Speak No Evil

This review may contain spoilers!

 

Speak No Evil is an American adaptation of Christian Tafdrup's acclaimed 2022 film of the same name. In this thriller we are introduced to two families on a holiday in Italy who bond; one is an American family migrated to London experiencing hard times while the other is an English family living in the West Country. After an invitation to stay out in the country, the Daltons discover their hosts don't entirely seem to be who they appear and a darker mystery lurks deep within the farmstead.

Psychological thriller is a type of genre dancing in the horror scene and absolutely dominating the genre right now, I was transfixed by this for almost the entire runtime. The film is a real steady burn, knowing how to make a mark with an introduction that presents all the elements in a simple and interesting way. The film then builds on this by enriching the details, taking us to a new setting that steadily gets worse or adding an element to the characters that makes them more difficult to trust as an audience. I actually admired this latter quality a lot because it wasn't limited to the antagonists, we learned the secret layers of our protagonists too which resulted in a real boiling pot of tension. As an audience member I was just waiting to see which secret was going to come to a head first. This approach also meant that the end result was characters I felt interested in but who weren't always pleasant, the good and evil wasn't two-dimensional and I admired that. This film was really founded on giving us a very realistic modern family dynamic, while also flaunting that the perfect nuclear family is a bit of a modern myth due to societal pressures. The incredible final act was a harrowing Home Alone of besieged home, determined killers, useless father figures and badass mums. I felt so satisfied watching that final conflict because it resolved a lot of those tense points of conflict set up earlier in the narrative.

This film is beautiful and the camera maximises some entirely stunning vistas in regards to on-location shooting. The film has these powerful establishing shots or wides that had me whispering "wow" under my breath. But I also loved the intense close or mid shots, especially the ones that played with shadow, flame and blood. The editing set a precise pace that helped the tension along, I felt that the visual language of the film moved neatly alongside the plot. The score was very unsettling, leaving me feeling those big scare or conflict moments. However, I also adored the soundtrack which was used to highlight beauty or even for an off-kilter sense of humour that worked very well for Speak No Evil (shout out 'Eternal Flame' by The Bangles!).

Mackenzie Davis, who played Louise Dalton, is quite a high maintenance and constantly concerned figure which made for a great modern Mum role; I also loved Davis' in the final act - her character came alive there. Scoot McNairy, who played Ben Dalton, isn't the role anyone is going to love from this but he did a great job; McNairy really presents a father who comes off as impotent and struggling to prove his worth to his wife and daughter. Aisling Franciosi, who played Ciara, is a really wild and exuberant role; I loved how Franciosi played against and matched McAvoy's character work. Alix West Lefler, who played Agnes Dalton, gives a very simple yet effective performance; this is a character living with anxiety and worry which shone through. Dan Hough, who played Ant, is one of the best child performances I've seen this year; Hough presents a child who is entirely tortured and haunted by his imprisonment in what is an incredibly well-layered performance.

However, the best performance came from James McAvoy, who played Paddy. I always feel like McAvoy goes all in for his roles and this one is no different. When we first meet Paddy he's a bit aloof, very cool and not the most conventional husband/father figure. This is the sort of man who plays things irresponsibly but does so in a manner that feels quite charismatic. However, as the film goes along we get to see that mask drop just a couple of times. We steadily see that his worldview is a little warped or that he teases his guests in quite a manipulative way. At the same time he does these heartfelt pleas, moments of earnestness that leave you wondering what he really intends. The way McAvoy plays against his hostage son, Hough, is the real element of tension that I just adored as it steadily ramped up to the final act. McAvoy's final primal hunter like presence in the final act sets him as one of my favourite antagonists from 2024 cinema.

As far as American adaptations go this is pretty good; the Danish translations aren't always a high point in the year. But this one moves in a way that shows quite a bit of regard for the original while doing it's own thing. However, I found the tilt from the second act into the final act a little long in the tooth. The antagonist family, namely Paddy, is allowed a bit too much time to grandstand and drag out the moment the Daltons are captured. Once the capture has happened the veil being dropped feels initially quite disappointing as it all becomes quite transactional and the killers goals feel simple. Worse than that, I found the killers motives to not really be very well explored by the end. The whole point seems to be that society made us this way and modern society allows monsters like this in, but I really felt like they could have gotten to what they really meant to say with a bit of work. 

Kris Hitchen, who played Mike, is a side character who gets too much room to play in the final act; Hitchen just seems like a cartoonish and silly additional henchman to our main antagonist.

 

I felt entirely tense the whole way through, worth every second of that steady build up. I would give Speak No Evil an 8/10.