Speak No Evil Plot Synopsis
The next time you’re on vacation, think twice before accepting an invitation to the home of any new friends you make. This is something Bjorn and Louise should have done, the Danish couple at the heart of Christian Tafdrup’s new horror film, as they soon begin to regret their decision to spend a weekend away with the Dutch family they met during their vacation in Tuscany.
Spoiler alert: Stop reading now if you haven’t seen the movie!
Soon after returning home, Bjorn, Louise, and their daughter Agnes take an 8-hour drive into the Netherlands to spend time with their new best buds Patrick, Karin, and their son Abel. On arrival, they all enjoy one another’s company but Bjorn and his family soon start to feel uncomfortable when their hosts begin to act in ways that aren’t acceptable to them.
When Bjorn discovers the real reason why he and his family have been invited to Patrick and Karin’s home, the weekend takes a very dark turn.
So, why did Patrick and Karin invite Bjorn and his family into their home? And what do their plans have to do with Agnes?
Let’s take a closer look at this disturbing new movie:
How do Patrick and Karin make Bjorn and his family feel uncomfortable?
The two families got on very well together when they met in Tuscany but when Bjorn, Louise and Agnes arrive at Patrick and Karin’s home for what is supposed to be a pleasant weekend away, they start to feel very uncomfortable.
Why? Well, their hosts forget Louise is vegetarian for a start and when Patrick begins to challenge Louise on her eating habits, tensions develop between them.
Later, Patrick and Karin invite Bjorn and Louise for a night out at a bar and they leave Agnes and Abel alone with a babysitter named Muhajid. As Bjorn and Louise assumed the kids would be joining them, they aren’t happy that their hosts failed to tell them about the childminder.
During their night out, Patrick and Karin become overly intimate while dancing and this weirds Bjorn and Louise out. On the drive home, Patrick plays loud music in the car and continues to do so even after Louise has asked him to turn it down.
Such events would make anybody feel slightly uncomfortable but they aren’t that unusual. However, things take a weirder turn when Patrick and Karin put Agnes in their bed. They apparently do this because Louise fails to respond to Agnes’s cries in the night but when Louise enters their room to retrieve her daughter, she notices Patrick is naked and this makes her feel very uneasy.
Eventually, Bjorn and Louise decide to leave but when they confront their hosts about the way they have been behaving, the two are convinced to stay for one more day.
Does the weekend improve?
Unfortunately not It’s clear to Bjorn and Louise that things aren’t right in the household when they hear Abel moaning during the night. At one point, Abel opens his mouth to say something to Bjorn but there is no sound. According to Patrick, the boy is unable to speak because he has a congenitally short tongue.
It’s evident that the boy is unhappy and the source of his unhappiness seems to be Patrick who acts aggressively towards him. Bjorn challenges Patrick about this but his host doesn’t appreciate his intervention.
During the final night of their stay, Bjorn explores a cabin which is situated behind Patrick’s house and he discovers an attic room containing pictures of vacationing couples with their children. This is strange enough but what’s more bizarre is the fact that some of the pictures are of Patrick and Karin standing with the children they have clearly abducted from the other families that are in the pictures.
Realizing that his family might be the next victims, Bjorn decides to make his escape with Louise and Agnes. But before he gathers them into the car, he makes another shocking discovery: Abel’s dead body floating face down in Patrick’s swimming pool!
Do Bjorn and his family escape?
Bjorn gets his family into the car but he doesn’t explain his findings to them. Soon after driving away, the car gets stuck in a ditch and Bjorn leaves Louise and Agnes alone while he goes to find help.
When Bjorn returns to the car, his family have gone. Patrick then turns up in his car with Karin, Louise and Agnes inside. We learn that Patrick had told Louise that Bjorn had called him for help, which is clearly a lie.
When Bjorn gets into Patrick’s car, he remains silent so as not to endanger his family. But when Louise becomes suspicious of Patrick’s intentions, the night takes an even darker turn.
What happens to Bjorn and his family?
During the drive, Patrick turns violent and beats Bjorn into submission. When he stops the car, Mujahid arrives on the scene and the once-friendly babysitter holds Louise down while Karin cuts off Agnes’s tongue. The girl is then dragged out of the car by Mujahid and is taken away by him.
Bjorn and Louise are then driven to a quarry where they are forced to undress. Bjorn asks Patrick why he is doing this to them. “Because you let me” is Patrick’s reply. This is in reference to the passive behaviour that Bjorn exhibits throughout the film, even during moments when he should have reacted more strongly to Patrick’s acts of hostility. As such, Patrick is suggesting Bjorn’s silence led to his downfall.
Bjorn and Louise are then forced into a ditch and as they lie together, they are stoned to death by Patrick and Karin who are standing above them.
What happens to Agnes?
Agnes becomes the latest ‘mute’ child to play ‘happy families’ with Patrick and Karin. Like Abel and the other abducted children before her, she had her tongue cut off so she couldn’t speak of the evil behaviours that her fake parents were capable of.
As the film ends, we see that she is now the latest child to act as bait while her captors target another potential family for their evil acts of murder and abduction.
Read More: Speak No Evil Movie Review
Explained.
That was the whole point. They didânt figth back and they didânt leave. Patrick and Karin was seizing them up from the start. They had every chance to leave and stand up for themselves, but didânt. At the end they give them time to run from their own death, but they just stand there. Patrick even leaves the car with the keys still in themâŠ
They fund this venture from their victims.
They seize up people, find the weak and prey on them. Testing their vicitims the whole weekend and in the end, killing them if they dont leave. They seem to have a god complexâŠ
The babysitter guy may just be another weak person they prey upon and use. He may be an illegal immigrant or just in the bottom of society.
Gross will not watch đĄno endingâŠevil continues
But WHAT IS THE POINT? Clearly itâs not a trafficking situation, since they kept and then killed âAbleâ, so where is their money coming from? Whoâs funding this whole thing? How are they able to afford trips to Italy and/or wherever else they go to lure their next victims? Why is this random other man involved? What is he getting out of the whole thing? This is a massive plot hole for me. The dots donât connect, and I find it odd that no one else seems to ask any of these questions.
This ending really infuriated me. Actually, I was infuriated way before that. Even if they were convinced to stay after they almost got away the first time, after the guy was screaming at Abel, to the point Louisa was so upset she was practically vomiting, that should have been when they said, “I’m sorry, this isn’t for us,” and left.
The fact that they didn’t fight back at all really really upset me. They could have fought harder for their daughter. They stood their and removed their clothes simply because Patrick told them to. You would have to hold me down and tear my clothes off. I would fight with everything I had. They didn’t even have a gun. They didn’t even try.
Honestly I wouldâve have kicked and beaten them while driving the car. What kind of parents would be in shock not to! I wouldnât leave without a fight and Louise seemed to have it in her. Also their friends knew they were going away, they have a photo on the fridge if theyâre home. There is GPS trackers that can all lead to a second part. Also the girl is not one that doesnât write, she can easily write a message and let authorities know sheâs been kidnap.
But when you think about it. Itâs pretty messed up that Patric took Bjorn on a drive to their murder site, the day before.
The end just didnât sit right with me. I couldnât see any father being so easily subdued after witnessing his daughterâs tongue cut from her mouth and abduction. They took them to an area littered with perfect bludgeoning tools & had no firearms & Bjorn already knew exactly what was going to become of his whole family.
I was sort of hoping for a final act where Bjorn regains consciousness & remembers unleashing his inner beast on that same wasteland before, and returns to exact revenge on Patric & Karin & rescue his daughter in the most brutal & savage way. The submissive pacifist becoming the predator.
I already did!
What was the thing that Patrick threw out the window on the way home from the restaurant/roadhouse? Also why has no reviews mentioned that Karin was using sign language when she was telling Agnes to set the table and being very stern with her as she was practicing her mothering on Agnes. Am I the only one that saw this because that was a complete giveaway to what was really going on with Patric & Karin. This was the biggest red flag to me. And how did Patric know where the family was stranded who really was behind Bjorn that he veered from the road to get away from him. Was it the babysitter guy? Too many holes in the story if they wernt there on purpose.