MUTE WITNESS (18)
D: Anthony Waller
Columbia Tristar/Cobblestone (Alexander Buchman, Norbert
Soentgen & Anthony Waller)
UK 1995
90 mins
Horror/Thriller
W: Anthony Waller
DP: Egon Werdin
Ed: Peter Adam
Mus: Wilbert Hirsch
Marina Sudina (Billy Hughes), Fay Ripley (Karen Hughes),
Evan Richards (Andy Clarke), Oleg Jankowskij (Larsen), Igor Volkow (Arkadi), Sergei Karlenkov (Lyosha), Alec Guinness (The Reaper)
Set almost wholly inside a Moscow film studios where a
mute makeup artist works, locked in after dark, she witnesses a real-life murder being filmed for a snuff movie trade.
Despite the low budget, this slasher-style thriller is
incredibly well made by director Anthony Waller with a modest cast delivering some very good performances. Some may note it for one of the final screen performances of Sir Alec Guinness, who
turns up in a brief, but creepily sinister cameo role.
6/10