Speak No Evil Is a Caricature of an Americanized Horror Remake
Speak No Evil is a caricature of what “Americanizing” a movie means. Hollywood looks down on their average audience member, in turn dumbing down and brightening up any of the dour films making their way stateside from Europe or Asia. In a land where the Popcornmeter and CinemaScore reign, the powers that be believe that unhappy endings and unpalatable goings-on are anathema to the box office—even in horror movies. 2022’s Speak No Evil, a film whose claim to fame among Shudder subscribers is its uncompromising promise of a bad time, never stood a chance. Despite a furiously alpha-male James McAvoy raging through the movie—nearly making this new take into an enjoyable, scareless, hoot-and-holler romp—Blumhouse’s hollowed-out remake undermines its nasty source material with its Americanized sheen.
Where the original film was a committed takedown of a particular too-polite affliction apparently pervasive among Danes, writer/director James Watkins’ remake translates those damning social niceties to softly liberal Americans. Ben (Scoot McNairy) and Louise Dalton (Mackenzie Davis) drive a Tesla. Of course they’re easy to bully. Louise is a vegetarian—well, a pescatarian. But she donates to sustainable fishing causes! Ben is cartoonishly emasculated. Their tween daughter, Agnes (Alix West Lefler), anxiously does breathing exercises and clings to a stuffed bunny. This is a family imagined by a podcaster who has recently powered through some damning allegations. It’s a family just asking to be taken advantage of by cool, pushy, extroverted Brits. Enter Paddy (James McAvoy) and Ciara (Aisling Franciosi).
The families meet on vacation, where the easygoing, fun-loving foreigners seduce the Daltons with their carefree aura. They’re not stressed about work, about boozing before noon, about zipping a child around on a Vespa without a helmet. As soon as Paddy does a front flip into the hotel pool, the Daltons were smitten. The couple even has a shy son, Ant (Dan Hough), who Agnes can play with. As sunny Italy fades into rainy gray London, the Daltons, back at home, pine for the fantasy they just left. That unburdening of responsibility is just too tempting. Even if it seems like an overstep, a bit too much too soon, they quickly accept an invitation to spend a long, isolated weekend with their new acquaintances.
We all know this is a terrible mistake, made by a couple trying to avoid being alone with their rocky marriage. McNairy and Davis are so feeble and tepid, you yearn for the handsy, aggro, radically honest douchebaggery of McAvoy and Franciosi’s couple. Every line out of Paddy’s mouth is a Reddit factoid, coated in a layer of toxic masculinity therapyspeak. But McAvoy thrusts the words at you, with an animal grin and that inescapable charm. He’s charisma carpet bombing, the angry energy that will inevitably turn against the Daltons already in plain sight. But Speak No Evil is about ignoring enough red flags to supply the Olympic opening ceremony. Passivity means death.