Speak No Evil
review by Bobby Blakey
Eden Lake and The Woman in Black director James Watkins has clearly shown he knows how to handle the horror genre and after stepping away for it for some different projects is returning with his latest film Speak No Evil a remake of the 2022 Danish film of the same name. The film stars James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Aisling Franciosi, Alix West Lefler, Dan Hough and Scoot McNairy with Watkins also writing. Could this film offer up something more than want the trailers teased or will it not be a welcome weekend getaway?
Speak No Evil follows an American family who is invited to spend the weekend at the idyllic country estate of a charming British family they befriended on vacation, but what begins as a dream holiday soon warps into a snarled psychological nightmare.
This is one of those movies that I have been wanting to see since I saw the first trailer, but was worried they might have revealed too much. My other fear was this was just going to be a movie filled with bad decisions and irritate me to no end. While there is no doubt many bad decisions and ideals that make you yell at the screen, they are also made more believable to why they play out the way they do even if it becomes frustrating at times.
The film is a slow burn that works to perfection to make you understand why this family would make this dumb decision to go stay with this family. I know people in real life that have befriended people on vacation and ended up hanging the whole trip so I can see how it would happen. I also give total credit to the way they set up the manipulative behavior with excuses and emotional excuses that make you get why they might give them another chance although to many of them.
The film isn’t scary in the traditional sense, but as it all unfolds is unnerving at
times and creepy in the things that are happening or implied. Moving on past the decision-making issues, the film is good with the shining spot being McAvoy chewing up every moment he is on screen. He brings the likability and charisma needed to understand how they would latch onto him, but also the subtle sinister persona lurking behind it all that slowly creeps to the surface.
The rest of the cast were great as well with my own issue trying to separate Davis and McNairy from their role together in the excellent series Halt and Catch Fire. They were great together here, but for a bit I could only keep thinking of that series. Thankfully they step out of that shadow and find their own unique voices here and are the perfect family with their own dysfunction and gullibility needed to make this work.
The social commentary to the entire reason behind it and layered personal drama and mental issues run rampant here serving as a main focal point to where it is all heading and how something playout. There are some differences from the original story, most notably the ending, but its still satisfying. There is a very specific moment that I think should have just abruptly went black after this scene and when they didn’t, I was worried the whole thing was a missed opportunity, but the direction they went works just as well in a different way.
Decide for yourself and check out Speak No Evil in theaters now.