The original 2022 Danish film SPEAK NO EVIL is such a merciless wringer of discomfort that late in the movie I still wasn’t sure if it would end up being a horror movie, and it didn’t matter. In fact, it’s almost a relief when things get dangerous because at least it ends the relentless social torture.
It’s about a couple with a young kid who meet another couple with a young kid while on vacation, they have some laughs together and later, back at home, one couple gets a letter from the other inviting them to come visit. They know it’s kinda crazy because they barely know them, but they decide to be spontaneous for once.
Then it’s a painful gauntlet of awkward non-horror situations stretching their natural politeness to the limit: excitedly feeding a specially prepared meat dish to a known vegetarian, going way overboard in chastising their kid’s alleged missteps, holding hugs too long, coercing them to leave the kids with a questionable babysitter, going out for dinner and practically fucking in public. If a button of cultural difference, class difference or manners exists, these people are gonna start banging on it like they’re playing Mortal Kombat. Huge lines are crossed and then explained away with sob stories that whiplash the guests from indignation to guilt. The scariest part is not trying to escape violence, but just trying to leave without saying goodbye, then having to come back because they forgot something. And of course the whole ordeal exposes cracks in their marriage, insecurities about masculinity, etc.
I got the idea somewhere that it was meant to be specific to Danish culture and their sense of politeness, but I related to it strongly, so it makes sense that now there’s a Blumhouse-produced remake where the put-upon family is American – Scoot McNairy (AFTERMATH) as Ben and Mackenzie Davis (TULLY) as Louise. If you need a stronger reason for a remake than “it’s fun to see a different variation in a different culture” then I’m not gonna try to sell you on this, but I think it’s a solid remake with a very different last 20 minutes or so, and well-executed faithfulness for the rest. It’s effective enough that I was never thinking “Oh, this is just the same thing as before,” but instead, “Oh god, why am I putting myself through this again?”
The Daltons moved to London for a job that got cancelled, so they have time to drive out to the country and stay with Paddy (James McAvoy, THE POOL) and Ciara (Aisling Franciosi, THE NIGHTINGALE). McAvoy is definitely going for it and is very upsetting even though he plays him a little more shady upfront than Fedja van Huêt’s initially charming Patrick in the original. There’s a memorable part where he smiles and acts happy with angry tears in his eyes, but mostly you could say he’s being kind of subtle compared to what he did in SPLIT.
I thought this might be a rare case of an actor getting buff to look like an asshole, not a super hero, but I guess this has been McAvoy’s build lately. Maybe that adds some authenticity that he once played weiners and now insists on asserting dominance over everybody.
McNairy is great because he’s playing a guy who has been, to use a gross word, cuckolded, and he has a scene where he loses his shit and turns into a baby. Then he gets it together and acts heroically, but he does all this without seeming like the archetype of the aggrieved dude trying to prove he can “man up.” Just a nice guy who’s kind of a mess but manages to come through in the end.
Davis, meanwhile, comes off as more uptight and grating than Sidsel Siem Koch’s version of the character. I hate guns as much as Louise does and I’m more of a vegetarian than her, but her occasional snide comments on this stuff made me think come on lady, cool it, you’re embarrassing us. I realize now that one of the meanings of the title might be that they keep being afraid to speak up against these micro-aggressions, but I would argue that there are a couple times when they do speak up and shouldn’t. Still, I can’t help but relate to her and sympathize with her constant empty smiles barely covering her deep discomfort.
Finally, Franciosi keeps us on our toes with lots of ambiguity about how complicit Ciara is and how much she’s trapped in a bad situation. Is her friendlier demeanor cover for Paddy, or is it self defense? It’s a less showy but crucial role.
The last stretch is the part that veers most from the original by building to more of a fight for survival. I guess it’s supposed to be bad for Hollywood to remake something and add action, but I’m afraid I enjoy action. Good choice. It fits. Does it end up being one of those movies where the timid liberals prove their salt by throwing down with guns after all? Not really, and I really appreciate that Louise just does not know how to look cool holding a gun. Like she wouldn’t even want to look cool, it goes against her beliefs.
This also doesn’t quite feel like some LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT/HILLS HAVE EYES shit where they have become the savages and what have they done. I guess I don’t really know how it wants me to feel about it, but that’s okay. (More on the ending in the spoiler zone post-script below.)
The writer/director of the remake is James Watkins, who is not American, but English. So if you got a problem take it up with the monarchy. He’s the director of EDEN LAKE and THE WOMAN IN BLACK and he wrote and second unit directed THE DESCENT PART 2, so he has some experience in horror that ever so slightly transcends being of a crass commercial nature. I kinda liked this one.
P.S.
BIG-ASS ENDING SPOILERS: I think I heard some grumbling about the way the ending was changed, and then I read that the director of the original, Christian Tafdrup, didn’t like it. “I don’t know what it is about Americans, but they are brought up for a heroic tale, where the good must win over the bad.” He said that an audience he saw it with cheered “like being at a rock concert” whereas “People left my film traumatized.”
I see his point but I gotta confess… it was the first two thirds of his movie that haunted me afterwards. I completely forgot that they didn’t get away in the end until I read the Wikipedia summary just now. If it had shocked me I imagine I would agree with him. Adding catharsis, I now realize, changes the whole outlook of the thing. On the other hand, that’s part of what makes that section of the remake exciting, that it does finally depart from the tone of the original and gives us a different type of thrills. And in its defense it’s not a completely sanitized ending. It’s about a small child beating a man’s head to pulp with a brick. It’s pretty fucked up.
If I had to recommend only one of these, of course I’d go with the original. That’s because the remake is one of the most upsetting movies I’ve ever seen. And the reason is one of the changes made to the scene where the kids (Agnes played by Alix West Lefler [Riverdale] and Ant played by Dan Hough [Hollyoaks]) want to perform a cute dance they made up for the grown ups, but Paddy keeps stopping them and humiliating Ant, saying that he’s doing a bad job. It’s an extremely stressful scene in both versions, but the remake ups the ante by changing the song to “Cotton Eye Joe” by Rednex. You wanna talk about leaving a film traumatized? That thing got stuck in my head for hours. An absolute fucking nightmare. I can’t believe they got away with an R rating.
January 14th, 2025 at 7:55 am
Careful with what you say about Cotton Eye Joe. Nobody knows where that guy came from and where did he go. He might not like what he hears from you.
Also Armand van Helden’s ghetto house remix is a lot of fun IMO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15m2ORdQi9A