Intensity: 🩸 🩸 🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by James Watkins.
There’s only question that needs to be asked about 2024’s remake of Speak No Evil. Why?
This is a rhetorical question and the obvious answer is money, but seriously, why?
Apparently, Blumhouse productions got a wild hair in 2022 and decided to hire James Watkins write and direct the Danish film of the same name. Problem is, ol’ James decided to give this a healthy dose of savior syndrome and a pinch of American exceptionalism and they turned a perfectly chilling film into a lumpy pile of action hero stupidity.
For those unfamiliar with the 2022 Danish version of the film, it follows a perfectly proper Danish couple bound by their closed and quaint mores and societal rules. On vacation they run into a Dutch couple whose wild abandon, sexuality, and free-spirited nature attracts them like flies to honey.
Following the vacation, the Dutch couple invites them to spend time with them at the country estate. Boundaries are pushed. The Danes are made to feel exceptionally uncomfortable. More importantly, the award juxtaposition of the two cultures is amplified in a way where the Danes are always on the back foot.
Without spoiling the original film, it ends in a nihilistic 1970s cinema fashion where audiences are exposed to a massive tragedy and true horror.
Fast forward to 2023 where Blumhouse apparently thought that a heavily focused-grouped version of the story was the appropriate way forward. Gone is the misery, the loss, and the pain. By stripping out the final third of the film and effectively washing it with Die Hard shampoo, Watkins turns out a film that pales in comparison to the Christian Tafdrup original.
Watkins swaps out the stoic Danes for uptight Americans and Scots for the Dutch. While each have their own cultural rules, watching stressed Americans is wholly uninteresting.
All that said, the Speak No Evil remake does have a few redeeming qualities. Hear me out.
While the original villain, Patrick (Fedja van Huêt) was perfectly cruel and unusual, James McAvoy’s turn at the role is somehow even more diabolical. His peculiar use of his eyebrows, off-putting smirks, and bursts of masculine rage are really something to behold. If Blumhouse ever gets around to remaking Taxi Driver then James McAvoy is the perfect Travis Bickle.
Additionally, if you’re completely unfamiliar with the original, the remake is a moderately exciting action film that might just raise your cortisol a few notches. Though it’s a fun romp, it’s not a horror film.
Should you see the remake of Speak No Evil?
That’s precisely the problem with the remake. It’s not bad, it’s just frustratingly unnecessary. Focused-grouped and reworked in a way that pounds every last drop of authenticity out of the film. Audiences are left with a deeply compressed and somewhat soulless film that removes the horrific elements of the original.
Our advice? Watch either, but don’t watch both. If you’re going to watch one, make it the 2022 original. You won’t regret it.
Speak No Evil is Rated R and streaming everywhere.