(Spoiler Warning)
If you’ve been to the movies within the past six months, you’ve likely seen the trailer for James Watkins’ newest film, Speak No Evil. Creepy James McAvoy, a tongue-less little boy, the Cotton Eyed Joe dance … seriously! If there’s any reason you should head to the theaters to see Speak No Evil, it’s that at least you’re guaranteed not to see the trailer for it.
I wasn’t particularly excited to watch Speak No Evil. About two years ago, as I browsed my streaming services for something intriguing, I stumbled upon a little unknown 2022 Danish-Dutch film called Speak No Evil. Without looking up the plot or trailer, I watched it and was blown away. Until now, it was one of the most unsettling and harrowing films I had seen. After I went to bed and woke up the following day, I couldn’t stop thinking about it — so much so that I made my parents watch it too (which my mother still holds against me). Directed by Christian Tafdrup, the film was bold, risky, and incredibly disturbing. I was miffed to see a remake was being done. Still, I dutifully saw it to justify or subvert my preconceived notions. After watching, I ended up being relatively pleased with the remake, yet still bothered by its existence.
The original Speak No Evil begins with a straightforward premise: A Danish couple and their young daughter are on holiday when they meet a Dutch couple and their mute son. The families bond during the trip, and upon returning home, the Danish couple receives an invitation to spend a long weekend at the Dutch family’s countryside home. Accepting the offer, they find themselves entwined in a weekend filled with oddities, breaches of social etiquette, and escalating violence.
The 2024 remake tracks similarly but with a few differences. The Danish couple are now Americans who recently relocated to London, whereas the Dutch are a British couple from the West Country. The American couple (now named Ben and Louise, rather than Bjorn and Louise from the original) is given an updated backstory — living in an unfamiliar place with Ben having been recently fired from his job and Louise still on thin ice after having an affair with another man. Their daughter, Agnes, is older than her original counterpart. The Dutch couple, Patrick and Karin, are renamed Paddy and Ciara, and their son, Abel, is now Art.
The reveal between both films is the same. We find out, along with the characters, that the hosting couple are serial killers. They target traveling families and befriend them, invite them to their isolated home, and bombard them with failed etiquette and uncomfortable situations to prove they’re weak-willed enough to make good victims. They kill the parents, take the new family’s child, slice out their tongue, and use them as a replacement for their following targets. And, although the reveal is the same, the endings of the films are where the actual diversion occurs — and where I found myself getting annoyed with the remake.
The ending of the 2022 version of Speak No Evil is positively gruesome. The Danish couple uncover the mystery and attempt to escape, only to be recaptured by the Dutch, who succeed in their plan. They drown Abel callously and graphically slice out Agnes’s tongue, taking her away in a waiting car to use as their newest bait. Meanwhile, Bjorn and Louise are led to a pit where they are stoned to death, and thus their ritual is complete. The film ends with Patrick and Karin setting their sights on a new couple, with a now-mute Agnes beside them to play the role of their child.
I’m not sure what I had anticipated about where Speak No Evil would go, but I was shocked by the violence of the ending. It’s not typical for a film to end on such a bleak note. Audiences are used to the protagonists we’ve been following to persevere, outsmart the villains, and save the day. But Speak No Evil didn’t do that. I may not have loved the film, but I respected how the ending broke away from typical Hollywood climaxes.
2024’s Speak No Evil does exactly what I feared it would. It takes everything subversive and chilling about the original’s ending and ‘Americanizes’ it. Because in the remake, the American family does thwart the British. They not only prevent Agnes and themselves from becoming the next victims, but they even save Art. The ending is a long, action-filled chase between both couples. It was fun, sure, but it was also incredibly dull.
What made the original Speak No Evil stand out amongst other contemporary horror flicks was the nihilism and lack of explanation for why, exactly, the Dutch are doing what they’re doing. When Bjorn asks Patrick why he’s doing this to them, he says, “Because you let us.” It’s chilling. Every little uncomfortable moment flashes in front of your eyes: Patrick forces lifelong vegetarian Louise to eat a bite of meat; Louise wakes to find Agnes asleep in bed with a naked Patrick and Karin; a drunk Patrick drives the Danes home from dinner after manipulating them to pay for the meal. In the original, there isn’t a motive for why Patrick and Karin do this. Their evilness is unexplained and doesn’t make sense. This, to me, is what the remake lacks and why I found it to feel so soulless and lackluster. It’s typical Hollywood fare that over explains the motives of its villains.
It’s easier for audiences to stomach that evil characters have a reason for being evil. In the remake, Paddy and Ciara make a living off the funds of the families they kill. There’s an economic motive that leads them to continue to do this. But the appeal of the original is that it wasn’t stomachable. It’s much more terrifying to witness antagonists that are just evil because they are. It’s why the original is terrifying, and the remake isn’t.
This isn’t to say I hated the 2024 version of Speak No Evil. I enjoyed it. It’s darkly funny, and James McAvoy’s portrayal of Paddy is one of his best performances. But it doesn’t unsettle or move me like its predecessor does. While the 2022 version lingered uncomfortably with me for weeks after watching, I haven’t thought much of the remake since seeing it, and that’s the most disappointing difference between them.