starring: james mcavoy, mackenzie davis, aisling franciosi, and scoot mcnairy​

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REVIEWER: nick tonkin

A family is invited to spend a whole weekend in a lonely home in the countryside, but as the weekend progresses, they realize that a dark side lies within the family who invited them.

James McAvoy steals the show in Speak No Evil, an American remake of the 2022 Danish film of the same name, with a performance that is intense, overbearing yet so engaging that it outshines the frustrating decisions the script prescribes the film’s characters in their attempts to extricate McAvoy’s Paddy from their lives.

Speak No Evil is a remake of a well regarded Danish psychological horror/thriller: one could easily make the mistake of assuming it just another one of those arguably unnecessary, usually lacklustre American remakes of superior foreign films. This would, however unfairly sell Speak No Evil short as the performances of Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy as the Daltons were strong, especially alongside the scene stealing McAvoy.

Director James Watkins (Eden Lake) is skilled in slowly increasing the tension his characters are simmering in. Davis and McNairy were believable as a couple facing uncertainty and personal difficulties, thrust into a horrific scenario. It is just that the script lets them down by forcing their characters into situations where the unsatisfying decision the characters have to make is the only one that will progress the story at that moment: with the expectation that the audience will accept this when learning more about the couple’s relationship and history.

The film is engaging though, with a way of keeping you on your toes in its first half by slowly revealing the oddness of the situation the Daltons find themselves in with Paddy and his partner Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) through flashes of hair raising behaviour by McAvoy’s Paddy, but with an excuse from someone to brush it aside, be it Ciara or one of the Daltons themselves.

Speak No Evil features a scene stealing performance from James McAvoy and an escalating and unnerving tension controlled masterfully by director James Watkins - only slightly let down by its screenplay in an otherwise shocking and engaging story of a hunter playing with his food.

★★★.5