The Problem Of Weak Men, Part2

 Recently I watched a movie called Speak No Evil. (You can watch the trailer over here). It's a Danish horror film from 2022, though I'd rather describe it as a psychological thriller. (Hollywood made a remake this year, which is now apparently in the theaters. I'm not planning to watch this one. I think the Danish director did a great job, and wouldn't like to see it butchered (though I could be mistaken). 

The plot is simple. A Danish middle class couple with a young daughter goes on vacation to Italy where they meet a Dutch couple with the boy of about the same age who doesn't talk. They become friendly with each other. A couple of months later, the Dutch couple invite the Danish to come and visit them in the Netherlands. They live in a remote place, their house is in the forest and there are no neighbours nearby. Well, you can guess how it goes further. Suffice it to say, someone is not making it out of there alive...

It looks to me like the director spent some time in the Netherlands himself and didn't particularly like it over here, because the Dutch husband and wife repeatedly demonstrate the worst kind of behaviour typical for a certain class of my countrymen (unfortunately). Each of them is like a walking stereotype of a Dutch assh8le, very realistically portrayed at that, so much that you recognise the situations.

This movie is deeply disturbing at many levels, and the guy who recommended it admitted that he couldn't sleep well after watching it. However, I don't believe that the intention of its makers was just to shock the audience. It's not just your average run-of-the-mill horror film. Wikipedia calls it "social satire" and that's exactly what it is. The main character, Bjorn, is a stereotypical modern liberal man. He is in touch with his feelings. He is a sensitive husband. He is what they call nowadays "a good father", i.e. he basically spends more time with their daughter than his wife does.

And yet, when it comes to that, he can't fulfill the fundamental masculine role of protecting his family. He can't stand up to bullying and abuse. He won't fight even to save his life. He ignores his deepest survival instincts to follow social conventions of always being pleasant and polite. In fact, he is so weak he can't even say, "no", to his daughter, which leads to the disaster for all of them. He is a perfect victim, and so is his wife. The evil triumphs in the end because a weak man surrenders to it, instead of fighting. The whole movie is the scathing criticism of what a modern middle class man has turned into. And not only in Denmark.

I highly recommend this movie to anyone interested.