Speak No Evil
Directed by James Watkins
Written by Christian Tafdrup, Mads Tafdrup, James Watkins
Starring James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Scoot McNairy, Aisling Franciosi
Runtime: 110 minutes
In theaters September 13

by Kimberly L., Staff Writer

Remakes can be as frustrating as they are frequent and I was onboard with the skeptics when an American remake of Christian Tafdrup’s Speak No Evil was announced before the original even made it off the festival circuit in 2022. Never shy to announce I was wrong, I enjoyed James Watkins’ Speak No Evil out this week far more than I anticipated. I am already looking forward to watching it again without an audience of excited moviegoers to influence my perception. While the Tafdrup-directed film takes the philosophically malignant route used by the likes of Lars von Trier and Paul Laugier, Watkins’ film sets out to entertain and it delivers.

Hot tip: Avoid watching the original film near your showtime on this one. This incarnation of a deeply twisted story packs two stand out performances from lead antagonist James McAvoy as Paddy and his costar Mackenzie Davis as the unassumingly polite houseguest Louise, and the power of this remake would lose its teeth without impeccable casting.

As we hear with most Americanized remakes of international films (Hello Funny Games!), this take tones down the extreme violence of its namesake for palatability to a broader audience, but, for once, it works. Afterall, the scariest thing about Paddy and Ciara is the grip they have on their prey, not the violence itself. The original film bores into the skin like a deleteriously beautiful little hookworm reigning chaos on the nervous system each time it comes to mind and fans of the extreme brutality in the 2022 film will find this remake is less hopeless, but true to most of the content while shifting the cultural backgrounds of the key players. Dutch parents Bjorn and Louise are replaced with American husband and wife Ben (McNairy) and Louise (Davis) Dalton living abroad in London with their daughter Agnes (West Lefler), while their counterparts Patrick, Karen, and son Abel are swapped for Patrick (McAvoy), Ciara (Franciosi), and their son Ant (Hough). They intersect on respective family trips to a gorgeous seaside Italian resort, wine flows, friendships are birthed, and soon after returning to their regular lives, the Dalton’s receive a generous invite to visit Paddy and Ciara at their home in the English countryside. 

Going against their better judgment, the family of three sets off to meet their vacation counterparts in their habitat by the sea. The film questions societal politeness that places etiquette above instinct and how we navigate social interactions with expectations ingrained in us that cause more harm than good. Trying too hard to see the best in people can be a weakness when their bad intentions begin to play out, and McAvoy’s Paddy wastes no time in unfurling his sinister side, loosely masked by a sparkling smile and charming ruggedness that the Daltons cannot see past. Franciosi’s Ciara channels a ‘90s Juliette Lewis/Helena Bonham Carter appeal that works seamlessly to capture her childlike glimmers of innocence as the madness unfolds.

Paddy and Ciara embody everything Ben and Louise both lack in their personal lives, most pointedly any spontaneity and passion. Although we are not shown what the Dalton family unity was like before their transatlantic move to the UK, we are told Ben lost the job that led him to uproot his family and that Louise has struggled with infidelity in the tumult of their situation. They bicker frequently over their new life, dead bedroom, and Agnes’ refusal to outgrow sleeping with a stuffed rabbit named Hoppy, and the insouciant sexual flaunting from Paddy and Ciara brings the Dalton’s issues to a quick boil. 

Ben ignores all of Paddy’s red flags in favor of admiration aimed at the alpha male’s rugged persona and expects his family to do the same. From the start, Louise’s convictions are tested by Paddy and Ciara in an attempt to see how far she can be pushed while remaining polite and how often Ben will partake in the bending of her will to impress his new friends.  The answer is quite far, well past her personal values and better judgment. Mackenzie Davis claims Louise Dalton as her own entity, imbuing maternal strength and feminine survival instincts into the character, a stark contrast to McNairy’s feckless and almost instantly unlikeable Ben. Anyone uncomfortable with witnessing male fragility up close will find fault with the storytelling in Ben’s arc, but I found his character entirely familiar and the subplot of his reactions to his surroundings bound my interest to the character’s fate early in the film.

McAvoy’s Paddy is magnetic–his eccentricities are made more innocuous at the start of the film than the display Patrick was prone to in the 2022 film. Paddy’s seduction of both Ben and Louise is so methodical in its flirtation that even his most alarming early behavior seems excusable, so much so that you almost understand why they want to stay. The first film left me angry and pacing the floor as the events unfolded onto the family, and while there are still many moments of disbelief punctuated by the internal shouting of “ARE YOU SERIOUS?” at the screen, the foundation of the Dalton’s reasoning and their misguided trust felt relatable–as scary as it is, we all probably know a couple down on their luck who would jump at the chance just to feel alive again. Just today I caught myself daydreaming that James McAvoy was beside me in the car as we sang along to The Bangles’ 1989 hit “Eternal Flame” like Paddy and Ben did midway through the film.

The screening I attended for this film packed viewers from wall to wall, many of which were not familiar with the source material based on the unified, audible reactions that accompanied the action of the film. The end of this version goes in a very different direction than the original, and in the spirit of a Choose Your Own Adventure novel, some people will miss the bleakness of the primary vision, but the audience on Monday night shrieked, gasped, and ultimately applauded what they witnessed in this retelling.