There is a danger inherent in remaking any film. Comparisons to the original are destined to be considered especially if the movie is not an adaptation of a literary source. James Watkins under the Blumhouse banner writes and directs a three-quarter remake of Christian Tadfrup’s 2022 Danish horror-thriller Gæsterne (Speak No Evil). Tadfrup’s film was a masterpiece of social satire mixed with escalating and chilling terror. James Watkins’ movie is uses Tadfrup’s set up – a well to do family meet another family on a holiday in Italy and later agree to spend some time at their remote home to gradually discover their hosts are not so hospitable – but jettisons Tadfrup’s slow-burn tension for more obvious fare.
London based American couple Ben and Louise (Scoot McNairy and Mackenzie Davis), along with their eleven-year-old-daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler) are holidaying in an expensive Tuscan villa resort. Louise is careful with Agnes who suffers anxiety which rankles Ben who feels Louise is enabling Agnes’ dependence on her and a plush rabbit named Hoppy the worry bunny. Louise is polite, socially conscious, and cautious – and seemingly the more dominant partner in the relationship. Their holiday takes a turn when they meet a family from Southwest England, Paddy (James McAvoy), Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) son, Ant (Dan Hough). Paddy is the opposite of polite; brash, loud, and unafraid to take up space. The first thing Paddy does is to take a pool chair that Agnes was using with a quick, “You’re not using this are you?” addressed to Ben without waiting for an answer. The next thing he does is dive bomb into the swimming pool.
Ben and Louise aren’t used to rogue elements like Paddy and Ciara in their buttoned-up lives. Paddy talks about lively debate, honesty, and cutting through bullshit. He and Ciara are amusing company for the holiday despite Paddy sometimes asking questions that make Louise uncomfortable. He says he’s a doctor who does charity work for Médecins Sans Frontières, and he can afford to stay at the villa, so that partially vets him in Louise and Ben’s minds. Plus, Agnes has made friends with Ant who has difficulty because of his congenital Aglossia – having an underdeveloped tongue meaning he cannot speak. Ben and Louise expect they will party a little with the couple and that will be that. Paddy invites them to stay at his property and they say yes mostly out of politeness and because they don’t think the invitation is genuine. Once back in London a photograph of them all on holiday arrives reiterating the invitation. Although Louise is not particularly keen on going, she does so to keep Ben happy as he had another job opportunity fall through.
Driving their Tesla to the West Country, Ben and Louise quietly bicker. They don’t quite know how to react when they see the Cerne Abbas Giant and his huge erect penis with Agnes in the car. They drive into a seemingly unending forest with few markers and no streetlights eventually making it to Paddy and Ciara’s large and somewhat rundown farm. Paddy is overjoyed to see them – a little too overjoyed in his embrace of Louise. Once inside the hodgepodge and creepily decorated homestead Louise and Ben are shown to their messy room with stained sheets, and Agnes is put on a mattress on the floor in Ant’s tiny room. Louise isn’t happy, but Ben has bonded with Paddy’s “alpha male” persona and convinces her that it’s a cultural difference.
Cultural differences are one thing, but Paddy and Ciara consistently push at Louise’s boundaries. Paddy begins by serving Louise his prized duck which he slaughtered in celebration of their arrival despite Louise earlier saying she was a vegetarian. Louise takes a bite as she feels she must (spitting it out when they aren’t looking) and from that moment Paddy feels he has the upper hand with her. In no time Paddy is throwing barbs at Louise which Ciara smooths over.
Ben is intoxicated not only on Paddy’s homemade alcohol but by the second-hand sense of rugged masculinity he gleans from his proximity to the mercurial Paddy. Guns, hunting, diving off rocks, screaming like an animal with Paddy feeds an urge he has to exert his masculinity. Louise’s discomfort with Paddy’s at times outright aggression towards her is mostly ignored by Ben, so too the fact Paddy and Ciara have been together for seventeen years which makes for uncomfortable mathematics considering Ciara’s youth. Just as Louise, out of misplaced correction, is ignoring Agnes as she attempts to warn her that something is very wrong with Ant and he’s trying to communicate something important.
Watkins isn’t particularly interested in subtlety. Anyone who has sat through the trailer already knows “the twist” and if they have seen the original film, they’re aware of it too. His alterations to Christian and Mads Tadfrup’s original script have the film veer into survival thriller. James McAvoy’s Paddy is intentionally over the top at times eliciting “What was that?!” laughter from the audience. The Tadrup brothers wrote their Dutch Patrick to be charming and sinister. Watkins’ Paddy is rarely charming using a mixture of domination, resentment, and misogyny as well as bursts of extreme self-pity. James McAvoy is an accomplished enough actor that he can balance the shifting tones into one of overall menace, but it’s the menace of a bulk standard “born bad sadist.” Watkins attempts to window dress Paddy’s psychology in places with statements about class and privilege, yet he has Paddy state his simple purpose and intention, “I like the hunt.”
Speak No Evil most terrifying moments are courtesy of the child actors. Alix West Lefler and Dan Hough ground the horror aspects of the movie whenever they propel the narrative. While the four adults are tangled in their webs of deceit and dysfunction, the children are on the margins but are most at risk. The movie isn’t lacking in good acting; Davis, McNairy, and Franciosi each working within Watkins’ unwieldy framework. But it is Lefler and Hough who cut through the places where Watkins tangles the film in too many knots.
The strong sense of atmosphere, especially the house that screams “wrong” before anything particular happens give Speak No Evil some finesse before it tips over into overly trodden formula. James Watkins has an excellent cast, a good horror/thriller location, but doesn’t have a clear vision of what Speak No Evil should be. For an audience who goes in completely blind there may be shocks and surprises that work well providing a creepy time in the West Country. For those who appreciated Tadrup’s original, Watkins’ Speak No Evil is an invitation best refused.
Director: James Watkins
Cast: James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Scoot McNairy
Writers: Christian Tafdrup, Mads Tafdrup, James Watkins
Producer: Jason Blum
Music: Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans
Cinematography: Tim Maurice-Jones
Editing: Jon Harris
