SPEAK NO EVIL

It’s happened to all of us, hasn’t it? You go on holiday, you make friends with a few of the others staying at the hotel, the plans are made - “When we’re back in the UK, you’ll have to come and stay”…

It never happens though… but what if it did?

Because this is exactly what happens here, as The Daltons - Ben (Scoot McNairy), Louise (Mackenzie Davis), and their daughter Agnes (Aliz West Lefler) - an American family living a seemingly unhappy existence in London, travel to the West Country to stay with holiday pals Paddy (James McAvoy), Ciara (Aisling Franciosi), and their son Ant (Dan Hough), a young boy with a rare disorder meaning he is unable to speak.

I don’t think I’m giving anything away by saying that not everything is as it seems.

Speak No Evil may well be my biggest surprise of 2024. I went into it with really low expectations. It’s a remake of a Danish film that came out just 2 years ago, and I fully expected it to be a rushed out cash grab, with very little to say for itself.

What we have been delivered, however, is an unexpectedly potent horror thriller, with powerhouse performances from James McAvoy and Aisling Franciosi.

It is brilliant. I saw it nearly a week ago, and since then, the more I’ve thought about it the more I like it. 

I think that what makes this film just as effective as it is, is that we have met these people before. Each of them feels whole.

The Daltons, a little uptight, a little highly strung. At the same time taken in by their hosts bravado, while feeling slightly superior when it comes to their living conditions. Paddy and Ciara are free spirited, fun… but perhaps a little overbearing. A little eager. A little… off.

We know these people. They walk among us. And this adds an extra layer of authenticity to proceedings, which is so important when setting the films ambience.
Because this is not a horror that relies on jump scares, or excessive gore. It is one that prefers to build an atmosphere. One that pulls you in gently, in no rush to reveal its hand (unless, of course, you watch the trailer), before hitting with force in its final act.

James McAvoy is fantastic. His performance is unsettling, but just about stays on the right side of unhinged for the majority of the film. There is clearly something a little off with him, but it is entirely believable that The Daltons - and in particular Ben - would want to be around him. 

He is everything that Ben is not. Masculine, confident… happy. And so when Ben is taken in - ignoring some of his wife Louise’s concerns, you never once doubt it. And that is down to McAvoy. The character might seem light and breezy, but the performance itself is controlled. Walking right up to the line but never crossing it.

But while McAvoy will get the headlines, for me the performance of the film goes to Aisling Franciosi. It is a complex role, and as the film progresses and facts slowly start to reveal themselves, you realise just how complex it is. But Franciosi, like McAvoy, has such firm control over her character everything about her feels real.

The lightness, the free spirited nature of her, but also the pain and trauma of her past. She is the slightly more grounded of the two. Not necessarily an ally to Louise, but a more reasonable voice when Paddy’s heavy handedness becomes a little much. 

She anchors the couple, and indeed the film, when things are beginning to crank up, managing to elicit sympathy from the audience despite the overwhelming sense that something isn’t right. 

She is fantastic and I really hope that Speak No Evil sees her picked up more and more in Hollywood. 

There has, of course, been some controversy about the fact that this is a remake of a film that came out in 2022. That it is Hollywood running out of ideas, and stealing things from overseas rather than coming up with something original of its own.

And I get that.

But, if seeing this film convinces a few more people to check out the original - which I’m yet to see myself, though it has been on my list for a while - then it’s worth it.

If it convinces a few more people to watch international cinema, then it has given back to an industry it has taken from. 

And it is really good! As I said at the start, this is not the soulless cash grab I assumed it would be. It is a really well directed and brilliantly performed adaption. 

Having not yet seen the original I cannot say I closely they stick to the plot, whether they pull out some surprises of their own, but it is a film with something of its own to say, and which has the potential to shine a light on a Danish film that not many in the UK with have seen, rather than merely stealing its thunder.