Speak No Evil (2022) Review by Phil Newton
Two families meet while on holiday in Tuscany and strike up a friendship. Several months later Bjorn (Morten Burian), Louise (Sidset Siem Koch) and daughter Agnes (Liva Forsberg) receive an invitation from Patrick (Fedja van Huet), Karin (Karina Smulders) and son Abel (Marius Damslev) to come and visit. They agree and duly make the drive from Denmark to Holland to spend a long weekend with their new found friends.
Agnes is introverted, attached to her fluffy bunny Ninus and liable to freak out if she’s parted from her toy. Her parents hope that having a friend the same age in Abel will bring her out of her shell a bit. However Abel has issues too; born without a tongue he struggles to communicate and can be heard crying upstairs at night. In addition his father Patrick repeatedly chastises him and handles him roughly when he misbehaves.
The Danes are naturally reserved and polite whereas their hosts are far more fun and outgoing, which leads to several uncomfortable situations such as when Patrick and Karin get a little drunk at a local restaurant and start making out in public. There’s also a menacing undercurrent in the way Patrick goads Louise – who is vegetarian – to try a mouthful of his freshly roasted chicken. Are the Danes over-reacting to their hosts behaviour or is there something more sinister at play here?
If this is sounding all too familiar then this may well be because a remake starring James McAvoy hit UK cinemas back in September of this year. With the remake coming just two years after this original version and its ubiquitous trailer seemingly revealing the entire plot, expectations were low – however the resulting film was surprisingly good and well received. If you’ve seen the remake you could be forgiven for thinking there’s no point in going back to the original, but I think it’s important to stress that the remake veered off in its own direction after the first hour to create a wholly different last act.
Directed by Christian Tafdrup, Speak No Evil is a masterclass of tension, at times almost a comedy of manners as the Danish family attempt to extract themselves from an uncomfortable situation without causing offense. Whilst the remake signposted the film’s secrets more explicitly, here it’s much more subtle, and the resulting reveal has far greater impact. What follows is a nerve-shredding game of cat and mouse that builds to a finale that will haunt you for days. It’s a shocking and powerful piece of work, expertly performed by its cast, that relies on genuine imaginable terror rather than gore and cheap scares.
Following its UK premiere on Shudder’s streaming service, the home entertainment release of Speak No Evil from Acorn Media International is sadly limited to a bare bones DVD with no extras. That being said, it’s a terrific film and well worth a watch even if you’ve already seen the remake – whether you’ll have the stomach for repeated viewings remains to be seen.