Review: Speak No Evil    

Warning: This review contains spoilers.

A subtle and psychologically terrifying experience with equally thrilling performances in Speak No Evil. James McAvoy’s unsettling role in this film easily sets the tone for this American remake of the 2022 Danish film of the same name. 

Speak No Evil succeeds at keeping its viewers on edge as we follow a modern American family during their visit with an interesting couple with a mute son.

There is a great balance of domestic conflict within the visiting family that leaves moviegoers sympathetic to what they are trying to achieve with this “breath of fresh air” they hope to experience. 

This film does a great job of breaking down the optimism of their vacation and building up a truly horrifying conclusion with James McAvoy and Aisling Franciosi’s free-spirited yet eerie family constantly challenging actress and actor Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy’s characters to stay polite. 

Most of this build-up focuses on the obvious contrasts between parenting styles, relationships, and beliefs to consistently draw out an uncomfortable and chilling series of events that slowly moves this film into a heart-racing slasher waiting to happen. 

The boy's relationship with the daughter of the victims is a soft and heartwarming part of the film that ultimately leads us into that final act once the past of the killer couple is cleverly revealed by the speechless and abused boy. Here, the movie's title starts to become a much clearer reference to the boy himself.

Once the film transitions from a psychological horror to a slasher I feel it loses a bit of its excitement, especially when it includes a side character as one of the killers and the couple shows a bit more interest in money rather than building the “perfect family”. 

Besides this, the “slasher” conclusion of the film excellently shows the culmination of each of the characters as a result of this spectacle. They had discovered their mistake of continuously being courteous and now they must fight for their survival in the bloody finale.