Number 8 — MUTE WITNESS
For the month of October, we’re counting down the best horror movies of 1995! Check back every day for a new entry in the list.
Fangoria’s recent Chainsaw Awards reminded me how incomparable horror really is. No other genre does what it does. It often melds various styles and themes together (horror/comedy, drama/horror, etc.) and gives actors plenty of meat on the bone. What you’ll frequently see are performances that rival those that win major Academy Award hardware and deserve as much recognition for shattering expectations and cutting to the heart. Real human stories lie behind the gore, violence, and insidious evil. The exterior might look different, but the core of horror movies is much the same as any other genre.
From Toni Collette in HEREDITARY to Jamie Lee Curtis in HALLOWEEN H20: TWENTY YEARS LATER, the format has birthed countless all-time great performances that have largely been shunned by the general public. Hollywood has no qualms about contributing to horror’s reliable blockbuster success, but when it comes to awards, horror always gets the shaft. A criminally overlooked performance comes from Anthony Waller’s MUTE WITNESS, a heart-pounding horror/thriller about a snuff film and a young, mute woman who becomes the target of the Russian mafia. Marina Zudina plays Billy Hughes, a makeup artist working on a slasher film currently shooting in Moscow. When she witnesses the filming of a real snuff film (of a woman being murdered with a sharp blade), Billy must learn what it means to truly survive. The world has been stacked against her for her entire life, and now, she faces life and death.
Zudina’s performance deserves a slot in horror’s pantheon of All-Time Greatest Performances, alongside the likes of Florence Pugh in MIDSOMMAR, Lupita Nyong’o in US, and Anya Taylor-Joy in THE WITCH. From the moment Billy watches a woman die for real, Zudina hooks her emotional fangs into the story and offers a deeply complex view of a woman straining to be heard and believed. The obvious physical limitations and the language barrier prove impossible for Billy to overcome, particularly when the men surrounding her gaslight her every step of the way. Zudina addresses the intricacies of being a human in the film world–rarely believed but always held to a much higher standard than her male counterparts.
Another outstanding moment happens when several Russian lackeys, including a crew member from the set of the slasher, chase Billy through the halls of a massive studio building. The lengthy chase scene might just outdo most of horror’s other standout chases, such as Helen Shivers in I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER and the entirety of SICK. The sheer terror plastered on Zudina’s face during this heightened sequence transports the viewer directly into Billy’s mind, one riddled with misery, uncertainty, and primal fear. Her turn is reminiscent of Cristina Marsillach as Betty in Dario Argento’s OPERA (1987) and Zoë Lud as Thana in MS .45 (1981) – two equally emotionally fraught and insanely underappreciated performances. All three turns from Marsillach, Zudina, and Lund tap into something so animalistic in their work that it makes you feel something tearing through your chest.
In MUTE WITNESS, Zudina makes you believe that her life really is in danger. Her silent screams are particularly chilling, which forces her to act with her eyes. From crying on cue to reflecting utter mental anguish in her pupils, Zudina squeezes out every ounce of emotion she possibly can. While she’s not mute in real life, she leans into the role so much that every voiceless expression means something significant for her character’s arc. As the film hurls toward the finale, one of its most suspenseful sequences happens when the Russian mob tracks Billy down to her apartment. While one of the men wields a power drill on her front door, she pecks away at a text-to-voice prompter in her call to the police. Once again, the language barrier causes major problems and leads her to fight hand-to-hand against the two men. She proves she’s more than up to the task after she kills one in the bathtub with a hairdryer.
Without Marina Zudina in the role of Billy Hughes, the script simply would not have come to life the way it does. It’s so easy to shrug off a performance just because it takes place within a horror movie. But if you allow the story to carry you away, you can discover a performance for the ages that displays remarkable range and breadth of character. It’s a shame more Academy Award-voting members don’t listen to film critics. With an 85% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, MUTE WITNESS endures as one of the defining horror/thrillers of its era.
