The horror genre is filled to the brim with English-language remakes of horror films, and most are inferior to their foreign original. Quarantine fails to capture the gritty reality of Spain’s Rec and The Uninvited doesn’t compare to the South Korean A Tale of Two Sisters. But then sometimes you get a master director helming a shot-for-shot remake of their own film like Michael Haneke’s Funny Games or a genuinely decent English-language adaptation like The Ring. These English-language horror films aren’t bad by any means, but still, if you had to choose between the two versions, more often than not, the original is going to come out on top. Remaking a movie, no matter if it’s decades or just two years since the original’s release, feels like it’s putting the remake at a disadvantage before it’s even shown in theaters.

This trend is still alive and well, as Blumhouse didn’t skip a beat when the 2022 co-production between Denmark and the Netherlands, Speak No Evil, was released to rave reviews from critics and horror fans alike. It’s a brutal, excruciating, and relentless look at human nature and how polite society and the need for interpersonal connection can be our greatest downfall. 2024’s English-language remake, helmed by James Watkins and produced by Jason Blum under his famed horror house, talks the same talk as the original, but while the 2022 version shouted and roared, this version doesn’t so much as whisper in comparison.

What Is ‘Speak No Evil’ About?

Ben (Scoot McNairy) and Louise (Makenzie Davis in a stand-out performance) are an American couple struggling to adapt to life in London. They take their 11-year-old daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler) on a holiday to Italy, forcing themselves to believe that their easy access to Europe is reason enough to stay in the UK. They cross paths with the loud, obnoxious, but jovial British family consisting of Paddy (James McAvoy doing a caricature of his Split role), Ciara (Aisling Franciosi), and their son, Ant (Dan Hough), who has a disease that causes him to have a much smaller tongue, leaving him unable to speak.

It’s clear right away that Ben is jealous of their easygoing approach to life, and the couple is equally seduced by Paddy and Ciara’s careless and hedonistic ways as they are made uncomfortable by their blatant lack of common social cues. A few weeks later, Ben and Louise receive a postcard to their London flat from the other couple, inviting them to their secluded home in the English countryside for a weekend of food, drink, walks, and the celebration of new friends. Louise is hesitant but sees it could benefit Ben, whose inability to find a new job has left him depressed, and they agree to go.

Right from the outset, the couple’s new friends are much stranger than they remember. Paddy is even more obnoxious and unpleasant, forcing Louise to try the goose they shot especially for the weekend, even though Louise has said she’s a vegetarian. Ciara fails to tell Ben and Louise that a man who barely speaks English will be babysitting the children. When the children are alone, Ant is desperate to tell Agnes something, but he can’t due to his speech impediment. He shows Agnes his father’s array of watches, one with an inscription in a foreign language. When Ciara and Paddy’s behavior crosses further boundaries, they always seem to have some traumatic backstory to explain it. But when Paddy starts verbally abusing his son in front of their guests, and Ant is finally able to communicate his distress to Agnes, Ben and Louise realize that their new friends are something much darker than just two assholes who don’t know how to socialize properly.

Blumhouse’s Remake of ‘Sleep No Evil’ Doesn’t Compare to the Devastating Original

While every film deserves to be analyzed for its own merits and failures, it’s impossible to critique this version without comparing it to the original. After all, the film justifies its existence on whether it can live up to the original or at least add something new to the story. This can be easy when you’re remaking a movie for a new generation, but the original Speak No Evil only came out two years ago. The only difference is the language, but even in that, a major portion of the original is spoken in English, as the couples are from different countries, and English is their only common language.

If anything, the fact that every character in this version speaks English takes away from the tension and gap between the characters. In the 2022 version, Bjørn (Morten Burian), Louise (Sidsel Siem Koch), and Agnes (Liva Forsberg) are able to communicate with each other in their native Danish without Patrick (Fedja van Huêt) and Karin (Karina Smulders) understanding, letting us in on their secrets and fears. No subtitles are offered when Patrick and Karin speak in Dutch, further alienating them from the audience. In short, there really was no reason for an American remake. The Danish film is absolutely perfect and one of the most devastating horror films in recent memory. How on earth do you follow that up?

2024’s ‘Speak No Evil’ Lacks Atmosphere and Tension
Image via Universal 

A major reason the original works so well is that it creates an overwhelming sense of tension and a hopeless atmosphere. This is noticeably lacking in Blumhouse’s version, and a lot of the foreboding and sense of fear is put on McAvoy’s shoulders. The first film will have you feeling like you’re watching the ending of Argo, but for the entire runtime, whilst here, you’re not really convinced that Paddy and Ciara are all that evil until the film becomes a disappointingly predictable home invasion movie. This isn’t a rarity for Blumhouse’s recent slate of movies, as most of them put no work into building a growing sense of unease or urgency, letting the horror simmer in the audience and toy with them until it’s time to bubble over. In Watkin’s film, like so many of its contemporaries, the atmosphere is ice-cold until it goes straight to boiling point, which results in a tonal imbalance that makes the action of the climax feel unearned. Don’t expect to be scared by the remake; while Watkins certainly litters his film with action and horror trademarks, they don’t amount to any sense of fear or terror.

Speaking of the climax, that is what makes the original such a hopeless and gut-wrenching film. It’s not surprising that Blumhouse would butcher the story to offer a classical Hollywood ending, but it’s still disappointing. If there is anything this version does somewhat better, it’s that it does make Ben and Louise much more empathetic characters. While the shoehorned-in backstory is another eye-roll predictable trope, as horror films these days just can’t get enough of broken families coming back together in the face of immediate danger, it does make this family’s nightmarish predictable rather than a bit more compelling.

Makenzie Davis Gives a Standout Performance in ‘Speak No Evil’
Image Via Universal

The cast of Speak No Evil is its greatest asset. While the marketing material may have you think this is a showcase for James McAvoy to do some more maniacal scenery-chewing, Mackenzie Davis’ performance holds the entire film together. While the film has her to be the Virgin Mary perfect mother, taking away the nuances of parenthood that we see in the Danish version, her primal instinct and protection of her family makes us root for her. Scoot McNairy fits into the “man on a journey to find his inner cowboy” perfectly, and their power dynamics are the one refreshing aspect of the film.

James McAvoy is one of the most talented and charming performers working today, and he’s more than proved himself a worthy horror villain, but his performance here doesn’t match what is asked of the character. He’s meant to be a psychopath hiding behind a facade of pleasantries and camaraderie, but it ends up making Paddy sound like every bro you’ve been stuck talking to at a wedding; his infernal pontificating about social media and humans’ overreliance on technology makes him more into an annoying pick-me guy rather than a terrifying horror villain. Aisling Franciosi’s performance is the most similar to her original counterpart, balancing an act of insidious enabling and aloof disassociation.

All in all, it’s not that much of a surprise that a Danish-Dutch original story that is free of the confines of the Hollywood system is exponentially better than a hastily made Blumhouse production. If you want to give the 2024 film as fair a shot as possible, go in without seeing the original. However, if you only want to devote your time to seeing one version of this story, it should be the original Speak No Evil. It’s truly one of the darkest, meanest, and most devastating horror films out there, similar to Michael Haneke’s Funny Games, with no rhyme nor reason given to ordinary, nice people being subjected to unthinkable acts of violence. Blumhouse’s attempt watches like a sterile and hollow rehashing of the outline of a story that’s already been done perfectly.

Speak No Evil hits theaters on September 13.

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