Speak No Evil (2024)

Review by Mark Woodring

Hollywood is no stranger to remaking really excellent, or even pretty good, films for American consumption, but to remake a film that came out less than 2 years ago seems a bit of a stretch.

But here we are, 2 calendar years after the original Danish film of the same name (though that film was originally released as Gæsterne and was later renamed).

**NOTE: You can read Mark’s review below, then use the players to listen or watch as he and Ryan discuss the film in more depth. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**

Speak No Evil - Review
Speak No Evil (Blumhouse)

 

110 Minutes, Rated R
Written by Christian Tafdrup, Mads Tafdrup, James Watkins
Directed by James Watkins

Synopsis:

A family is invited to spend a weekend in an idyllic country house, unaware that their dream vacation will soon become a psychological nightmare.

 

I’ve said it before: European films have a different sensibility than American films. Whether it’s drama, horror, science fiction, or in this case, a thriller.

An Italian vacation meeting between couple Paddy and Ciara and displaced American couple Ben and Louise, with their children Ant and Agnes (respectively) leads to a future encounter at Paddy’s isolated farm for a weekend of… interesting… encounters.

The two families have different lifestyles and worldviews, and while this can initially be smoothed over, across the course of the weekend, the more strait-laced and “modern” Ben and Louise find themselves increasingly unnerved by the unorthodox and unpredictable behavior of their hosts.

And let’s not even bring up how unsettling their son, Ant (Dan Hough), is. He’s got a “medical condition” that makes it difficult for him to communicate.

Right.

Not that Ben and Louise’s daughter, Agnes (Alix West Lefler), is without her issues. Nearly twelve, she suffers from near crippling anxiety, carrying her stuffed rabbit everywhere and dependent on her breathing exercises with her mom or a phone app.

It’s my understanding that this version chooses to go with a different ending than the original, and I will eventually find that out [NOTE: I have. It’s different, alright], but without giving anything away (you know how much we try to avoid spoilers), I can say that the ending is both Hollywood happy (as opposed to Europe’s absolute acceptance of “darker” endings), while slipping in one last bit of unexpected, but completely justified, horror.

James McAvoy as Paddy somehow manages to combine the accessible nature of Professor X with the uneven mental state of Kevin Wendell Crumb (Split, Glass). I have heard that he based his performance at least in part on Andrew Tate, noted “toxic male,” and that he really wanted to emphasize that aspect of the film.

Frankly, I didn’t see it. Masculine: yes. Toxic: hardly

Regardless, the difference between McAvoy’s Paddy and Scoot McNairy’s Ben Dalton is night and day. However “toxic” you might find Paddy, Ben is clearly a beta male, and some of the more robustly controversial critics are probably going to have a field day with that aspect of the film.

As Ben’s wife, Mackenzie Davis’ Louise certainly wears the pants in the Dalton family when the film opens, despite the fallout over certain events between them which we learn about as the film progresses. This subplot (though barely a subplot) doesn’t exist in the original film, btw.

But she’s a mother, and she mothers hard in this one.

Their daughter has been aged up from the original film, as well, likely to allow a certain story element to be introduced late in the game here, one that couldn’t have come into the original.

Aisling Franciosi (Stopmotion, Last Voyage of the Demeter) is Paddy’s wife, Ciara, and turns in a heck of a performance. Everyone does, frankly. This is a well-acted and deliciously shot film across board.

It’s really too bad the 3rd act veers so far from the darkness of the original and goes with a predictable ending. Here, we get an explanation of why things are happening (if it’s true, of course), where in the original, we are left with the simple knowledge that “Evil just gotta Evil,” you know?

Sometimes, there is no reason.

The first two acts are basically copy-paste of the original, the major

Audiences fond of the cast and having the expected ending will surely enjoy this, and while I did enjoy it overall, Speak No Evil (2024) is a pale reflection of its source material.

Speak No Evil hits theaters September 13 and stars James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Scoot McNairy, Aisling Franciosi, Alix West Lefler, Dan Hough, and Kris Hitchen.

And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.

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