Mute Witness (1994)

Mute Witness is a damn fine movie. And it's also more or less forgotten. If it was released today as a new movie it would be called "torture-porn" by people who don't know so much and it would be another movie in the vein of Hostel. But this was long before this trend, and I would say it's one of the most underrated thrillers of the ninties.

It's set in Russia and the shooting of a new lowbudget-slasher. The director is british, but most of his crew are russian talent. His make-up artist is mute, communicates with sign language. And she's our heroine. One night she's left behind in the studio by mistake and discover that the actor and the director of cinematography secretly produced pornographic snuff movies! She escapes, but the two men are getting closer and soon she get's involved in something much more bigger...

First of all, there's no chance that you can see that this is a low budget movie. It's beautiful, have big sets and a great (but uneven) cast. The locations are used to maximum and it's both exotic and realistic. It's not that graphic, but is violent and has some very smart movies. It makes a couple of turns and it's both good and bad. Some might think the finale is less good because it almost changes genre, but I just thought it was refreshing.

The weak part is the guy playing the director, who think's he's in some college comedy instead, but if you can look beyond his acting talent you will have a great time - and probably the most thrilling cat-and-mouse-concept I've seen. Watch out for Alex Guiness in a cameo, a part he shot nine years before, on his way to the airport!