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A remake of a 2022 Danish slick hit, Speak No Evil is less a terror of manners compared to it, and more a manner of terror that slides under your skin for how familiar it can seem.
Ever been in a situation where you have accepted someone’s hospitality and found yourself increasingly uncomfortable as the evening – or, in this case, the weekend – dragged on? Ever found yourself wondering if it is you, or them, and when can you decently say enough? Speak No Evil invokes such societal constraints demanded by polite society, before it ventures into mandatory evil stuff and, unfortunately, lingers far too long there.
The guests in the film are an American couple, Louise (Davis) and Ben (McNairy), and their daughter Agnes (Lefler). On a vacation in Italy that is passing rather listlessly, as vacations with children do for long-time couples, they run into an English couple who will be their hosts, Paddy (McAvoy) and Ciara (Franciosi). While they too have a child, Ant (Hough), it doesn’t come in the way of how much “fun” Paddy and Ciara can be up to, from beer in the daytime to a loud romp with their window open.
No surprise then that Ben, more than Louise, is drawn. Soon enough, they have got an invite from Paddy and Ciara to spend some time at their remote farm in the English countryside. And, in no time, a newly unemployed and dissatisfied Ben and a friendless Louise, who resents him for shifting their life to London for a job that never materialised, have accepted it.
Watkins, whose resume includes some impressive horror films, cracks up the tension nicely. Paddy and Ciara’s house is the kind of homestay that seems cosy and romantic from a distance, till one checks in and realises the lights are dim at all times, the switches can blow up, the doors creak, the beds have stains, the roof is uncomfortably low – and that, for large distances on all sides, there is no one around.
That discomfort compounds as the hyper-masculine-and-not-afraid-to-flaunt it Paddy – played by McAvoy to full-on gleamy-eyed and menacing effect – senses and plays on Louise’s apprehensions and Ben’s insecurities.
There is another layer to this meeting of two different worlds. Louise and Ben are only too conscious of their American sensibilities, particularly when it comes to how they indulge their daughter’s feelings, and unsure whether their objections to Paddy’s treatment of his nervous son who “can’t communicate” due to “a medical condition” flows from that or genuine concern.
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People can be particularly defensive about their parenting skills, and the film uses this to good effect.
Louise’s politically correct vegetarianism also comes under some not-so-gentle lecturing by Paddy, who is all about nature’s balancing act requiring the killing of some. Paddy doesn’t spare Ben either in ribs at his urbane gentility, and to Louise’s exasperation, Ben doesn’t question as Paddy’s actions grow more and more aggressive.
But then comes the final act, and while Watkins has a tight control of the narrative till then, right up to when the “realisation” of the extent of what is at stake dawns, Speak No Evil takes its while wrapping up the proceedings. It makes a departure from the bleak ending of the original film, but its concession to a Hollywood finish seems just too contrived.
Speak No Evil movie director: James Watkins
Speak No Evil movie cast: James McAvoy, Aisling Franciosi, Mackenzie Davis, Scoot McNairy, Alix West Lefler, Dan Hough
Speak No Evil movie cast: 3 stars
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