'Speak No Evil' is good movie about the horrors of being a pushover.

Speak if you want to heard, fool!

The lead up to this movie was interesting. I had spent the last 4 or so months seeing previews of it in theaters and not thinking much of it at first. The concept looked engaging enough: a couple spends some time off visiting some newly met friends out in the country where things don’t seem quite right. I filed it away in my head as a movie to check out once the closer we got to opening weekend. The more I went to the movies and kept seeing the trailer the more interested I became in it. I would later realize that this was a Blumhouse production, which peaked my interest even further. 

After the lucrative success that was 2023’s Five Nights at Freddy’s, Blumhouse was not having a stellar 2024. Night Swim, Imaginary, and Afraid were all either flops critically and/or financially. Upon learning that they were at the helm of James Watkins’s upcoming Speak No Evil I had settled on the opinion that the movie was quite possibly going to be more of the same at worst or surprisingly decent at best. What I did not expect was how caught up in it I would be and how good of a film it would end up being.

Set in the present day, Speak No Evil begins in Italy where American husband and wife: Louise Dalton (Mackenzie Davis) and Ben Dalton (Scoot McNairy) are vacationing with their daughter, the incredibly anxious Agnes (Alix West Lefler), who is attached to her stuffed rabbit . There they meet and befriend a British husband and wife couple: Paddy (James McAvoy) and Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) and their son Ant (Dan Hough). Louise and Ben’s relationship is on the rocks: Ben from a recent bout of unemployment and Louise from a sexting infidelity. 

Upon returning to their home in dreary London Ben and Louise, needing a change of scenery, decide to take Paddy and Ciara up on their offer to spend a weekend in their home out in the country. When the Dalton’s arrive at the home they are treated very warmly, but soon begin to grow unnerved by seemingly random fits of hostility and boundary crossings from both Paddy and Ciara.

Speak No Evil is a movie about the dangers of being too much of a passive, capital L, liberal. The film is cringeworthy, but in a good way. Throughout most of the film, up until the climax, you’re subjected to the most uncomfortable series of dickheadedness and microaggressions from the British couple. All while watching two (three, honestly — I agree with Ben that Agnes is way too old for that stupid bunny) American wimps continue to put up with everything. Ben suffering from clear masculinity issues and general insecurity. Meanwhile Louise, while a lot more direct, still prefers to handle everything with passive-aggressiveness more often than not. Both suffering from the same problem: they desperately want to be seen as open-minded, progressive, good people.

Ben and Louise are so annoyingly conflict-avoidant; willing to put up with huge red flags and violations of their personhood in order to appear polite and empathetic. Louise, a staunch vegetarian, allows Paddy to force her to consume meat, belittles her stance on it, and even lets him touch her inappropriately! Ben, meanwhile, would rather sit around and let Paddy mistreat and sexually harass his wife so as not to appear rude. To Louise’s slight credit, she very early on notices something is up with these freaks and is gung ho about leaving as soon as possible, but when push comes to shove she’s also so caught up in wanting to save face that she ultimately allows the behavior to continue.

When Louise discovers Agnes sleeping in Paddy and Ciara’s bed she rightly freaks out and wants to leave, but both her and Ben are convinced to stay after getting fed a pile of horseshit from Ciara about her experiences growing up. Paddy and Ciara constantly ask Ben and Louise to dismiss their behavior as either honest cluelessness, the result of some traumatic past, or just plain old joshing around. When Ben and Louise are taken hostage after Paddy and Ciara are found out they ask them, “why are you doing this?”. Paddy responds, “Because you let us”. A simplistic response, but you can’t argue with him there! When you stop and take into account Ben and Louise’s actions throughout the entire movie they were practically asking for it.

McAvoy plays the role of Paddy very well with his imposing physique and outgoing, friendly, but also unsettling behavior. He embodies the essence of someone coming on way too strong. You really get the sense that, for as nice and full of life as he is, something's not quite right with this guy, and you don't want to get on his bad side. When the game is finally given away he very smoothy transitions from creep to homicidal maniac; as those who have seen Split (2016) will already be familiar with. I wish I had more to say about Franciosi, Lefler, and Hough who play their roles fine as Ciara, Agnes, and Ant respectively, but don’t really bring much to the table as compared to the 3 main stars.

Speak No Evil is a remake of a 2022 Danish film of the same name by director Christian Tafdrup, a movie which I have not seen. In the lead up to this movie, many of the early comments I read were complaining about this fact; arguing that adapting movies for an American audience so soon after the fact is incredibly gauche, but the simple fact of the matter is that, regardless of this, Watkin’s outing still works very well as an uncomplicated horror flick. There was nothing egregious about the direction, cinematography, or acting.

The movie is pretty darkly funny at times! I also found myself really enjoying the cat and mouse dynamic between McAvoy and the Daltons. I will ding it slightly for the final act of the movie once the confrontation between the Daltons and Paddy and Ciara finally comes to a head where I feel that the film wraps everything up too neatly for my liking. I am fucking shocked that Ben and Louise for as big of cowards as they both are manage to escape from the whole ordeal, roughed up and bruised, but alive.

Speak No Evil is a surprising and entertaining horror film. This is Blumehouse’s best movie in a year full of a string of awful releases and I can easily rank this within a top ten list of their best films overall. I had a good time watching these gaggle of idiots try and succeed at finally standing up for themselves. While I can understand the criticisms of rushing into an adaptation so soon after the original; Speak No Evil brings the heat.