The Doctor’s Diagnosis: C
Speak No Evil is a remake of the Danish film of the same name from 2022. It may seem unnecessary to remake a movie from just two years ago and, yes, I wouldn’t necessarily call this movie “necessary.” However, I was genuinely wondering how this material would be updated for the United States. The Danish version is incredibly bleak and has a last act that simply wouldn’t fly with American audiences; I myself was incredibly frustrated by it and was yelling at the main characters for being complete idiots. The main characters in this version are still idiots, but (most of) the more absurd points of the Danish version have been eliminated. While that makes this Speak No Evil a less irritating viewing experience, it also makes it a more mundane one. This is more palatable to a fault, transforming something that was heavily flawed but memorable into a generic thriller.
The setup is the same and the two films are practically identical through the first two acts. Our lead couple (played by Scoot McNairy and Mackenzie Davis) and their daughter make friends with another couple (James McAvoy and Aisling Franciosi) and their son while on vacation. Some time later, our leads receive a card in the mail inviting them to spend the weekend with their vacation friends at their farmhouse in the country. They accept the offer and their new friends become awkward, ignoring social cues and making their guests increasingly uncomfortable. By the end of the weekend, the social awkwardness turns sinister as it becomes clear that these people are completely out of their minds.
The American version, for the most part, follows its Danish counterpart point-by-point for the first two thirds of the story. Both versions explore just how far people will go to accommodate rude-to-insane behavior: McAvoy insists that Davis (who is a vegetarian) sample the meat dish that he cooked for dinner, they play music too loudly in the car, they are too intimate in public, etc. In these early stages, both films explore the psychological need for people-pleasing and the consequences of such behavior. In both versions, viewers without such a psychological tendency will quickly lose patience with the lead characters, as a well-adjusted person would simply get the hell out of there. While not as idiotic as the characters in The Strangers: Chapter 1, this still becomes a frustrating viewing experience. If you don’t yell “fuck the damn rabbit!” while watching this, then your survival skills may be lacking.
The last act is where the two films completely diverge to create something more palatable to American audiences. I won’t go into spoilers, but the conclusion of the Danish is so shockingly violent and bleak that it deserves an NC-17 rating. Many critics have commented that it has one of the more haunting and unshakeable endings in recent history. On a purely visceral level, that’s true. However, as jarring as that ending is, it’s also frustratingly stupid. It requires the main characters to have a level of complacency that goes beyond a people-pleasing tendency and goes into the realm of the purely asinine. American audiences, I thought, would outright laugh at the notion of being marched to their death by unarmed assailants and passively following instructions for their own execution.
The American filmmakers agreed with my evaluation, though the result makes for a much less memorable experience. The twist is the same in both movies (and is largely spoiled by the trailers), but the films then take different paths. The Danish version remains fixated on compulsive passivity, while this version is more focused on alpha vs. beta psychology and how far you would need to push stereotypically liberal pussies before they will take up arms. In other words, it becomes The Hills Have Eyes. I mean that in both a thematic and almost literal sense, as there is a moment here that is lifted so directly from Hills Have Eyes that I must assume that it is an intentional homage to Wes Craven. The subsequent scenes of stalking and retaliation are perfectly fine, though the film quickly becomes something that we have seen done many times since Craven’s grindhouse classic.
The performances are fine across the board, but McAvoy steals the show with a spectrum of unhinged insanity. From the first moment he is on screen, you know that this guy ain’t quite right in the head even if you can’t pinpoint why. There is just something about his mannerisms and eyes that scream “get away from this guy.” McAvoy ratchets up the insanity steadily as the movie goes on, starting with more subtle body language and escalating along with the events of the film. It’s like watching somebody gradually go from 0-100 on the crazy scale over the course of 100 minutes, which is tough to pull off when you aren’t filming scenes sequentially. I also want to make mention of the child actors (Alix West Lefler and Dan Hough) for surprisingly solid performances. I just ask that child actors not annoy the hell out of me, and they more than delivered on those low standards.
Speak No Evil is much more interesting when considering both versions as a cultural comparison between two countries doing radically different things with the same premise. When considered alone, the American version is a perfectly serviceable thriller. It lacks the casual brutality of the original, but is less aggravating in the third act. I’m not a huge fan of either version, but I would recommend the Danish version if you watch one of them. It may be ridiculous, but you won’t likely forget it anytime soon.
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