Speak No Evil director James Watkins has crafted a remake of the 2022 Danish film of the same name that stands on its own as a tense and well-paced thriller. American couple Ben (Scoot McNairy) and Louise (Mackenzie Davis), along with their young daughter, Agnes (Alix West Lefler), spark up a rapport in Italy with another young family—Paddy (James McAvoy), Ciara (Aisling Franciosi), and their son, Ant (Dan Hough)—who invite them to spend a weekend at their remote country home in England. They accept the offer, and an increasingly strange series of quirks and slight misunderstandings escalates into a terrifying situation.
Speak No Evil is a psychological thriller, avoiding jump scares and gratuitous violence in favor of a steadily looming sense of discomfort. There’s what appears to be a reasonable explanation for nearly every awkward situation. It’s a tightly woven film that doesn’t waste moments and utilizes its runtime efficiently and effectively. The performances across the board are convincing, with McAvoy getting to have the most fun as the truly and wonderfully off-kilter Paddy, sometimes an utterly charming host and other times flying off the rails at seemingly innocuous moments. The tension between Davis and McNairy is fascinating to watch, embodying the convergence of trust in those we know well and the doubt that comes from knowing their weaknesses.
And that’s the essence of the terror of Speak No Evil—the simple expository line “because you let me.” It’s a film that leads us to question the point at which we would simply extricate ourselves from a situation amidst the range of social norms that prevent us from fully leaning into instinct. We want to open ourselves up to new experiences and shift the patterns that sometimes lead us to feel stuck and stagnant, even taken advantage of—but the consequences of doing so can sometimes be far more painful.It doesn’t take familiarity with the original source material to see where things end up, and without being beholden to a hard twist, Speak No Evil thoroughly succeeds in the most basic of horror elements: executing the collapse of a situation we all see going wrong but are far too engrossed in to take our eyes off. R, 110 min.
Wide release in theaters
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