There’s Nothing Nice to Say About the ‘Speak No Evil’ Remake
Christian Tafdrup’s acclaimed 2022 Danish thriller Speak No Evil derived squirm-inducing suspense from its portrait of escalating social transgressions and the passivity that allows them to proliferate.
A mere two years later, writer/director James Watkins remakes that international hit in the English language with a variety of tweaks that don’t rectify its source material’s primary shortcoming (namely, a finale that relied too heavily on apt, if unbelievable, behavior) but do manage to undercut nearly all its memorable strengths. Whereas action expressed theme in Tafdrup’s original, theme merely embellishes action in Watkins’ version—a switcharoo that makes this do-over a case study in Hollywoodization gone awry.
Duplicating its predecessor quite closely for its opening two acts, Speak No Evil, which hits theaters Sept. 13, is the story of Ben (Scoot McNairy) and Louise Dalton (Mackenzie Davis), who along with their 11-year-old daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler) are on an Italian vacation that’s fraught with simmering tensions. On multiple occasions, Louise chides Agnes about speaking too loudly, and it eventually becomes clear that this is a symptom of her and Ben’s inability to openly converse.