SPEAK NO EVIL Review: The Importance of Being Impolite, Part 2

It’s been two years since Christian Tafdrup’s Speak No Evil made a valiant and quite effective attempt to discourage the audience from making friends on vacation, hanging out with new acquaintances and basically engaging with anyone ever.

Now, the English language version of the European instant classic chiller presents us with a similar lesson – but with a few curious tweaks.

Just like the family from the original film, Ben (Scoot McNairy), Louise (Mackenzie Davis) and their young daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler) are spending their vacation in Italy when they meet a boisterous guy named Paddy (James McAvoy), his free-spirited wife Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) and their painfully shy, almost mute son Ant (Dan Hough). Ben and Louise, American expats currently based in London, are having some marital issues and are generally the sort of people who tend to be too mindful of the concept of boundaries to welcome any intrusion into their routine. 

But Paddy and Ciara have no boundaries whatsoever, and for a while this awkward dynamic strangely works – enough for Ben and Louise to accept their new acquaintances’ invitation to visit them in their rural Gloucester estate. When they arrive, the place looks like a golden standard of destinations in horror films: it’s picturesque and tranquil, but also conveniently removed from civilization (i.e., potential help), doesn’t have reliable wi-fi, and the hosts' behavior quickly surpasses what can be interpreted as excentricities - heading straight into deranged territory.

From this moment on, this new Speak No Evil seemingly follows the original one pretty closely, balancing dark satire with suffocating thriller, probing the extent human beings are willing to ignore their instincts and better judgement, all for the sake of not appearing rude. It's not an entirely original idea, pondered before in many works, from Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs to Michael Haneke’s Funny Games, and surmised perfectly by one of the villains in David Fincher’s version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: apparently, the fear of offending can be indeed stronger than the fear of pain. The aggression isn’t always outright active and often starts off with seemingly small things, somethng like a brief unwanted touch or a dig at the other person’s food habits.

In the Danish/ Dutch original, this string of gradually more disturbing occurrences ultimately leads to a conclusion that is commonly described as one of the most upsetting endings in the history of the genre. That ending was gruesome, bleak and entirely devoid of hope; all to make a point, the one the new version produced by Blumhouse and directed by James Watkins also strives towards while also making some significant adjustments in the final part of the story.

It can be argued that the narrative changes are likely meant to make a less uncomfortable viewing experience for the audience, but with them, Watkins also introduces a few interesting novelties that allow the remake to fully stand on its own.

James Watkins is best known for his spruce version of The Woman in Black (2012) and his debut feature Eden Lake (2008), another “vacation gone wrong” thriller, and here he obviously comes back to the roots of his earlier work. Class and cultural divide, societal prejudices and expectations, different types of masculinity pitted against each other are all woven together here - just like in Eden Lake. All the while, the authors don't neglect their responsibilities of actually making an effective thriller.

As a result, Watkins’ Speak No Evil is energetic, but also thoughtful and suspenseful, in no small part thanks to Tim Maurice-Jones’ camerawork that maintains the sense of danger even in the most innocuous episodes. The cast obviously carries a lot of weight here too.

Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy are both great and grounded, but let’s be honest: this film belongs to James McAvoy. It's rare to see an actor visibly have so much fun with a role, and McAvoy actually manages to make Paddy believable as such a force of nature and magnetism that he can lead seemingly smart, sane people to ignore their brains screaming at them to get the hell out.  

The film opens Friday, Sepember 13, only in movie theaters. Visit the official site for locations and showtimes.