‘Speak No Evil’ (2024, review)

A mere two years after Christian Tafdrup’s Speak No Evil made its debut, his unpleasant, eerie thriller has been remade by English filmmaker James Watkins.

Replacing the original’s Dutch antagonists for British, and the Danish protagonists for Americans, the film begins as a beat-for-beat recreation of the cautionary tale, only gradually altering the story to alter it from a Dutch/Danish dynamic to a British/American one.

The visuals are as compelling as those of the original, and the change of setting from the Dutch countryside to the British West Country works well in terms of it being as threatening as it is tranquil.

As anticipated, James McAvoy delivers a solid performance, showcasing that he understands the essence of his counterpart in the original film, all the while adding additional nuances to the character and making it his own, and the rest of the cast range from serviceable to good.

However, considering how much of the film directly copies the original in the beginning, the tone is ultimately changed to a point that severely detracts from the themes of the original.

Tafdrup’s Speak No Evil is an excruciating exercise in discomfort and nihilism, continuously breaking the rules of the social expectations of acquaintances, and should only be viewed by those who are able to stomach deeply cringe-worthy social interactions develop into utterly soul-crushing cruelty.

In Watkins’ version, the switch from cringe to cruelty is abandoned in favor of switching from cringe to camp once the penny drops for the protagonists.

As such, anyone who is unfamiliar with the original will likely find the remake rather entertaining, and for those who may have a hard time with films who force their audience to sit with undiluted emotions of hopelessness and despair, the remake also makes for a much gentler viewing experience.

That being said, the justification for making a remake that chickens out at every turn is questionable, especially with the ending being altered to painfully formulaic, utterly toothless and unforgivably banal.

As a result, toning down every single unpleasantry from the original gives the impression that the remake has little reason to exist other than making English-speaking viewers exempt from reading subtitles or being impacted by the crushing nihilism and cruelty of the original, and no amount of competent performances or general filmmaking prowess justifies such philistinism.

In its defense, Watkins’ Speak No Evil is a perfectly average thriller, which will likely entertain those who would rather steer clear of being faced with the worst aspects of humanity in favor of something less confrontational.

However, for those who have been able to sit through Tafdrup’s original, the remake is as bland as they come, asking nothing of its audience and serving no other purpose than to dumb down a harrowing tale to forgettable mediocrity.

Verdict: 4 out of 10.

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Produced by Jason Blum, Paul Ritchie
Based on Speak No Evil by
Christian Tafdrup, Mads Tafdrup
Written and Directed by James Watkins
Starring Mackenzie Davis, Scoot McNairy, Alix West Lefler,
Dan Hough, James McAvoy, Aisling Franciosi