Mute Witness

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