‘Speak No Evil’: Review

Dir/scr: James Watkins. US. 2024. 110mins

In the depths of the English countryside, a weekend getaway turns into the holiday from hell for an American family as the behaviour of their British hosts veers from the uncomfortable to the questionable to the unhinged. This remake of the 2022 Danish-language chiller maintains much of what made the original so effective but, in swapping that film’s shocking ending for a more audience-friendly take, loses some of its bite. Nevertheless, a striking performance from James McAvoy keeps things interesting.

McAvoy’s ferocious performance recalls his similar turn in M Night Shyamalan’s Split.

Christian Tafdrup’s original film is available to stream on Shudder, and hardcore horror audiences may wish to seek that out instead — or, at least, first. Still, Blumhouse’s remake, which is written and directed by British filmmaker James Watkins (The Woman In Black, Eden Lake) should do well with a late-night crowd looking for some easy thrills when it opens across multiple territories on September 13. The presence of McAvoy — whose off-the-wall performance is front-and-centre of the film’s marketing — should also help pull in audiences.

McAvoy commands attention from the moment he appears as bawdy British tourist Paddy, noisily dragging a sun lounger across the patio of an upmarket Italian holiday resort. He and his wife Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) care nothing of the other guests as they get stuck into their holiday with shy young son Ant (Dan Hough), drinking beers and cannonballing into the pool. That devil-may-care attitude is a marked contrast to American couple Louise (Mackenzie Davis) and Ben (Scoot McNairy), who are also there with their anxious 11-year-old daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler). Louise is prissy and uptight about everything from sunscreen to sugar, while Ben is meek and accommodating. 

Yet, when Paddy and Ciara make steps to befriend the couple, Ben is intrigued — enough to accept an invite to spend the weekend at their home in Devon (the film shot on location in Croatia and Gloucester). In an attempt to smooth the obvious rift in their marriage, which is first hinted at and then later boils over, Laura swallows her concerns. But Paddy and Ciara seems to take pleasure in pushing boundaries, including disciplining Agnes, and a clearly distressed Ant — who cannot speak due to a stunted tongue, which his parents ascribe to a genetic defect — gets ever more desperate to make himself understood. Slowly, tensions mount to breaking point.

Writer/director Watkins effectively creates a pressure-cooker atmosphere, deliciously upending traditional ideas of the brash American and the strait-laced Brit (the original film’s couples were Danish and Dutch), and amplifying the insidious class tensions from Tafdrup’s film. Paddy plays on Louise and Ben’s privilege, at first subtly — engaging Louise in a spiky debate about her vegetarianism — and then more overtly. And whereas Ben keeps his anger locked up tight, Paddy embraces his fury, channeling it into every confident gesture. He is toxic masculinity made flesh, and there is something both simultaneously seductive and horrifying about McAvoy’s ferocious, fully-invested performance, which recalls his similar turn in M Night Shyamalan’s Split.

While he drives the film, the rest of the cast is also strong. Davis in particular has an interesting arc as Louise, a woman who has to divest herself of her anxieties, and her dependence on social niceties, in order to come out swinging for her family. McNairy is sympathetic and believable in a difficult role, as a husband and father who struggles to step up, even in extreme circumstances, while Franciosi brings an impressive blend of mania and vulnerability to the murky character of Ciara, who may or may not be a victim herself. 

Elsewhere, Tim Maurice-Jones’s cinematography makes the most of this shabby, isolated house, and a spiky score from Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans helps ratchet up the intensity until the gloves come off in a finale which deviates from the original. As Louise, Ben and the kids batten down the hatches in the isolated farmhouse while Paddy and Ciara prowl outside, there are distinct echoes of that other famous West Country horror, Straw Dogs.