Mute Witness
Mute Witness (, ) is a 1995 horror thriller film written, directed and produced by Anthony Waller, his feature film debut. It stars Marina Zudina, Fay Ripley and Oleg Yankovsky and features a brief cameo appearance by Alec Guinness, his final film role in a theatrically-released film. The plot follows a mute American makeup artist working on a slasher film in Moscow, who is pursued by a crime organization making and dealing snuff films after she stumbles upon one of their film sets and witnesses a murder.
Plot
Billy Hughes, a special effects make-up artist who is mute, is in Moscow working on a low-budget slasher film directed by Andy Clarke, the boyfriend of her elder sister, Karen. On one particular night, Billy returns to the set to fetch a piece of equipment for the next day's shoot when she is accidentally locked in the studio. Billy phones Karen for help and communicates with her via morse code, but is interrupted when she discovers a small film crew working after-hours to shoot a cheap pornographic film. Watching unseen, Billy is amused until the performed sex becomes sadistic. When Arkadi, the masked actor, pulls out a knife and brutally stabs the actress to death, Billy reacts and is discovered. She flees through the studio, pursued by the film's director, Lyosha, before crashing through a window outside. Moments later, Karen arrives and finds the injured Billy, with Lyosha standing over her. Lyosha pretends to be an innocent bystander who witnessed Billy's accident, but Karen senses he is dangerous based on Billy's body language.
More details
author | Anthony Waller |
---|---|
contentLocation | Moscow |
director | Anthony Waller |
editor | Peter R. Adam |
genre | comedy crime horror thriller |
keywords | attack body language bomb bound and gagged bulletproof vest burn crime ring elderly man elevator shaft fake knife film crew follow gag injured international crime kill locked in make-up artist mask morse code mute muteness night watchman pornographic film question security guard slasher film snuff film special effects stabbed to death vintage car |
musicBy | Wilbert Hirsch |
producer | Anthony Waller Alexander Buchman Norbert Soentgen |
publisher | Sony Pictures Classics |
recordedAt | Germany Moscow |
theme | comedy horror comedy thriller crime comedy filmmaking independent slasher snuff |