Speak No Evil (15)

During a European holiday, Ben Dalton, wife Louise and their daughter Agnes meet English doctor Patrick Feld, his wife Ciara and their young son Ant, who cannot speak. The two families bond and the Felds invite the Daltons to join visit them on their rambling country estate in the West Country. The Daltons accept but the mood subsequently darkens and Ben, Louise and Agnes grow concerned about their hosts' unsettling behaviour.

LondonNet Film Review

Speak No Evil (15) Film Review from LondonNet

Beware the kindness of strangers. It’s a harsh lesson that the overly polite characters in writer-director James Watkins’ English language remake of a disturbing 2022 Danish horror absorb and apply far too late to avoid paying a hefty toll in blood, tears and shattered bones. Relocated from rural Netherlands to a remote area of the West Country, the second iteration of Speak No Evil is markedly less dark and twisted than its relentlessly creepy predecessor. The jaw-dropping and unflinchingly brutal denouement of director Christian Tafdrup’s version, which sent a shiver of pure terror down the spine, has been jettisoned for a more conventional and palatable showdown between good and evil. If you have supped from the spiked punch bowl of the original, Watkins’ picture will taste mellow by comparison…

His script appropriates lines of dialogue and the barbed commentary about social etiquette and apathy but makes some questionable detours such as temporarily ignoring one freshly sustained injury, which would require medical attention and seriously hamper a character’s motor skills. James McAvoy channels the simmering menace of his kidnapper with dissociative identity disorder in Split as the remake’s passive-aggressive chief antagonist and he embraces snarling, full-blooded lunacy when Watkins’ film finally bares its teeth. Speak No Evil’s bark is far worse than its bite, more’s the pity.

American couple Ben and Louise Dalton (Scoot McNairy, Mackenzie Davis) and their anxiety-crippled daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler) are recent transplants to rain-lashed London, who seek sun and solace on holiday in Europe. The family encounters gregarious English doctor Patrick Feld (McAvoy), his wife Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) and their young son Ant (Dan Hough). The boy cannot speak because of a rare condition called congenital aglossia, which means he was born without a tongue.

Patrick curries favour with the Daltons by flouting social niceties to ward off other holidaymakers from sitting with them for lunch. The Felds subsequently invite the Daltons to visit them on their rambling country estate. Louise is reluctant to spend time with people they barely know but she banishes her concerns for Ben so they can continue to heal a rift in their marriage. The Daltons become concerned about their hosts’ unsettling behaviour, especially Patrick’s abusive treatment of Ant, and Louise privately seethes at Ben’s reluctance to cause a scene.

Speak No Evil is a solidly entertaining psychological thriller that doesn’t push nihilistic boundaries to the same degree as its Scandinavian counterpart. Action sequences are confidently executed and a totem of childhood innocence – a stuffed rabbit – repeatedly coaxes protagonists into the slavering jaws of mortal danger. One character quotes a French proverb about not letting the quest for perfection stand in the way of achieving a good result. Duly noted. Watkins’ film is good.

– Jo Planter