THE STORY – A dream holiday turns into a living nightmare when an American couple and their daughter spend the weekend at a British family’s idyllic country estate.
THE CAST – James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Aisling Franciosi, Alix West Lefler, Dan Hough & Scoot McNairy
THE TEAM – James Watkins (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 110 Minutes
It’s happened again. That independent and/or international horror film that your cinephile friend has been recommending for years got remade for a wider audience. This time, it’s the Danish picture “Speak No Evil,” which has been re-envisioned by English writer-director James Watkins. Of course, direct comparisons are inevitable, which is precisely why this critic avoided watching the original film before seeing the remake. Viewed on its own, Watkins has crafted a film that brings new meaning to the word “tense,” playing out as a distorted comedy of manners gone horribly awry.
The film follows an American couple – Louise (Mackenzie Davis) and Ben (Scoot McNairy) – who’ve uprooted their lives and moved to London with their preteen daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler). We meet them on vacation in Italy, and even though the setting is gorgeous, it’s clear that things between the married couple are less than sunny – Ben is aloof and Louise is overly protective of Agnes. They meet a British couple also on holiday – Paddy (James McAvoy) and Ciara (Aisling Franciosi). Their son Ant (Dan Hough) has difficulty speaking because, as they explain, he was born with an underdeveloped tongue. Although Paddy and Ciara’s boisterous manners at first horrify the sensible Americans, they quickly find themselves charmed by their give-no-f’s attitude. After the vacation ends, Louise and Ben decide to take their new friends up on their offer to visit their farm in West England, hoping the weekend away will re-energize their lives. At the charmingly rundown and isolated homestead, Louise and Ben do their best to maintain a sense of normalcy while facing Paddy and Ciara’s unconventional ways. But things are very clearly off, and it becomes clear that feigning politeness won’t get them out of their situation.
The casting team absolutely nailed it with this one. Anyone who’s seen “Split” knows that McAvoy is capable of bringing an otherworldly ferocity to a role, and this one’s no different. His Paddy is both intimidating and charming, and much like his power over those around him, he commands the screen at all times. Paddy knows no limits, which makes McAvoy the perfect match for him as one of our most fearless actors. It’s completely understandable why the Americans are drawn to him, even at his most socially improper. Franciosi is never overpowered by her domineering screen partner, with her Ciara perfectly matching Paddy’s freak. She’s also strangely sympathetic, appropriately portraying her as entirely guileless.
Just because they’re playing the kind of restrained couple you’d want to be seated next to at a restaurant doesn’t mean that Davis or McNairy are any less enjoyable to watch. Davis, in particular, is stupendous. She’s able to quickly convey a wide range of conflicting emotions on her face – a skill she deploys to comedic effect that, almost impossibly, even works during the more intense scenes. Her Louise is very aware of how she’s always perceived, and Davis excels at the performance-within-a-performance required to convey Louise’s constant show of contentment, which the audience knows is masking internal revulsion. McNairy’s character is far less fun than any of the others. Ben is spineless, wimpy, and completely ill-equipped to handle the situation he’s in. Imagine if your boring high school history teacher suddenly found himself in the middle of a horror movie. But McNairy manages to find new angles to his character’s overly agreeable nature, and he’s a hoot during the sequences that require him to be more physical.
Those high-intensity scenes, curiously, never depart from the film’s tensely comedic tone. Instead, it organically feels like the natural progression from the hour-plus of scenes so socially awkward that it’s impossible not to laugh (one lengthy sequence centering around “Cotton Eye Joe” manages to be both hilarious and supremely stressful). It’s a perfect example of the notion that horror and comedy require similar filmmaking skills in terms of set-up and pay-off. Here, the only difference between these two modes is their content, not their tone. It’s a tricky balancing act, but Watkins is, miraculously, able to pull it off.
But that’s not to say that the film softens its thrills in the spirit of being more palatable. “Speak No Evil” is the kind of film that would best be watched with a full, loud crowd. It’s unbelievably, unrelentingly tense from start to finish, whether because of the cringe-inducing mannered situations that the American couple finds themselves in or because of set pieces that would be right at home in any Hollywood thriller.
Unfortunately, Watkins’ camera isn’t as crafty as his storytelling abilities. There are some odd moments of framing and uses of zooms that call attention to themselves in the worst way. Thankfully, these aren’t consistent enough issues to be too distracting. The camera also doesn’t capture the layout of the farm compound very well, leading to some confusing geographic moments during the frenzied climax.
“Speak No Evil” is sure to please an audience that, like myself, is unfamiliar with the source material. Whether it lives up to the infamously upsetting original is a different matter, but on its own, Watkins’ remake is a delightfully uncomfortable time at the movies.
