Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Speak No Evil (2024).If there’s one thing horror fans can rely on continuing to exist, it isAmerican remakes of foreign-language movies. Most of the time, these remakes aim to bring the story to a wider audience by making it more accessible. However,Speak No Evilis a strange case study — as most of the original is already in English. This meant the 2024 Blumhouse remake had to bring something new to the story, and it certainly does thatby completely changing the climax of the movie.It shifts the tone and moral rhetoric of the remake,which hollows out the original’s poignant social commentary on politeness and acceptance. However, the ending of the remake is still bloody and gruesome and manages to hold some of the tension it builds. So, does anyone survive an unhingedJames McAvoy?
What Is ‘Speak No Evil’ About?
Speak No Evilfollows an American couple, Ben (Scoot McNairy) and Louise Dalton (Makenzie Davis), who befriends a couple from the west of England, Paddy (McAvoy) and Ciara (Aisling Franciosi), while on holiday in Italy. Their first interaction is when Paddy asks if anyone is sitting on the sunlounger with Agnes’ things on it; Ben moves everything to accommodate Paddy, who noisily drags the sunlounger across the pool area, indifferent to the disruption he’s causing his fellow holidaygoers.There is an immediate distinction between the polite and quaint Americans compared to Paddy and Ciara who are expressive and blunt. The two families end up having lunch together, and the Daltons' daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler) gets along with Paddy and Ciara’s son, Ant (Dan Hough). They tell the Daltons that Ant has a rare condition that means his tongue is smaller than normal, so he struggles to communicate.
A few weeks later, when the Daltons are back at their home in London, Paddy invites the whole family tospend a long weekend with them at their farmhouse in Devon. Louise is apprehensive since they don’t know Paddy and Ciara that well. However, given their marital tension (it’s revealed later that Louise was exchanging explicit messages with a father at Agnes' school), Ben’s constant job rejections, and their overall dissatisfaction with London life, they accept the offer to have a break in the peaceful countryside.
When the family arrives at the farmhouse,the atmosphere is immediately unsettling.James McAvoy’s sinister joy emergesas Paddy proudly serves the farm’s best goose, handpicked and cooked specifically for the Daltons’ arrival. Louise tries to remind them that she is a vegetarian but her instinct to not create a fuss or look ungrateful leads to the forceful Paddy feeding her a piece directly into her mouth before she subtly spits it into her hand and disposes of it. The movie slowly starts to ramp up the tension with Ciara and Paddy’s increasingly odd behavior; from a large stain on their bed to Paddy and Ciara ignoring Ant’s cries at night,something starts to feel very off in the household. Ben simply ensures Louise that their normal isn’t the same as Paddy and Ciara’s so they shouldn’t make a big deal out of it. However, this is clearly motivated by the fact thatthe unemployed and disheartened Ben envies Paddy and his authority.It all works to convince the couple to stayand look past the oddities of their hosts.
‘Speak No Evil’ Doesn’t Hide Its Sinister Motivations
James McAvoy’s performance isso overtly evil that it almost feels caricatural.His forcefulness, particularly with Ant,turns to violent anger when Ant misbehaves, but then he clicks back to his eccentric but normal self. These constant back-and-forths are unsettling for both the Daltons and the audience. Upset by this aggressive parenting style, Louise tells Ben she is uncomfortable and wants to leave. But when Ciarainvites them to dinner at a secluded and exclusive restaurant,they change their minds. While at dinner, Paddy teases Ben and Louise about his and Ciara’s active sexual lives, hinting that they are polyamorous. Paddy’s behavior only becomes more and more extravagant, yetBen and Louise still say nothing despite their evident discomfort. Ben even pays the bill when Ciara had said previously it would be their treat. We also meet Chef Mike (Kris Hichen) here — more on him later.
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Ant has a much more active role in the 2024 remake. While the adults are away at the meal, he shows Agnes Paddy’s extensive watch collection,under the guise of hide and seek with their babysitter.The watch he picks up has a foreign language inscribed on the back, but Agnes simply explains that she doesn’t know what it says. He also shows Agnes the scars on his body. That evening, Louise findsAgnes in Paddy and Ciara’s bed and it’s the last straw for her— they get in the car and leave. However, Agnes realizes her emotional support teddy rabbit, Hoppy, isn’t in the car and Ben can’t cope with his daughter being upset so he turns the car around. In the original, Agnes ends up finding Hoppy in the car as soon as they get to the house, and it is a devastating reveal as to how close to safety the family was — but it’s cut from this version.
Instead, Paddy and Ciara confront Louise and Ben, interrogating them as to why they left without saying goodbye. They list off all the valid reasons for their feeling of discomfort, but Paddy and Louise do what they do so well throughout the movie —they exploit the Daltons’ inner feelings of guilt and paint themselves as the victims.Ciara explains away her decision to bring Agnes into their bed by tearfully recounting the cot death of their baby daughter. It’s fair to assume that this is just one of the many lies they tell their guests.
Ant Reveals That Paddy and Ciara Are Serial Killers
It is Agnes who ends up finding out the sinister truthwhen Ant leads her to a hidden cellar hiding all the belongings of past families. The haunting array of postcard invitations (like the one the Daltons received), luggage, phones, and soft toysportrays the magnitude of the situation. Ant then shows Agnes a photo book which shows Paddy and Ciara with different couples at their farm. Ant flips the page pointing to the child in one photo, and then the same child in the next,revealing Paddy and Ciara are luring families to their home to dispose of the parents and take the child as their own.However, the child changes with every family, indicating that when they have their next target family, the former child will be killed (which is something we actually see in the original). Ant points to Agnes,warning her that she is the intended target for their next “child.”
Heartbreakingly, Ant shows Agnes a photo of his own family, a photo of him with his tongue out, proving he never had the disease his “parents” claimed he had. It also shows his Dad’s arm around him, wearing the watch that is now in Paddy’s possession (also proving that Paddy’s extensive collection is an array of souvenirs from all the men he has killed). He mimes to Agnes scissors across his mouth, telling her thatPaddy and Ciara cut off his tongue so he couldn’t tell anyone the truth. It immediately explains Ant’s coy and catatonic behavior as well as his lack of affection towards his “parents.”
How Does ‘Speak No Evil’ End?
When Agnes reveals the truth to her parents, they pretend Agnes got her first period as an excuse to leave. But as they are leaving,Paddy throws Ant into the lake. As the movie had earlier revealed, he can’t swim. The Daltons immediately get out to save him but are taken captive by Paddy and Ciara. Similar to the original, when Ben asks why they are doing this,Paddy refers to their passive politeness and replies “Because you let us.” Louise uses the box cutter she hid in her pocket earlier to swipe at Paddy’s face, allowing them to get away. Ciara begs for them to save her, claiming that she was one of Paddy’s earliest victims and he has been holding her captive since she was Agnes' age. It’s not clear whether she’s telling the truth or not (this storyline isn’t in the original), but later scenes of Paddy verbally abusing Ciara do support her claims.
Just when you think the Daltons are about to escape, Chef Mike (remember him?) drives in and prevents them from leaving. They flee into the house and barricade the entrances. The movie thenturns into a home invasion cat-and-mousegame. As the family are trapped in the house, the antagonists slowly close in but the Daltons' resourcefulness (especially Louise’s) means they put up a fair fight, and the villains get picked off one by one. The chef takes a fatal blow to the head, Ciara is pushed off the roof and most deservedly, Paddy is drugged with tranquiliser that he uses on his young victims, and gets brutally stoned to death by Ant (referencing the much bleaker ending of the original). It is gruesome and violent, making it a fitting end for such a vile character. Ben, Louise, Agnes, and Ant, all completely traumatized, drive out of the farm to safety. Agnes gives Hoppy to Ant, who clearly needs him more.
How Does the Remake Compare to the Original ‘Speak No Evil’ Ending?
The happy conclusion of the 2024 remakecouldn’t be further from the bleakness of the original.The Danish movie showed the limits of compliance and politeness, as even when Bjørn finds out the truth, he still gets back in Patrik’s car. They don’t make it, they are simply more names on the list of victims. Agnes is brutally snatched from her mother and her tongue is cut off in front of her helpless parents. Then, in one of the most harrowing scenes the horror genre has seen in recent years, Bjørn and Louise are forced to strip naked and go down into a quarryas their captures throw large rocks at them and stone them to death. The last shot shows the deceased couple lying on the ground surrounded by the stones, the sheer numberhighlighting just how many families have fallen prey to the brutality.The movie closes with Patrik and Karin driving back to the Italian resort with Agnes now in the back of their car. It removes the gloss of Hollywood and shows the stark reality of violence, and it’s this gut-wrenching bleakness that the 2024 remake lacked.
Speak No Evil
Speak No Evilis in theaters now.
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