Film Review - Speak No Evil (2024)

Speak No Evil is an English language remake of a Danish film from 2022 and this time James McAvoy plays the lead role Paddy as he and his wife Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) meet an American family (Scott McNairy, Mackenzie Davis and Alix West Lefler) and invite them to visit their English countryside home for a weekend visit but these hosts are far from the friendliest you meet on your travels.

I haven’t seen the 2022 Danish film from which this is a remake of but I quite enjoyed this movie and the main reason for that is McAvoy who is really good here, he puts on this nice/polite/charming persona that hides this rage that bubbles further and further to the surface as the movie goes on and while your watching it your waiting to see him go full evil on his unsuspecting houseguests and it doesn’t disappoint when he does, Mackenzie Davis is also good as the American mother who has a few secrets of her own but springs into action if her child gets into danger.

The film also has a lot of good tension in it, and it builds nicely throughout the film and at a steady pace as well, there are times where it drags but it never drags to the point where the tension dissipates like steam out of a tea kettle but instead it bubbles along nicely like the water in the kettle until its ready to be unleashed.

What didn’t work as well for me is Scott McNairy as the American Dad and I think he isn’t outright terrible in this movie but for most of it I kept thinking to myself “He reminds me a little bit of Michael Fassbender” and part of me did wish he had played that role instead firstly because it would’ve been him and McAvoy together again after their work on the X-Men movies but also you would have a stronger counterpoint to McAvoy’s character and whether he believes what he’s being told is true or not which is key in a good psychological thriller as you want to take one side or the other and guess for yourself who is right and who is wrong and that gets lost a little bit here which is a shame.

And so that was Speak No Evil and it’s a very enjoyable horror/thriller with a great performance by McAvoy at the centre of it, 3 and a half out of 5.