Enjoyment, so to speak, of Christian Tafdrup’s bleak 2020 Danish horror movie Speak No Evil, a slow simmering cautionary tale of extreme passivity and politeness, is contingent on how much its “Because you let me” punchline gets under your skin. The grim pessimism and pervading discomfort culminated in a frustrating but fitting passive conclusion, making for a divisive effort. The type of which feels well suited to writer/director James Watkins (The Woman in Black, Eden Lake) and his style of grim horror. Watkins, along with a game cast, stays faithful to the source material for the most part in this Americanized remake but opts for a much livelier third act that dials up the intensity.
Like the original, two families hit it off while on a stunning European vacation. Louise (Mackenzie Davis) and Ben Dalton (Scoot McNairy), along with daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler), connect with free-spirited and boisterous couple Paddy (James McAvoy) and Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) and their mute son Ant (Dan Hough). They enjoy a few interactions and meals together before they head back to reality, but an invite to Paddy’s countryside home has the Dalton family throwing caution to the wind for a week stay that turns nightmarish the longer they get to know their hosts.
Watkins picks up the pacing but maintains focus on the characters, establishing the core dynamics as he plunges his characters into a pot of water and starts the burner. The whirlwind meet-cute between families gives an easier entry point into the Daltons’ choices, particularly in agreeing to vacation with complete strangers. That’s bolstered by Louis and Ben’s emotional baggage coming into their stay; this is a couple with issues of their own blinding them to any red flags. While that makes the Daltons more layered and complex, it’s Davis’s Louise who’s shaped into a far more developed character that instills genuine rooting interest and presents a fascinating dynamic. Louise is the uptight one of the pair, more neurotic with far more rigid boundaries that the meeker Ben pushes her to ignore for the sake of not disrupting the peace. While that yields no shortage of awkward social encounters with the unpredictable, boundary-smashing Paddy and Ciara, it’s Louise who seems more willing to grow a backbone.
That’s good news considering how many red flags Paddy and Ciara exude, with Ant given a larger presence to help dial up the tension and horror. McAvoy chews scenery like no tomorrow, reveling in his unhinged madness until the mask can no longer be held in place. That arrives just in time for the climactic third act, where Watkins completely shifts gears to unleash a high-octane siege of horror and suspense. Like the original, it’s a move that may make or break the remake. Only this time, it has less to do with the orchestrated and satisfying invasion and more to do with what it means thematically.
Through on-the-nose dialogue, Speak No Evil reminds us again and again of the importance of honesty. Paddy even menacingly utters the line “because you let me,“ a heavy-handed means of spelling out intent. Unlike the ill-fated characters from Tafdrup’s vision, though, the American family does reach a boiling point in their tolerance. It makes for a far less nihilistic film than the original and undermines its core mantra, but one that injects a sense of deranged fun. That it only really diverges from the original for the third act, though, means there’s less room for surprises. Speak No Evil ultimately trades its potent messaging for a late summer thrill ride, with a committed cast that keeps you on the hook. Instead of instilling fear, “Because you let me“ feels more like an answer to the audience’s question of why remake the 2020 film in the first place.
Speak No Evil releases in theaters on September 13, 2024.
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