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Speak No Evil looks at the problem of meeting ‘that couple’ when you’re away on holiday.
For Louise (Mackenzie Davis – Terminator: Dark Fate) and Ben Dalton (Scoot McNairy – Killing Them Softly), while away in Italy, they teach their daughter, Agnes (Alix West Lefler), not to be too loud because everyone’s there for a nice holiday.
Their first encounter with Paddy (James McAvoy – Together) is his asking if the sunlounger next to them is free, to which they hesitantly agree, as it was previously used Agnes, but she’s now busy in the swimming pool.
However, rather than say thankyou, Paddy grabs one end of it and drags it towards their area – where he’s with wife Ciara (Aisling Franciosi – The Unforgivable) and friends, scraping it loudly across the ground before dive-bombing into the pool, in exactly the same way you were warned NOT to when you were a kid.
They end up having lunch together, with Paddy offering them a holiday at their rather spacious and gorgeous farmhouse and outbuildings in the West Country. Of course, they say no, they all leave and never see each other again. The end… Nah, that wouldn’t work.
Their son, Ant (Dan Hough), has a small tongue following a health condition, meaning it’s difficult for him to talk. This leads to one of a few elements of the trailer which was clearly created to accelerate the tension in the film, in the two minutes it had to get things across, but which are more spaced out in the movie. For example, as Ant opens his mouth and struggles to talk, you hear almost nothing. Yet, the trailer made it look like he was screaming, given the cacophany of noise in the background.
Similarly, while McAvoy is talking at one point during the West Country meet-up over lunch, the camera returns to him as he gives an eerie look. That never made it to the final cut.
At one point, Paddy starts to be very rough with Ant – just one of so many red flags, along with a moment where he’s told, “You’re insufferable”, which leads him to slyly reply, “You don’t know the half of it”.
While everyone’s giving it their all in this film and with plenty of edge-of-the-seat tension, McAvoy is at the top of his game as ‘Creepy McCreepface’. Plus, given that this a Blumhouse film, who have made so much substandard output like Imaginary and AfrAId, Speak No Evil changes direction by making a great entry in their horror movies, and being one well worth a viewing.
Like Love Lies Bleeding, Speak No Evil has been trailed in cinemas for many months before it finally turned up, but what I didn’t know until just before the release is that for this one, it’s a remake of a 2022 Danish movie, and I see the original film’s writers, Christian Tafdrup and Mads Tafdrup, were involved in the screenplay for this one, too. I must check that film out.
There is no mid- or post-credit scene.
Speak No Evil is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD, ahead of its release date TBA.
You can also buy the original Danish Speak No Evil (2022) on Blu-ray and DVD. It’s a German release, but should still work in UK players.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 110 minutes
Release date: September 13th 2024
Studio: Universal Pictures
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 (ARRIRAW (4.6K), Anamorphic Atlas Scope, Anamorphic Panavision)
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 8/10
Director: James Watkins
Producers: Jason Blum
Screenplay: James Watkins, Christian Tafdrup, Mads Tafdrup
Music: Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans
Cast:
Paddy: James McAvoy
Louise Dalton: Mackenzie Davis
Ben Dalton: Scoot McNairy
Ciara: Aisling Franciosi
Agnes Dalton: Alix West Lefler
Ant: Dan Hough
Mike: Kris Hitchen
Muhjid: Motaz Malhees
Torsten: Jakob Højlev Jørgensen
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.