When seemingly pleasant people, under stress or danger—perceived or otherwise—revert to more animalistic, primal tendencies, it can become fodder for either a probing examination of the human condition or a silly satire. It also allows viewers to indulge in some brutal fantasies, reassured that we’re on the “right” side of the moral divide. Or are we?

This is what I Don’t Understand You attempts to explore—a black comedy that is neither dark enough nor funny enough. Nick Kroll and Andrew Rannells play Dom and Coll, a well-off couple who are about to adopt a newborn from Amanda Seyfried (in a thankless cameo) and are celebrating in Italy one last childless anniversary trip. Dom has relatives in the area who recommend a rustic restaurant in the middle of nowhere. So rustic, in fact, that the couple gets lost in a torrential rainstorm, crashes their car, and ends up hitching a ride from a local. This man speaks in an overly rambunctious manner, shoots a deer that’s been hit by a car, and generally scares the crap out of them.

Dom’s addiction to Duolingo proves useless. When he and Coll are dropped off at a house, they don’t realize it is the restaurant they were looking for—or used to be—as the proprietor, Zia Luciano (Nunzia Schiano), explains in a long monologue entirely in Italian. Naturally, the two don’t understand a word. Eventually, Zia heads off to get more wine during dinner, the storm knocks out the power, something terrible happens to Zia, and Dom and Coll, in trying to deal with the consequences, spiral into morally questionable behavior that leads to an increasingly high body count.

The title refers to Dom and Coll’s inability to understand what the Italians are saying—and, presumably due to anxiety about impending parenthood, assuming the worst. It also hints at the pressure of the trip itself and the strain of mounting bodies on their relationship.

Plenty of films have skirted this subject matter across a wide range of genres, from the increasingly sadistic residents of Lars von Trier’s Dogville, whose aw-shucks attitude belies vicious brutality, to the jet-black comedy of Very Bad Things. Those films unabashedly went there. I Don’t Understand You is simply too tame, both in its humor and its horror. There’s some fun to be had when the couple FaceTimes their surrogate while simultaneously covering the mouth of an expiring man, but for the most part, this is weak tea.

Which is a shame, because Kroll and Rannells are proven comedic talents. When allowed to riff off each other, you catch a glimpse of what the movie could have been. But they’re consistently hampered by a muddled tone, languid pacing, and plot twists that feel unrealistic, even for this genre. The performers give it their all; the story just doesn’t give enough in return.