Christian Tafdrup’s 2022 horror Speak No Evil — available on Shudder — was an impressive, frog-boiling psycho picture about polite Danish folks who unwisely agree to spend a weekend away with the hearty Dutch family they met on holiday and are subjected to many, many micro-aggressions before the macro ones start up. For a while, James Watkins’ English-language remake hews close to the original… then, the films diverge (around the time of the excruciating decision to go back for the daughter’s toy rabbit) and become different, if complementary experiences.
There’s no denying that the first film was upsetting, and having watched that you wouldn’t want to go back again, so new twists are satisfying. James McAvoy, with a Mummerset burr and an imposing too-much-time-in-the-gym physique, is a charismatic, intimidating presence. He’s not played an all-out villain before, and goes to town with this, repeatedly springing some unforgivable trespass on his guests before taking it back and begging for sympathy, or acting hurt that they’re offended and stringing it out for another few hours, even as clues pile up about the depth of the hole they’re falling into.
Director James Watkins is very good at ratcheting screws.
Both Watkins’ major horror films — Eden Lake, The Woman In Black — are fairly ruthless in killing off characters who ought to be safe in the genre, aligning his vision with the bleakness of Tafdrup’s film. However, this fight is more even-handed, and a Straw Dogs-ish farmhouse battle rousingly pays off multiple Chekhov establish-deadly-weapons-for-use-later moments, throwing in extra revelations which add bite.
The business of this story in both versions is suspense, and Watkins is very good at ratcheting screws — stringing out moments like a possible getaway, one the villain seems happy to let play out, in such a manner that a companion even compares him to “my aunt’s cat” because he insists on playing with his food — but also springs satisfying reversals and pay-offs.
