Speak No Evil (2024)

This remake misses much of the original's daring, but retains its unsettling build up

It seemed that Parasite (2019) had shamed Hollywood into not remaking popular foreign language films and rather pushing for the original films to be seen. Subtitles aren’t scary anymore. However, there are still a few dregs of remakes being picked up by American filmmakers to squeeze out any more potential profit.

Speak No Evil (2024) is an American remake of the Danish film of the same name from 2022. In this version, we follow the expat Dalton American family of Ben (Scoot McNairy), Louise (Mackenzie Davis), and their daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler), who live a lonely life in London. While on vacation in Italy, the family meets an energetic if slightly odd family, Paddy (James McAvoy), Ciara (Aisling Franciosi), and their mute son Ant (Dan Hough). Their new friends invite the Daltons to their remote home in the English countryside when they get back, but when the Dalton’s take a weekend trip to meet them, odd attitudes make them suspect that something wrong may be afoot.

Speak No Evil is directed by James Watkins, who has been a common fixture of horror and thrillers through his work in The Woman in Black (2012) and some episodes of Black Mirror (2011-). With Speak No Evil, the concept from the original film is so brilliant, one needs only a patient hand to let the unsettling happenings unspool. Watkins does well to let the American politeness of the Daltons brush off the oddities and uncomfortable positions that Paddy and Ciara increasingly put them in. Likewise, Watkins reins his actors from giving anything away too early, allowing for creepy actions to have a plausible deniability within the narrative.

However, Speak No Evil begins to devolve into a more typical thriller within its last act. Curiously, this is also the point in the film where this version sanitizes and changes key parts of the Danish original’s finale. This adds the sheen of B-movie stakes and tension that fails to capitalize on the brilliant build up from the first two acts. Watkins does frame his finale with an adept immersion, helping build paranoia with peering camera angles out of corners and windows. However, the unnecessary Hollywood changes to a mainstream ending neuter the gut punch of the original’s finale.

Speak No Evil employs a minimal cast. The narrative is essentially a two hander between the families. McNairy and Davis are brilliant as the polite yet increasingly uncomfortable Americans, doubting whether their instincts should take precedent over their manners. Franciosi, on the other hand feels rather wasted in an underwritten role; after watching her masterful work in The Nightingale (2018) the Irish actress deserved much better. Speak No Evil, however, is McAvoy’s show. The Scottish actor is imperious, sucking the oxygen out of every scene he’s in. His ability to appear both charming and creepy is truly admirable, and helps carry the tone of the first two acts. However, as with the narrative itself, the third act brings an unconvincing revelation to McAvoy’s character that removes his performance restraint. The finale features a truly unhinged McAvoy that came off as comical; many in my theater were bursting out laughing. It could have been that Watkins was choosing to go for tongue-in-cheek horror humor, but I doubt after so much work to build up tension throughout the runtime, you wanted your audience to be laughing instead of clinging to their armrests. McAvoy is fully invested in the level of intensity that is asked of him, but it sadly breaks much his hard ambiguous work of before.

In the end, Speak No Evil is another unnecessary American remake of a perfectly fine foreign film. For those who are coming to this viewing without having watched the Danish original, there is an enjoyment to be had in the careful build-up of tension of the first two acts. However, the finale unravels sloppily with an unmanaged tonality that cheapens the good work that came before it. McAvoy is the reason to see this new version, and even as an mediocre thriller, Speak No Evil can help pass a rainy afternoon.

6.6/10