Disclaimer: This review contains mild spoilers for Speak No Evil (2024).
Hollywood has been enamoured with ploughing the fertile ground of horror remakes ever since it smelt profit, but more often than not finds itself failing to live up to the expectations of the original. With his version of Speak No Evil, director James Watkins (Eden Lake, The Woman in Black), whilst not reinventing the rulebook, delivers a consistently engrossing and suspenseful film that stands on its own two feet - all the more impressive considering this is a remake of a film released only two years’ prior.
Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy play married couple Ben and Louise, marking a reunion following their time leading the exceptional and criminally under-watched Halt and Catch Fire. When we meet them, they are on holiday in Italy with their daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler), who has extreme anxiety. The family recently moved to London for Ben’s new job, which immediately collapsed, leaving them detached from anyone they know. There is also a hint that things are not quite sunshine and rainbows between the pair, with Ben feeling disconcerted by his daughter’s immaturity. Whilst on holiday, the family encounter Paddy (James McAvoy) and Ciara (Aisling Franciosi), along with their son Ant - who Paddy tells them is prevented from speaking due to his undersized tongue. Agnes and Ant get on swimmingly - as do Ben and Paddy, with Ben longing for his easy confidence, charm and his validation. When Paddy invites the family to their isolated farm in the West Country, England, Louise goes along with it.
Once they reach the farm, Paddy’s charm gives way to something more overbearing and potentially insidious, whilst Ciara unsettles Louise with her insistent of parenting Agnes as if she is her daughter. Ant also attempts to communicate something to Agnes - but she does not know what.
Most audiences will be talking about McAvoy’s top-billed performance as Paddy, a symbol of seething, barely-suppressed male rage - and the marketing team knows it. However, make no mistake - this is an ensemble film at heart - packed with exceptional performances across its limited cast. This film drips with chemistry between just about every single character - and although it is ostensibly a horror film (and advertised as such), the gentle humour and camaraderie between the grouping struck me as remarkably tender. Pretty swiftly, of course, this facade unravels - leaving the family in their thrall.
Davis and McNairy;s pairing mark a reunion following their time leading the exceptional and criminally under-watched Halt and Catch Fire. In lesser hands, their characters could remain mere cardboard cutouts - all-too-familiar archetypes that fail to register. But in Davis and McNairy deliver something special. Although our protagonists make decisions which can easily be deemed as illogical and in thrall to narrative contrivance, the performances of Davis and McNairy make this excusable. Although some may consider the couple’s decisions which lead to their bind to be implausible - Watkins demonstrates man’s capacity to be seduced by the prospect of becoming a monster in service of being a ‘real man’. This is not delivered through hamfisted dialogue, but the trajectory of the overall narrative, along with the excellent performances. Watkins' adaptation of Christian Tafdrup and Mads Tafdrup's original script (much of which was already in English)
The score, by composing duo Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans, like the film as a whole, chooses understated dread over gonzo bombast. Speaking of bombast, I find myself reminded of another 2024 film in the same wheeelhouse which attempted to hit most of the same beats yet to far less success - The Strangers: Chapter 1. (which was, funnily enough, a remake of a 2008 film) Speak No Evil succeeds where this fails. A film that could so easily be broadly drawn and camp instead chooses subtly and nuance, rendering the somewhat mundane goings-on that make most of the film chillingly believable.
Whilst the story may be nothing new - mysterious figure beguiles naive couple with calamitous results - this film represents an exceptional example that is elegantly directly. Everyone should eagerly await whatever Watkins has to bring us next.
Rating: 3.5/5.
Speak No Evil (2024) is now playing in cinemas worldwide.
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