Mute Witness

Plot synopsis:
Moscow, 1993. In an old cinema studio building, an American producer is filming a low budget slasher film. The director, Andy Clark (Evan Richards), is working with his girlfriend, Karen Hughes (Fay Ripley), as his assistant, and his girlfriend's sister, Billy Hughes (Marina Zudina), as his FX make-up artist. Billy is a very pretty young blonde girl, but she doesn't have the physical ability to speak, not even to utter the merest sound. But she isn't deaf.Beside those three, all the rest of the crew is Russian. Among them, Lyosha (Sergei Karlenkov), the young and handsome assistant cameraman, is trying to flirt with Billy, under the amused eye of his friend Arkadi (Igor Volkov), one the light engineers. All the cast is also Russian. One of the female actress, who is supposed to have been stabbed to death, is overacting her part and breaks several props on the set. It is almost closing time in the studio, and there is no time to fix the props, so Andy decides it is time to go home.On the parking lot, Andy and Karen reminds Billy she is invited for dinner in their apartment. Then Billy remembers she forgot to take a mask she has to fix, and goes back in the building, while all the other cars are leaving.Back in her workshop, Billy doesn't find her mask, but, through her window, sees the janitor (Nikolai Pastukhov) ready to close and lock the main gate of the compound. She hits the bars of the window to attract his attention, but doesn't succeed. She rushes downstairs, only to find the doors of the building already locked. Billy telephones her sister. She can communicate with her sister by tapping on the microphone of the handset. Billy tells her what happened. After she hung up, Billy rushes downstairs, because she heard some voices coming from one of the sets.Without being noticed, she enters the set, where Lyosha is filming a porn movie. A plump naked blonde woman is having sex with a half-dressed man wearing a mask. Billy is both slightly embarrassed and amused. But she stops being amused when the masked man pulls a huge knife and starts stabbing the woman, and eventually kills her. The two men are making what is called a «snuff movie», which is a movie where people are really killed. In the underground world, such movies are supposed to be sold to very rich people for a very high price.Billy starts running out of the set, but she knocks a hatstand down, sending a diskette under a wooden wardrobe. Lyosha, who heard the noise made by the falling hatstand, starts running after Billy. Billy hides behind a vending machine in a long corridor. While Lyosha is searching one the rooms that opens on the corridor, Billy steals the key of the emergency door at the end of the corridor. But she doesn't have time to open the emergency door, because Lyosha is back in the corridor. Billy hides in one of the rooms opening on the corridor.Going from room to room, she reaches an out-of-order elevator and starts climbing down the shaft of the elevator using the emergency ladder. Meanwhile Arkadi meets his friend Lyosha in the corridor. We then understand that Arkadi is the masked man who killed the poor woman.Billy has the key to the emergency door between her teeth but she drops it. It falls down into the cabin, at the bottom of the shaft. Billy climbs down the shaft and looks inside the cabin through the chicken wire on the roof. She sees that the cabin door is wide open, and that the key is not inside the cabin, but just outside near the door, on the landing of the basement level. Arkadi and Lyosha walk in, carrying large plastic bags, which they push under the cabin into the bottom of the shaft. The key drops with the bags.When they are gone, Billy goes under the cabin to find her key. She not only finds her key, but also discovers that, inside the bags, are the remains of the poor murdered woman. She starts running back toward the emergency door, but she is spotted by Lyosha and Arkadi. Nevertheless, she reaches the emergency door, which she opens.But, before she can lock it back, Lyosha violently pushes it open and Billy falls from the outside emergency gallery down onto a huge pile of used film boxes.Before Lyosha can kill Billy, Karen, Andy and the janitor find her. While Andy and the janitor go get a doctor, Lyosha holds Billy's hands to prevent her explaining what happened to her sister. He pretends she mustn't move or she could get paralyzed.Slightly later, inside the set where the woman was murdered, two uniformed policemen are questioning Billy with Karen's help. But Lyosha and Arkadi explain to the policemen it was a «fake murder», and show them a fake prop knife with a retractable blade and a pouch of fake blood attached to it. They even give one of their films to the policemen. Then they all go down in the basement to look at the plastic bag in the bottom of the elevator shaft. But there is nothing but rubbish in the bags, and Billy, Karen, Andy and the two policemen leave the studio.Patrolling the basement, the janitor finds a skull burning in the incinerator, but he is killed by Arkadi. Meanwhile, Karen, Andy and Billy are eating in a restaurant. And Karen still believes her sister is telling the truth, even against all the «proofs» that were given to her.In the yard of the studio compound, Lyosha and Arkadi are waiting for their Big Boss, called «The Reaper» (Sir Alec Guiness), who comes in a black limousine, surrounded by other cars, full of his bodyguards. The Reaper tells them they won't get paid until they kill Billy.Andy, whose father is a high level politician, calls the US ambassador's secretary, Mr Lovett (Stephen Bouser), who immediately meets Alexander Larsen (Oleg Yankovsky), a high-rank police officer, who is acting as an undercover detective to track the activities of the criminal organization led by The Reaper.Meanwhile, Billy is back in her apartment, where she can communicate with her sister through a computer which translates what she types into synthetic spoken language.Meanwhile, Larsen and Lovett are watching the film that was given to the policemen by Arkadi and Lyosha. Actually, it is not the snuff movie made by Lyosha, but the movie made by Andy, in which the stupid actress is breaking half of the set. Later in the night, Lovett calls Andy to give him «the good news».Before going to bed, Karen calls her sister to check that she is okay. While they are speaking, someone rings the doorbell in Billy's apartment. It is Arkadi who tries to get in Billy's apartment, but she succeeds in slamming the door in his face. Unfortunately, Arkadi starts unscrewing the lock of the door with a power drill.When she heard the noise, Karen immediately took the decision to go to her sister's place, so Billy can't call her back. Billy tries to call the police through the operator, but the operator doesn't understand what the synthetic voice machine says. When she eventually gets someone who speaks good English, Arkadi has succeeded in entering Billy's apartment, and he tears the telephone cord off. Billy has taken a big knife from her kitchen and she tries to keep Arkadi away from her. They fight all around the apartment, breaking things, and eventually Billy crashes a big vase on Arkadi's head.Billy locks herself in the bathroom while Lyosha walks in her apartment. Arkadi tries to smash the bathroom door open, and when he eventually succeeds, it is to fall into the bathtub full of water. Billy throws the electric hair-drier in the bathtub and Arkadi dies from electrocution.She tries to rush out of her apartment, but Lyosha catches her. He wants her to tell him where is an important diskette he is looking for (Actually, it is the diskette we saw going under the big wardrobe, when Billy knocked the hatstand down on the set). He gives a pen to Billy to write it down, but she drives the pen violently into Lyosha's leg. But, before he can do anything back to Billy, he is knocked out by Larsen, who takes rapidly Billy out of the apartment, and into his car. Larsen's car is followed by Wartschuk's car. Wartschuk (Alexander Piatov) is The Reaper's right-hand man, the only one of his assistants he really trusts.Very shortly after Larsen and Billy's departure, Karen and Andy enter the apartment. They find the apartment trashed and Arkadi's corpse in the bathtub. Afraid of Lyosha, they lock themselves in one of the bedroom. Two fake policemen, sent by Wartschuk, walk into the apartment, kill Lyosha, take Andy and Karen out of the locked bedroom, and start asking them about the missing diskette;Meanwhile, in his car, Larsen explains to Billy that the missing diskette contains very important data about The Reaper's criminal organization. Billy suddenly remembers where the diskette is, but when she hears Larsen talking in Russian to Wartschuk into a walkie-talkie, she gets suspicious about him. To force him to stop the car, she hits him in his private parts and then ties his hand on the steering-wheel with the handcuffs she found in the glove compartment. She gets out of the car, and starts running toward Wartschuk's car. But she hesitates, stops and comes back into Larsen's car, who drives away just before Wartschuk's henchman catches her.Meanwhile, the two fake policemen are still trying to get Andy and Karen to tell them about the missing diskette. One of the policemen puts his gun on Andy's head, but, very discreetly, Karen pulls the rug from under his feet, The policeman falls down and inadvertently shoots his gun and kills his colleague. Then Karen knocks the fallen policeman out by hitting him on the head with the telephone handset, then finishes him by crashing an armchair on his head.Meanwhile, Larsen and Billy have reached the studio building. Billy frees Larsen and they walk inside the building, and lock the doors from the inside. Outside the building, Wartschuk parks on the yard surrounded by other cars full of gunmen. Andy and Karen park in the street near the compound and enters it by going over the wall.Inside the building, Larsen finds the diskette under the wardrobe, but Wartschuk walks in and Larsen, playing his part as an undercover agent, first pretends to be on Wartschuk's side against Billy, but then hits Wartschuk on the head with the butt of his gun.Meanwhile, Andy and Karen succeeds in entering the building, but before going in, they see The Reaper's car driving in the compound. Once inside, they see Larsen bringing Billy out of the building at gunpoint. The Reaper orders Larsen to shoot her, which he does. Billy falls on the ground, covered with blood. Satisfied, The Reaper orders all his gunmen to drive out of the compound.When Larsen walks back inside the building, Karen punches him very hard and then walks out to her dead sister, only to find out she is NOT dead and has only used one of her FX gadgets to pretend she was shot and covered with fake blood. Inside the building, Andy tries to shoot Larsen with Larsen's gun, only to discover it is loaded with blank cartridges.Larsen and Andy walk out to meet Billy, and we understand that Billy has fallen in love with Larsen. Larsen puts Wartschuk, gagged and all tied up, in his car. But something in Wartschuk's frightened expression worries Billy, who, not been able to talk, reads faces better than other people. She makes Larsen come out of the car, just before the car explodes, killing Wartschuk, but not Larsen.

Tags: cult, comedy, murder, violence, flashback

Review:
What makes it so totally different from the usual thriller/horror, apart from its Moscow setting, the Russians are played by real Russians actors, even the American mute woman - excellent casting idea, because she acts brilliantly.
This is the perfect example of a would-be great film that's merely recommendable thanks to an awful finish.Billy Hughes (Marina Zudina) is the make-up artist for a cheesy slasher flick being filmed in Russia.
After a fairly amusing opening scene and an effective set-up of the characters, Mute Witness kicks into full throttle quickly.
In Moscow, the clumsy director Andy Clarke (Evan Richards) is making a slasher movie in a studio set with Russian and American cast and crew.
However, the janitor locks her in the studio alone and Billy cannot find a way out.When Billy sees light in the studio, she accidentally witnesses the Russians Arkadi (Igor Volkov) and Lyosha (Sergej Karlenkov) making a porn snuff movie and brutally killing a woman.
Further, the powerful Russian mafia chases her believing that Billy has a diskette with evidences against the mobsters.I saw "Mute Witness" eighteen years ago and I loved this film.
Yesterday I saw it again, now on DVD, and it still is a great film that combines thriller and horror with black humor in a plot with many twists.
There are a number of thrillers that focus on a certain disability - blindness is more common (Blind Terror, Wait Until Dark, Cat o'Nine Tails to name a handful), but the implications of having a mute lead in a thriller such as this are well portrayed, and actually integral to the plot as the fact that the lead character can't speak is often the reason why she finds herself in dangerous situations that would be easy for anyone else to get out of.
Our mute witness is Billy Hughes, a make-up artist working on a horror film production at a studio in Moscow.
She finds herself locked in after hours one night, and after attempting to phone her sister for help, she stumbles upon what at first appears to be the making of an illicit sex flick, but soon turns out to be a snuff movie!
She tries to convince the authorities of what she's seen, but finds that no one believes her story...Recently Hostel made the headlines for showing snuff movie making in a foreign country, but this film did it first and actually does a better job.
It's maybe not quite as nasty as Eli Roth's opus, but the gore is more effective, and since director Anthony Waller (who went on to direct one of my favourite modern thrillers with 'The Guilty') implements a good sense of humour into the proceedings, Mute Witness is both sufficiently gory and fun to watch.
The acting isn't bad for a B-movie, with young performers Marina Zudina, Fay Ripley and Evan Richards delivering good performances.
Billy Hughes is a mute young lady working for make-up on a cheap horror picture being filmed in Moscow by an American director.
The performances by the cast were all fine, especially the nail biting turns by Oleg Yankovsky and Igor Volkov as the Russian murderers.This riveting feature that's mostly made up of unknowns, is way better than your average dark thriller.
The film is still very good mind you  and is much better than a lot of large budget thrillers.It isn't scary but it is very thrilling.
Like many of Hitch's heroes, our doe-eyed mute witness has innocently stumbled into something truly horrific -- and we are taken on quite a ride with her, at turns identifying totally and feeling her fear, at turns watching in thrilling suspense as she is placed further in jeopardy.The filmmakers have put in a lot of tender care in working this out.
The shock, fear, horror and helplessness are also brought out well by characters in the film.The well written situations n twists,fast camera movements, slick editing and superb direction makes it an excellent suspense thriller.
This film actually switches between the genres - horror and suspense thriller leaving the viewer clueless and tensed.
It's a pity that it all went wrong in the second half of the movie.Billy Hughes is a mute make-up artist who works on an American slasher movie that's being shot in Moscow.
Now she has to try to escape from the murderers (Russian people who work in her film crew), to stay alive and to convince the authorities that the murder that she witnessed is real.I like to watch good thrillers and I'm a fan of European movies, because most of the time they pay more attention to the character development and the story.
Movies like Psycho and Blair Witch, while being great in suspense (both with great build ups) are spoiled by the fact that we know all about the best scenes and at least the plot before we see them.
I didn't really know much about the film at the time I decided to watch it, but I felt like watching a thriller movie.It is a good thing I caught this film.
Anyhow, I think very highly of this film, not only as an indie thriller, but just as an overall excellent movie..
Billy Hughes, a mute makeup artist working on a slasher film being shot in Moscow, is locked in the studio after hours.
While there she witnesses a brutal murder, and must first escape capture at that time, then keep from being killed before convincing authorities of what she's seen.Critical reception has been mostly positive and the film currently holds a rating of 80% "fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes, based upon 20 reviews.
Variety gave the film a mostly positive review, remarking that while the movie can be "entirely plot-driven, neglecting to develop intriguing characterizations", its "suspense is so chilling, its narrative so disciplined and its style so pleasurable, they jointly triumph over the other deficiencies." The review from the New Yorker was more mixed and they wrote that the director's "technique is impressive; the film falls flat only when he attempts to make the frightening funny.
But the plot takes some nice twists and turns, the tension builds a good head of steam, and the tawdriness never lets up." Personally, I think the film is a bit over-rated.
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.
This is a very good surprise,this horror low budget movie.The influences are definitely European,and Dario Argento's fans should relish with that:the cinematography and the direction recall such works as "suspiria" and "l'ucello della piume de cristallo" with a simpler script and less showing off.The mute  heroine will make old cinema buffs think of Dorothy MCGuire's part in "the spiral staircase"(Robert Siodmak,1946),but this latter movie was hitchcockian to the core whereas this one ,I say it again,is more "argentoesque":the scene in which the baddie tries to force open the frightened girl flat was in the two mentioned movies.The comic relief (the people above who cannot sleep because of the "noise" ) might be an allusion to HG Clouzot's "les diaboliques".This is an action-packed story,using the settings with intelligence and dexterity.And very honest,at that:Russians speak Russian and thus are credible.This adds to the suspense because there are actually three languages:Russian ,English,and the heroine's one who can only communicate by looks and gestures.To top it all,there's a superb cameo for sir Alec Guiness -the only star of the movie,at least in western Europe and America-,who appears billed as "mystery guest star" in the credits.All psychological suspense afficionados must see this overlooked gem..
And a pity it is, because the idea is not bad: set in Moscow, a mute "American" girl (beautiful Martina Zudina is actually a Moscow-born Russian, so she was conveniently rendered mute so her accent would not give her away) working as a film production assistant witnesses a "snuff" crime committed in a studio lot, and she is chased for the rest of the film.
The appealing Russian actress Marina Zudina plays Billy Hughes, an American makeup effects artist working on a slasher film being shot in Moscow.
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..
Billy, a mute make up artist (played very well by Marina Zudina, a beautiful Russian actress) accidentally witnesses a porno shoot there, done after hours, that soon turns into a real murder.
Mute Witness begins strongly with a simple but intense set-up that has a mute American make-up girl accidentally getting locked in the decrepit Russian film studio in which she is working on a US film being directed by her brother-in-law.
While trying to find her way out she inadvertently witnesses the filming of a snuff movie and subsequently finds herself hunted through the deserted studio's dimly-lit corridors.
All of this is well paced and filmed  the murder scene, like Hitchcock's famous shower scene, cleverly uses the viewer's imagination to provide the gory details  and the film manages to create an increasingly claustrophobic atmosphere as the heroine's avenues of escape are systematically reduced.Unfortunately, it can't sustain this level of tension for long, and once the plot is opened out things start to unravel.
For some unfathomable reason, writer/director Anthony Waller decides to introduce a 'comedy' element in the guise of the heroine's film director brother-in-law, and the whole thing nearly falls apart completely as he and his wife (the heroine's sister) are given increasingly larger amounts of screen time.The story grows a little confused as it widens from a lady-in-peril thriller to more of a conspiracy plot involving a shadowy figure called The Reaper (Alec Guinness in a cameo he filmed about nine years before the rest of the film was shot!) and police complicity in the snuff trade, and by its climax, Waller has thrown in so many twists and red herrings to try and disguise some glaring plot holes that you're left deflated by thinking about what could have been..
Writer/director Anthony Waller builds an effective setpiece early on (reminiscent of the 'museum scene' in "Dressed to Kill"), where Billy (Maria Sudina), a mute makeup artist on a low-budget movie, witnesses what appears to be a snuff film, and proceeds to get chased through the building by the perpetrators, always keeping one move ahead.
This is very complex and well-done, but sadly, it's the high point of "Mute Witness."  After that, the film becomes a labyrinth of plot twists that even the director can't keep track of (though you'll be one step ahead of each), made all the more confusing because of some very, VERY thick Russian accents (oftentimes I couldn't tell if it was Russian or just very broken English the characters were speaking--subtitles please!), and two American filmmakers who bring an awkward sitcom quality to the proceedings.
I like movies that don't deliver what is expected, but I dislike it when movies emphasize style over character, which "Mute Witness" does seemingly every five minutes in the last act--Waller has apparently watched too many Dario Argento films.
I really cannot believe that it didn't gain much more popularity when it was released, especially when the main contenders at the time were the usual Wes Craven sequels and copycat horrors, Mute Witness has all the style, suspense and quickfire plot twists of a Hitchcock/DePalma movie, coupled with some very sharp black comedy and a great plot.
It never promises to be any more than a good popcorn-and-hot-dog movie, but it is difficult not to just enjoy the film for what it is.The plot centres on Billie Hughes - a mute girl working on the set of a horror film being made in a Russian factory.
As the main character is mute, she cannot make a noise - something which is a blessing at some stages of the movie, and a curse in others.The director seems to have studied his Hitchcock very well, Even the opening scene is a tongue-in-cheek nod to both Hitchcock's "Psycho" as well as fairly generic slasher movie scenes.While the acting can be hammy at times, the whole film does hold it together, not only throwing in a couple of excellent scenes that put you right on the edge of your seat, but a few neat little questions about how the film is going to end.All in all, a hugely overlooked, well-paced and action packed psycho-thriller which I would recommend for any jaded viewer looking for something a little different from the usual Freddy/Jason/Scream/Michael Myers/Damien regurgitation's at hallowe'en..
The fact that the main character is mute is used throughout the story in a very believable way.She sees a murder (for a snuff-movie) and decides to run but is chased (this takes quite some time).
The story is about a girl who works for a film company  and who gets to be the accidental witness of a murder while it's being filmed for a snuff-movie.
An intense thriller about a mute movie make-up artist who witnesses a snuff film being made when she is working late in the studio one night.
The plot is simple: Mute woman accidentally witnesses a killing in a snuff film one day, late at night in a big old film studio, something nobody was ever meant to see.
The whole 5-minute 'snuff' scene was very unpleasant, and the movie's violence should have been toned down a little, to fully perfect the wonderful 'old-fashioned thriller'-feeling to it all.
From the movie-within-a-movie opening scene to the ending's last surprise, there is not too much that hasn't been done before in Mute Witness.
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.
Starring a cast of unknowns (except an extremely brief cameo by Sir Alec Guiness whose scenes were purportedly filmed eight years prior to the actual filming of this movie), it told the story of a mute make-up artist, Billie, who is working on a film on location in Russia produced and directed by her sister's boyfriend Andy.
MUTE WITNESS is the kind of film that demands a scrutiny of viewing similar to the most intricate, clever thriller because as much as it is a convoluted thriller, it's one that pays its dues to movies like WAIT UNTIL DARK and the best of Hitchcock in its choice of camera cuts, deadpan humor, Americans reacting in foreign countries where they are powerless, and nail-biting suspense until it seems something must snap.
Here, in "Mute Witness", we find a prime example of this.*Scene spoiler* In the first 5-10 minutes, the film opens to a very Hitchcockian scene of a pretty blonde lady in her apartment, with the radio on.
- It conveys a central subject matter (that of the difference between a 'movie screen death' and a 'snuff film death', an issue which is elaborated on later in the film), and finally, it introduces the viewer to the characters, all as silently as possible.The plot of Mute Witness centres around Billy Hughes, an American special effects make-up artist who is working on the set of the film, being shot in a large warehouse in Moscow.
After the end of an evening's filming, Billy inadvertently finds herself locked in the warehouse by accident, and in her attempt to escape, is witness to two of the crew making what first appears to be a porno film, but turns out to be a snuff movie.
- At the end, the twists keep coming at a rapid-fire speed, and the climax of the film is, appropriately, as tense as the first half.There are several things that really make the movie work.
The actress that plays Billy, Natasha Zudina, does a wonderful job in the film, with an engaging on-screen prescence, and a brilliant performance, and finally, the direction as a whole, but most particularly in the first half of the film, which truly is a study in Alfred Hitchcock's suspense/thriller film techniques.As I have already said, though, the let-downs in the film are from some terrible comic relief moments that really do not need to be added.
Her overacting drive the director nuts and his funny reaction tell us, the viewers, that Mute Witness is not a typically horror movie.The main character, the mute American make-up artist Billy Hughes, is played by the beautiful yet talented Russian actress Marina Zudina.
The film  written and directed entirely by Anthony Waller  is a tense, action-packed thriller with black comedy aspects and horror influences.
Mute Witness handles about the vicious topic of `snuff'-movies and is effectively set in Russia.
The acting in Mute Witness isn't great, but the leading actress (who's Russian herself) looks really cute.
~Spoiler~ Mute Witness is a brilliant suspense film that is completely undermined by the last 30 minutes.
In the film, a mute girl, Billy Hughes, accidentally witnesses a snuff film being made and the killers must eliminate her at all costs.
She calls her sister, then witnesses a murder taking place in the studio by two of the people working in the film and decides to fled.
You can sense that first-time director Anthony Waller (who went on to make the lamented but largely enjoyable B-movie AN American WEREWOLF IN Paris) wants to make something above the run-of-the-mill horror film despite the small budget, striving to create something worthwhile in terms of suspense and atmosphere.
The Hitchcock comparison applies directly to the good use of a "gimmick" - the main character and "witness" being Mute; well acted by a Russian actress as an American.