Mute Witness

Mute Witness is a 1995 horror film written, directed, and produced by Anthony Waller, and starring Alec Guinness, Marina Zudina, and Fay Ripley. Its plot follows a mute American makeup artist working on a slasher film in Moscow, who is pursued by a crime organization making and dealing snuff films after she stumbles upon one of their film sets and witnesses a murder. The film was shot on location in Moscow, while Alec Guinness's scenes were filmed in Germany. Plot Billy Hughes, a special effects make-up artist who is mute, is in Moscow working on a low-budget slasher film directed by Andy Clarke, the boyfriend of her elder sister, Karen. On one particular night, Billy returns to the set to fetch a piece of equipment for the next day's shoot when she is accidentally locked in the studio. Billy phones Karen for help and communicates with her via morse code, but is interrupted when she discovers a small film crew working after-hours to shoot a cheap pornographic film. Watching unseen, Billy is amused until the performed sex becomes sadistic. When Arkadi, the masked actor, pulls out a knife and brutally stabs the actress to death, Billy reacts and is discovered. She flees through the studio, pursued by the film's director, Lyosha, before crashing through a window outside. Moments later, Karen arrives and finds the injured Billy, with Lyosha standing over her. Lyosha pretends to be an innocent bystander who witnessed Billy's accident, but Karen senses he is dangerous based on Billy's body language. Police arrive and question Lyosha, but come to the conclusion that Billy witnessed an elaborate special effects sequence being shot when they are unable to find a body. Arkadi, the man whom Billy witnessed stab the actress, demonstrates the effects using a fake knife that streams blood, frightening Andy when he pretends to attack him with it. Billy insists the prop knife is hers, and that Arkadi stole it. Billy leads police to an elevator shaft where she believes Lyosha stashed the actress's corpse, but they find it empty. After police dismiss the incident and send Billy home, a night watchman at the studio finds the actress's corpse burning in a basement incinerator before being stabbed to death by Arkadi. Shortly after, a mysterious elderly man arrives at the studio in a vintage car, and asks Lyosha if things "went smoothly." Aware that Billy witnessed the murder, the Reaper makes clear that she must be eliminated.