2024 In Review: Speak No Evil
I love it when a movie proves me wrong.
As someone who thought Christian Tafdrup’s 2022 stunner Speak No Evil was one of the best horror movies of that year, I will be completely honest here — I had pretty much written off the remake from Blumhouse and James Watkins last year before it was even released, which isn’t something I typically do. But I know the feelings that Tafdrup’s film evoked in me — the blistering nihilism shook me to my core, and its bleak as hell ending rattled me like so few movies these days have been able to — so what could this remake possibly even do?
As it turns out, quite a bit.
I don’t think Watkins’ Speak No Evil hits the same way as the original film does at all, but what it does set out to do is executed extremely well by the filmmaker and the cast and I must admit that when judged on its own merits, the 2024 remake is pretty damn good even if I didn’t completely jive with the ending.
The thing is, when you’re doing a remake, especially when it’s being released only within a few years of the project that it’s based on, you have to find ways to subvert expectations, especially the expectations of horror fans because we can be finicky (and this very much includes myself — I recognize and fully admit to that) and we’re not looking for more of the same. Surprise us. Give us a few left turns. Just do something we don’t see coming from a mile away, and we’re usually happy. And Watkins does just that with his version of Speak No Evil.
As mentioned, I really wasn’t expecting much out of this Speak No Evil, which had a lot to do with the trailers for the film that we saw for what felt like an entire year before the movie was released. Tafdrup’s original film masterfully crafted a series of reveals about its story and delivered a thought-provoking examination of the dangers of being “too polite,” which were exemplified through the character dynamics at play in his story. So, when the trailers for the remake basically were already laying all of that out in plain sight, I was admittedly less than enthusiastic about the project as a whole, because I just didn’t see the point.
Thankfully, Watkins’ screenplay does adhere to a lot of the essential elements of Tafdrup’s script (that he co-wrote with his brother Mads) for his film, but he also introduces some new ideas as well, which is what you want from any remake worth its salt. The reasoning behind the Dalton Family’s decision to go and stay with these people who are practically strangers makes a bit more sense this time around, as husband and wife Ben (Scoot McNairy) and Louise (Mackenzie Davis) are struggling to keep things together for a variety of reasons and see this as a way to reconnect in the English countryside.
They also believe that this trip will give their preteen daughter Agnes (Alix West Defler), who suffers from severe anxiety, a much-needed change of pace because they think some time away will help her get recentered and refocused.
The revelations behind the misdeeds of the antagonist couple Paddy (James McAvoy) and Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) are brought to light much sooner in the remake as well, as their “son” Ant (Dan Hough) knows the game that is afoot and that he must try to get the Daltons to understand what is happening so that they don’t befall the same fate of his family. Beyond that, the little boy is also desperate to stop the twisted cruelty that he’s been forced to endure as well because he knows what awaits Agnes if Paddy and Ciara are allowed to continue their malicious misdeeds. He’s not just sitting around awaiting his cruel fate — he wants to stop the inevitable in any way that he can.
So, what unfolded in the third act of the original Speak No Evil ends up being a focus of the remake’s second act, giving us a final act in the 2024 film that is very different in nature. For the most part, I enjoyed the fact that the Dalton Family does take action against their hostile hosts, and watching characteres trying to fight their way out of an unknown space makes for an entertaining experience as a viewer, but I was a bit underwhelmed by the resolution in this version simply because it just felt “safe” in comparison to the original film. And coming from someone like Watkins, who destroyed me with Eden Lake, I just found the lack of any kind of bite in the ending of his Speak No Evil to be the biggest surprise of them all.
Maybe I’m an outlier here, but I don’t necessarily need a “happy ending” when it comes to the horror movies that I enjoy simply because I recognize how, in life, those victories can be few and far between. When the universe screws you over, that feels like real horror that is far more relatable, and the conclusion of this Speak No Evil didn’t really resonate with me the way that the original did, especially since we know Paddy and Ciara have been on their cruel pursuit of the perfect family for some time now, and they end up being thwarted rather easily by some folks who are new to their sadistic schemes. It just feels like they would have been better prepared to deal with these kinds of situations where potential victims would fight back.
That being said, what does make this iteration of Speak No Evil so damn effective is James McAvoy’s performance as Paddy, as I do believe what he does in this film is some of the best work we’ve seen from the actor in his career. I’ve never been McAvoy’s biggest cheerleader (I still believe he was woefully miscast in IT: Chapter Two), but he really impressed me here. Aisling Franciosi is also pretty damn good in this as well (she’s also fantastic in Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale), as she plays her character Ciara almost like this wounded, wild animal that has zero impulse control, but in a very different way than we see in McAvoy’s performance. I think the two of them really play off of each other extremely well here and are a big reason why I did enjoy this version of Speak No Evil, despite a few minor missteps.
And if you are looking for any reason to give Speak No Evil your time, I think both McAvoy and Franciosi do a great job of making this a remake worth watching, even if you have the same reservations I had going into it. I’m always happy to be proven wrong, and Speak No Evil 2024 definitely proved me wrong.