Now Speak No Evil from 2022 was one of my favourite films of that year and a sublime surprise in the filmgoing landscape of that year, with it being a film that firmly for me stood right up against the finest dramas of the year, the best comedies of that year, whilst separating itself sensationally from them all with the bleakest and most effecting ending perhaps of the season. So when it came to this incredible Danish film being remade in the English language I was naturally hesitant. But I may very well be your best case scenario for such remakes afterall I may genuinely without hyperbole be amongst the top percentile of Fincher Dragon Tattoo fans, believing wholeheartedly that that remake betters the original in nearly every single way. Unfortunately that is not just a rarity, but perhaps the absolute anomaly, as for me anyway, Speak No Evil (2024) proves once again.
There is a
clear line that James Watkin’s 2024 version of Speak No Evil chooses not
to cross, it comes almost exactly at the halfway mark where the glorious original
plunged us deeper into the depths of the banality and terror of pure
nonsensical evil – at this point however Watkins film blooms into a very solid Straw
Dogs style horror-thriller that is completely serviceable. This is where it
seems many critics have given Watkins remake a free pass from the mire of
normal slating that these sorts of remakes receive. It’s just enough different
that it in a sense earns its own standing. But unfortunately not for me. On my
way into the cinema with a dear friend who watched the original film only a few
nights prior, I began pitching comedic bits of how this film would explain away
every single detail and complicate things, having monologues and moments of explanation
that the original film gloriously does not suffer us with. These were thrown
away comedic jibes with a friend and yet multiple of them were the foundation
of Watkins take. Multiple of my gags from the foyer made their way almost word
for word, with a plethora of other stupider choices that wouldn’t have even
entered into my mind. The clear one for one for this movie is the classic film The
Vanishing and its lacklustre American remake of the same name, both remakes
choose to remove much of the terror and nihilism of the original and give us a
softer and more happy ending, both to the same failing result for me. But Watkins
film in its own right is solid, in a vacuum it’s a very solid thriller with
some interesting ideas and my best friend in the world loves the remake of The
Vanishing and will love this film no doubt. But the best of its ideas and
comedy of manners set-ups are all from the original so I don’t wish to give the
film that credit. As an action-thriller filmmaker Watkins does a fine job, but
there is very little unrelenting terror here, and perhaps that was never on the
agenda, but one then begs the question, why make this film a remake at all? The
cast take this film to a level of pedigree that it perhaps doesn’t warrant – James
McAvoy is having a fun time being an over the top villain and is funny from
time to time, but never menacing for my money. Aisling Franciosi has her character
‘developed’ in a way that overshadows her solid performance with a mire of
questions that give her no help. Scoot McNairy and Mackenzie Davis however are
both great as the couple at the centre of this terror, but again they are now narratively
overshadowed by just so much backstory and commentary that the simplicity of
the terror is now a social construct that goes nowhere. Why do these films keep
getting remade into shoddy versions? Because people can’t get above the two
inch barrier as Director Bong said now five years past and in to paraphrase Tafdrup’s
masterpiece; because we let them.
A solid 7/10 that ends up around a 5/10 for me just by pure bias if you want to be generous of it being in nearly every way a far simpler and in many ways dumber version of the glorious original. I should be more objective as a critic and it seems many critics feel this movie does indeed work in its own way, but I unfortunately cannot take at face value any artistic comment that this film was meant to divert into its own version of events when every change is a softening or a simplification and a ‘dumbing down’. When it is so clear to me that no decision has been made in artistic favour and rather commercial favour, then I cannot offer much else. A 5/10 and a firm recommendation for Christian Tafdrup’s masterpiece of only two years past.
P.S. There will be those who have never seen the original and I can hear them now discussing this remake by saying “it’s one of the most messed up things I’ve ever seen”, only to fail to realise to what extent the first film succeeds in terror to such a higher degree and has images and plotting that will never leave you, whilst sustaining its shock value with quality and justification. Also for anybody who is putting off the original because of the subtitles, to be frank, you’re a fool, because most of the original film is in English anyhow!
- Thomas Carruthers
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