetary reasons. In the meantime, Cold War ended and complete economic ruin of post-Communist Russia allowed some of its film making resources, including famous Mosfilm studios, to be available for Western film makers at dirt cheap prices. Shooting film in early 1990s Moscow presented its own challenges, including apocryphal stories about corrupt government officials and various organised crime groups having to be paid off. However, it also allowed some of the local talents to shine, most importantly Vera Zudina. Russian actress at the time didn’t speak English, but her character being mute turned this into the film’s advantage because she had to convey all her emotions non-verbally, displaying incredible skills. That also made the character of Billy even more formidable, because she had to confront not only villains, but her own inability to speak in Russian or speak at all. The rest of cast is easily overshadowed by her and that includes Richards and Ripley who serve as effective comic relief. Oleg Yankovsky, highly respected Russian actor who had appeared in few Western co-productions before, is also very good in his role and successfully plays with audience’s expectations about his character’s true alignments. Setting film in Yeltsin’s Russia also makes the story about snuff films, international crime and omnipresent corruption believable and protagonist’s predicament even bigger than in film set in some other time or place. Although the ending could have been a little bit tidied up, Mute Witness represents very good piece of film making that could be recommended even to the audience with the most refined taste in horror and thriller genre.
RATING: 8/10 (+++)
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