By Hannah F.

“You didn’t ask why. That’s a good thing.”

I went in to my viewing of The Mute with almost no knowledge of what was going to happen. I knew it was a Polish horror/thriller film, which made me excited because I like foreign horror movies; they show a totally different take on what exactly defines ‘scary’. I had read a very vague plot description, and...that’s about it. I tried to watch this film with an open mind, and ended up extremely invested, but also very...very confused.

The film follows a bishop who, on an ill-fated missionary trip, wrecks on an island, near death. He’s saved by a young man who has been hiding there, and the two of them join together to continue the bishop’s mission - convert the pagan tribe on the island to prevent them from being slaughtered by the King and his army, who are on the bishop’s tail. In trying to avoid spoilers, that’s all I’m going to be able to tell you. The plot moves and twists very quickly, with dynamics changing in the blink of an eye. It’s not monster-under-the-bed scary, or jump scare scary, or even gore scary. It’s more...fear of the unknown type of scary. The kind of fear that makes you wary to walk down an alleyway in a city you’re unfamiliar with, or unsure of people’s intentions when you hear them speaking a language you don’t understand while looking in your direction.

The Mute definitely plays on the irrational fear of those different than us, with the pagan tribe being relatively harmless but still unfamiliar and strange. They speak in a language that is almost never subtitled, so we have to rely on facial expression and tone of voice, plus context clues in the subtitled dialogue, to figure out what’s being said. They are also very vocal, with lots of chanting and singing, and very absorbed in touch, always hugging, touching, caressing, and holding each other. It’s very different, and at times unsettling, but fairly harmless, and makes you really wonder who the ‘good guys’ and the ‘bad guys’ are here.

The film itself was also beautiful to look at, with fantastic camera work and visceral visual storytelling. There are a few very well-executed first person sequences, as well as some where the camera never moved and simply focused on wood burning in a fire, the sun coming through the fog, or rain falling through the branches of a tree. Those kinds of shots added to the eerie feeling of the whole story, and were done very, very well, I feel.

I found The Mute to be a well-done film, if not one I would search out on my own. I was very invested in the plot and the characters, but also very confused. I don’t quite know what happened in most of it, and I don’t know whether it was because I’m not very well-versed in religion, or because the time period of the story was not directly established, or because the ending threw a few language twists at me that left me squinting at my screen trying to hear better. I enjoyed the film, and it definitely made me think, but I don’t know if I’d watch it again, or search out another movie like it.

For more info about Cinepocalypse visit their website: https://cinepocalypsegenrefest.com

Cinepocalypse Film Fest 2019 - “THE MUTE” Review

Back to Top