Speak No Evil - A distressing film

For a long time I feel that horror or suspense movies are not the same as before, usually the new productions are stuck in the usual clichés, but I never lose hope that my favorite genre recovers the brightness of yesteryear and in that sense that new convincing productions appear.

So I decided to watch “Speak No Evil”, a remake of the Danish-Dutch film Gæsterne. The genre is horror and suspense and it was released just this 2024. The film was directed by James Watkins who is known for Black Mirror and The Woman in Black, so with those facts we can already get an idea of the director's vision. But a not minor fact is that Speak No Evil starred James McAvoy who is masterfully accompanied by Mackenzie Davis, Aisling Franciosi and Scoot McNairy.

This film takes us to Italy where several families spend their vacations, there, an American couple meets another one living in England and after having a couple of friendly approaches, they accept an invitation to the British couple's estate. The American family accepts the invitation, with some hesitation, but they accept it as they see it as an opportunity to get out of the routine. So they move to the estate where they are kindly received by Paddy, Ciara and their son Ant, and well, it didn't take long for awkwardness and tensions to set in. It turns out that Paddy has a histrionic, hyperactive and overconfident personality that considering the short time they have known each other, may become inappropriate.

Anyway, beyond Paddy's attitude everything seems to be going well, however, as the hours go by suspicions begin to appear that something is not right in that house, Ant seems to be nervous or hiding something and the British couple manages to make Louise and Ben feel uncomfortable and they try to maintain the best possible attitude, but the bad jokes and the strange personality of Paddy and Ciara does not cease to disconcert them. The rest of the story you must see for yourselves, my intention is not to tell you the whole movie.

One element that I consider that plays against the film is its trailer, just by watching it you can understand what it's about and it leaves practically nothing to the imagination, it's like a very compact summary of the film. And well, for some reason I have seen this behavior in other trailers that can even ruin the climax or the unknowns with which one faces a film.

On the other hand, the clichés of the genre that always generate despair are present, sometimes I feel that they want to treat us as fools with plots and situations that are difficult to digest and assimilate since they can be quite far from reality as far as the actions of human beings are concerned, but I believe that these clichés will never disappear since even though I have a point of view about it, they are things that work quite well for the general public.

As far as performances are concerned, I must say that McAvoy did a splendid job, it seemed that he got into the character body and soul and in that sense he impacted us with his expressions, attitudes and a personality capable of making the viewer feel uncomfortable, stressed and eager not to have to deal with someone like that ever again. The performance of the other actors was also quite positive and I consider that to be one of the strengths of this film.

I wouldn't say Speak No Evil is a memorable film, but it does have elements that will have me keeping it on my radar for a while. It's full of impressive performances, good cinematography and direction that doesn't disappoint in any way. One of the qualities this film has is the ability to make the viewer feel uncomfortable and this is basically thanks to McAvoy's performance who makes you want to be swallowed by the earth, it's impressive how the erratic or histrionic personality of a human being can generate so much rejection.

If you're looking for a horror movie that meets the basic standards and brings a couple of distinctive things to the table, then you might want to check out Speak No Evil. My score for this film is 7.5/10. This is Omar speaking and it was a pleasure for me to share with you this review, I hope it was to everyone's liking, see you soon!