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James McAvoy is set to make a highly anticipated return to the scary side in the upcoming Blumhouse horror Speak No Evil. The movie is a remake of the super unsettling 2022 Danish film of the same name, as it depicts a family’s dream vacation at a picturesque country home turning into a psychological nightmare. Critics have seen the movie ahead of its premiere on the 2024 movie calendar, and they’re not keeping quiet about McAvoy’s performance.
Mackenzie Davis stars as Louise Dalton, who is vacationing with her husband (Scoot McNairy) and daughter. The trio befriend James McAvoy’s Paddy and his family and decide to return with them to their home in the UK countryside. It doesn’t take long, though, for the Daltons to realize something isn’t right.
Jamie Graham of GamesRadar rates the movie 4 stars out of 5, noting that Speak No Evil honors the 2022 original while still serving up some brutal surprises. James McAvoy is a “beast,” Graham writes, with his physique proving perfect for the brand of alpha male he’s portraying. The critic continues:
So, Speak No Evil 2024. Does it sanitize? Dilute? Bottle it? No spoilers here, but let’s just say that what it does do is clever, walking a thin line between honouring the original, treading its own path to justify its existence, and offering some choicely brutal surprises. Yes, brutal – the remake is, after all, written and directed by James Watkins, and anyone who’s ever seen Eden Lake (2008) is not going to accuse him of wimping out.
BJ Colangelo of ScreenRant gives Speak No Evil 8.5 out of 10, praising James McAvoy’s performance as one of the best of the year. The critic writes about how the film exploits our willingness to rationalize alarming behavior out of politeness, at times leaving the audience in fits of uncomfortable laughter and others scaring them speechless. Colangelo says:
Speak No Evil joins the ranks of the rare Americanized horror remakes that get it right. Instead of rehashing the same story beat by beat, Watkins — armed with a stellar ensemble cast led by a career-best James McAvoy — takes the central conflict of the original and explores how couples from different cultures would react under the same circumstances. The result is an assault of relentless tension and the best possible outcome for an Americanized remake.
Caryn James of THR is also high on James McAvoy in villain mode, but not as much on the movie overall. Despite the cast — particularly McAvoy and Mackenzie Davis — giving it their all, the story is too predictable overall. Still, James says it’s worth checking out. In the critic’s words:
The film’s slow-burn pace is an asset, not a flaw. Speak No Evil works best when it focuses on the Americans’ escalating fears, and collapses near the end when the psychological horror story turns into a predictable potboiler. But for a good three-quarters of the way, this Blumhouse production is an entertainingly elevated genre piece.
Ryan Lattanzio of IndieWire gives it a C, writing that while James McAvoy is “effectively creepy,” this American remake is nowhere near as powerful as the original. It’s not only predictable, Lattanzio says, it’s not scary. The critic continues:
This version of Speak No Evil, despite an effectively creepy performance from James McAvoy, grinds the unsettling contours of the original into gory, Straw Dogs-lite, home-invasion comeuppance pulp in a last act that’s exactly the sort of dragged-out predictable material [Christian Tafdrup, the writer and director of the original] sought to avoid. Even a captivatingly unnerved Mackenzie Davis, here married to a feckless shell of a man played by Scoot McNairy, and the commanding The Nightingale actress Aisling Franciosi in her first major studio turn, can’t rescue this Speak No Evil from its own impulse toward placating the audience with a happy-ish ending that’s a far cry from the stones thrown in the final, harrowingly deflating scene of the original.
If Speak No Evil sounds like one of the upcoming horror movies you can’t miss, you don’t have long to wait. James McAvoy will be taking his intimidating Paddy to theaters starting Friday, September 13.