James Watkins directs an amicable, ambitious remake of Christian Tafdrup’s 2022 masterpiece. Here’s our Speak No Evil review.
Remakes are some of the most difficult films to review. On one hand, you want to experience and evaluate them as their own thing, but it’s also hard to deny that they exist in the context of the source material. It’s near impossible to ignore the original when watching a remake, but in the best of cases, a truly great remake improves or deepens the original film while also crafting its own identity.
James Watkins’ Speak No Evil, a remake of a 2022 Danish film of the same name, is a really good film, but a terrible remake.
Scoot McNairy and Mackenzie Davis’ Ben and Louise meet a nice British couple while on vacation. The two couples hit it off and Paddy and Ciara (played by James McAvoy and Aisling Franciosi) invite Ben and Louise to visit them in England.
Ben and Louise’s trip across the pond takes a sinister turn when Paddy and Ciara’s behaviour becomes more and more concerning. The Americans, though, are too polite to say anything, even as things continue to escalate.
The 2022 original is one of the most terrifying, vile and senseless things I have ever seen and in this case, it’s the highest compliment. Tafdrup’s film is a stone-cold masterpiece of horror, so Watkins and his team were always facing an uphill battle when trying to adapt this for English-speaking audiences.
The biggest issue that drags Speak No Evil (2024) to the ground is the absence of a language barrier. In the original film, the couples were from Denmark and the Netherlands with English as their only shared language. Here, the effect is vastly different, with both parties speaking English natively.
It’s also impossible to ignore the fact that Speak No Evil feels awfully tame compared to the original. The level of violence was always going to be an issue with a remake and there’s a strong sense that some studio involvement might have affected what we see. The ending is far more traditional and easier to digest, but it leaves Speak No Evil feeling subpar.
Yet, despite all those criticisms, Speak No Evil is a very good film. If it wasn’t a remake of one of the best horror films of the 2020s, Speak No Evil would be a major milestone in British thriller filmmaking. Watkins excels at creating tension and as he proved with Eden Lake, he’s a very clever filmmaker with a clear gaze and a certain unflinching quality when it comes to any kind of violence.
The smartest thing Watkins does, though, is cast his film correctly. James McAvoy is particularly thrilling as the unhinged Paddy and clearly having the time of his life. There’s also an interesting, tragic quality to Aisling Franciosi’s Ciara. McNairy, often the best part of any film he features in, and Davis are perfectly suitable as the more timid, unsure Americans.
There’s a lot of potent stuff in Speak No Evil about masculinity too, just as there was in the original. Ben is immediately taken by Paddy’s raw masculinity, especially as his own seems a little fragile, while Louise admires Ciara’s ability to run a household so effortlessly while keeping her marriage to Paddy so alive and fresh.
If you’re a fan of the original, the new one will likely frustrate you, even if it’s very entertaining. If you’re completely new to the story, it’ll hopefully make you seek out the first go at it. Speak No Evil is in no way a bad film, but it is another example of diluting a narrative to unnecessarily coddle your audience.
Speak No Evil is in cinemas 12th September
