Before we even get to the opening credits of 1995’s Mute Witness, we see a woman in a typical slasher film setup get stabbed by an escaped mental patient wearing a stocking mask over his head. The woman who is his victim proceeds to stumble all around the room in her death throes, knocking over a dressing table and a bookcase. Eventually she is tangled in curtains and wandering around with the curtain rod dragging behind her. The guy who stabbed her is off against a wall, chuckling while he watches this darkly comic display. Then he is joined by another guy. Soon, there’s a third guy all watching this surreal mayhem. As the camera keeps panning, more faces are shown, and there’s glimpses of various studio equipment. You see, we have been watching a horror movie being made.
The horror movie within this movie is being made in Russia. Evan Richards, as the director of that film, thought he could make one more cheaply there than in the US or UK. Guess he didn’t anticipate the studio would shut down immediately and completely each day at 6 pm. And Richard’s character probably thought the unions in those other countries were bad!
Locked inside the facility that night by accident is Marina Zudina. She’s the special effects expert on the production, and it was good to see a woman in that capacity in a movie. Her character is mute, though she can hear, and this makes some interesting developments, such as an early laptop she uses which has primitive speech software. She uses that device to “talk” on the phone. Also, making her character mute was an interesting way to have a Russian actress be the lead, as Zudina apparently did not have any understanding of English at the time.
She stumbles upon a second, secret film being made at the studio in its off hours. It was only after the end credits rolled that I wondered if the studio heads were in on that activity, and that was why they insisted on shutting down immediately at 6, and quickly.
Anywho, one of the crew members is behind the camera, filming another member of the production having sex with a woman. That the guy on top of the woman is wearing a mask does not bode, and it isn’t much of a surprise he pulls a large knife out from a pillow and stabs her to death with it. Zudina sees the whole thing and nearly gives herself away when she stumbles into a coatrack upon which the woman’s coat and purse are hanging. She manages to get everything back in its expected place, except a floppy disc from the purse that she fails to notice slide under what appears to be an armoire.
She does a decent job of eluding the killers while being trapped in the massive facility. But to my surprise (and a bit of disappointment), this game of cat and mouse is only the first act. That’s a shame, because this sequence is extraordinarily tense. Instead, the movie experiences an odd plot twist and weird shift in tone in the second act, when it turns out Zudina is not in trouble because she witnessed a snuff porn film being made, but because everybody thinks she is in possession of that missing computer disc. Turns out that floppy has info on the criminal underworld that could lead to many arrests.
What is even more unfortunate is the further twists it takes in the third act. The shift in tone becomes even more drastic, as an increase in humorous touches telegraphs the film will be pulling all of its punches from here on out. That tonal shift happens in a single scene, which begins with some pretty shocking violence, only to end with a wildly improbable happy accident. Then that is followed by a moment that is quite funny, where an uncomprehending neighbor sees substantial carnage that could possibly have been incurred by these two meek Americans.
I was frustrated Mute Witness starts out so strong, only to diminish with each new development after the first act. I had pretty much given up on the film by the big finish, which has a twist that will only fool those who are not familiar with a certain popular 80’s action-suspense film, also about special effects people.
Dir: Anthony Waller
Starring Marina Zudina, Fay Ripley, Evan Richards
Watched on Shudder