I guess if you talk about Speak No Evil you are legally required to inform people that it is a remake of a Danish movie from 2022. Now that we have this out of the way, I can tell you that James McAvoy is fantastic in this movie. If you want to see James McAvoy (X-Men: First Class, Split, It Chapter Two) acting like a deranged psycho who has you on edge, that is exactly what you are getting here.
How to Download Speak No Evil
Speak No Evil was released on September 13 2024. It will become available dor download in digital starts on October 1. Click on the Download button at the end of this review.
The Movie Review
Before I get to the movie, I have to say that I truly do think that James McAvoy is an underrated actor. He is great in most things that he is in and how he never got an Oscar nomination for Split still blows my mind. Actually, his performance in Split is very similar to what we get here in Speak No Evil.
Now, if you have seen the trailers that they released for Speak No Evil, then you have pretty much seen the movie. There is one big twist, but if you have already seen the 2022 movie, you know what that is. However, this is a case of where the trailer shows far too much, why do they do this? The trailer is pretty much a summary of the entire movie!
The Plot of Speak No Evil
The movie is about a married couple, The Daltons who are on vacation in Italy. There is husband Ben, wife Louise, and their daughter Anges who I think is about 12. This is not exactly a super happy family and they do have some problems. While in Italy, The Daltons meet Paddy, Ciara, and Ant, a British family and they hit it off and have fun hanging out.
As things are not great at home, The Daltons take up Paddy on his offer of going to visit them for a break and pretty soon things start to take a real sinister kind of turn once they get there. Ok, the premise of Speak No Evil is great, but pretty much from the get go, you can tell that Paddy is kind of insane!
Suspension of Disbelief is Required
Suspension of disbelief is essential here!
The Daltons are two of the dumbest people that I have ever seen in a horror/thriller movie. If there is a mistake to be made, the Daltons will do it! Even when they meet Paddy on vacation, why do they let their daughter ride around on a moped with him? Why did they give him their address, they could tell that there was something “off” about him. Then, they actually go and stay with him at his house which is in the middle of nowhere, and just screams “this guy is nuts”.
They do eventually decide that they should leave, but what a shock, Paddy is crazy and has made it so that they cannot go! To be fair, Speak No Evil is tense as hell, even though the Daltons are complete morons and you wonder how they have managed to survive as long as they have.
James McAvoy’s Performance
The main reason that this movie works, even though the trailers tell you 95 percent of the plot and even though the Daltons are so dumb, I am amazed they did not kill themselves, is that James McAvoy is incredible as Paddy. Is there anyone these days who can play an unhinged, crazy psycho better than this guy? He has a real physical presence about him, but it is the eyes and the facial expressions that make him so unnerving.
Final Thoughts on Speak No Evil
While it was not as great as I had hoped that it would be, Speak No Evil was still very entertaining thanks to that crazy as hell performance by James McAvoy. Also, if you have not seen the 2022 original, the twist in the movie is pretty damn shocking so do not spoil that for yourself if you have not seen it. Plus, while I was complaining that the Daltons are super dumb, I did kind of get a kick out of all the stupid decisions that they made.
