Photo Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Universal Pictures, Shudder
Warning, spoilers for the plot and the ending of Speak no evilboth the 2022 film and the 2024 remake.
A happy ending can send audiences smiling, but it’s the devastating endings that leave a more lasting impression. A truly grim ending can be infuriating and depressing, but at its best, it also recontextualizes everything that came before it and heightens the dramatic irony and fear.
Even in the pantheon of dark endings – Return to the Planet of the Apes, Old boy, The fog – 2022 Speak no evil stands out, offering a sickening descent into hell that turns a darkly comic social satire into an endurance test. The shocking cruelty of the Danish film’s final act would likely never have resonated with mainstream American sensibilities, so it’s no surprise that the 2024 Blumhouse remake goes in a very different direction. But in trying to avoid the hopelessness of the original ending, the new Speak no evil loses something important: the point.
Anyone who has seen the remake – or even just endured the ubiquitous trailer – will recognize the plot of the 2022 Danish film. Christian Tafdrups Speak no evil begins with a Danish family, Bjørn (Morten Burian), Louise (Sidsel Siem Koch) and daughter Agnes (Liva Forsberg), who befriend the Dutch family Patrick (Fedja van Huêt), Karin (Karina Smulders) and son Abel (Marius Damslev) while on holiday in Tuscany. Some time later, Patrick and Karin invite their new friends to visit them at their remote country house and with only minor reservations, Bjørn, Louise and Agnes decide to take a weekend trip to the Netherlands.
While Patrick and Karin seem warm and friendly, it soon becomes clear that something is wrong. Abel doesn’t speak, which Patrick says is the result of a birth defect, but the relationship between father and son seems strained to say the least. The Dutch couple subject the Danes to a series of escalating humiliations: encouraging vegetarian Louise to eat meat, leaving her with a hefty restaurant bill, and criticizing Agnes in front of her mother. Most of the time, Bjørn is too polite to say anything, attributing any discomfort to cultural differences, although Louise becomes increasingly disturbed.
By the time Bjørn finds out what’s really going on, it’s too late: Patrick and Karin are serial killers who murder parents and kidnap their children. They’ve already taken out Abel, and next they’re after Agnes. Bjørn tries to get his family to safety without revealing the true danger, but they’re ambushed by the Dutch couple. Karin cuts out Agnes’ tongue with scissors – the real reason Abel couldn’t speak – and she is separated from her parents. Patrick then drives Bjørn and Louise to a quarry, where he and Karin force them to strip and then stone them to death. The film ends with the Dutch family, with new “daughter” Agnes in tow, meeting their next victims.
Cheerful, Speak no evil it is not. But the harrowing final act is not simply nihilism. When Bjørn asks Patrick why he is doing this, Patrick says, “Because you let me.” Tafdrup’s film is largely about how we put up with abuse out of a sense of duty, or sometimes just to avoid causing a ruckus. Throughout the film, Patrick tests his victims – are they more concerned about their personal safety or about not seeming rude? Bjørn’s inaction, which comes from his desire to be a good and respectful guest, allows his host to do the unthinkable.
The Blumhouse Speak no evil takes a different tack. The setting is the same: American expats Ben (Scoot McNairy), Louise (Mackenzie Davis), and Agnes (Alix West Lefler) meet British family Paddy (James McAvoy), Ciara (Aisling Franciosi), and Ant (Dan Hough) while vacationing in Tuscany. Many of these early scenes feel like a shot-for-shot remake, right down to dialogue being repeated verbatim, and although there are some minor changes once we arrive at Paddy and Ciara’s remote farmhouse, the storylines are nearly identical. Most of the time, a remake of a recent foreign film is designed to appeal to U.S. viewers who don’t read subtitles; in this case, it’s the original. Speak no evil is almost entirely in English, which makes its American counterpart seem particularly superfluous.
But the third act is where the new version deviates even more boldly from the original. In writer-director James Watkins’ film, it’s Agnes who discovers Paddy and Ciara’s plot after a more active Ant shows her incriminating photos of previous victims and mimics having his tongue cut out (why didn’t Abel think of that?). She alerts her parents, who handle the situation far more calmly than any of us would. It seems the family might actually escape – until they’re forced to turn back to save a drowning Ant.
Rest assured, there is no on-screen tongue removal or stoning in this film. Speak no evil. On the farm, the American family defends itself with everything it can get its hands on – carpet knives, carving forks, sulphuric acid. (It’s a bit like Home alone(though perhaps less violent.) After luring Ciara to a high window, Louise hits her with a brick and pushes her off the roof to her death. And while Paddy briefly captures Agnes, she injects him with ketamine, incapacitating him. Ant then smashes his “dad’s” head in with a brick and the new family of four escape (relatively) unscathed. It’s probably too blood-soaked to be called a happy ending, but compared to the way the 2022 Speak no evil Conclusion: This version is extremely pleasant.
But what’s the point of all this without the low blow of the original ending? On the surface, this is still a film about how social pleasantries can lead us to act against our own interests or, in extreme cases, force us to suppress our all-important survival instincts. “We’re all too damn polite,” says Paddy. He constantly insists that his guests be more honest, urging them to express their true feelings even when it’s offensive. Louise finally understands what she means. When Agnes shows her the photos of Paddy and Ciara’s previous victims, Louise tells her, “This isn’t normal, and we don’t have to pretend it’s normal.”
That’s all well and good, but this deliberate formulation of the film’s message doesn’t quite fit with what we see. When Ben asks Paddy why he’s doing this and Paddy replies, “Because you let us,” we know that Louise is hiding a box cutter – and moments later she’s slashing his face. No one lets Paddy do anything; the family fights back fiercely!
In the original Speak no evilthe passivity is the point: one of the darkest moments is when Bjørn cries quietly in the car on the way to the quarry, seemingly resigned to his fate. In the remake, it’s clear that the American family isn’t going down without a fight, and there’s never any real suspense about whether they all make it out alive. The softer ending – Paddy even declares that he’s going to drug Agnes before removing her tongue – undermines the social satire that made the predecessor so effective. Speak no evil is supposed to be a sick joke and doesn’t work without the punchline.
Moreover, the new film has too much on its plate for its hits to resonate. While the grim original was content with explaining that Patrick and Karin are simply psychopaths, the American version obviously has to find a deeper reason for their crimes. Paddy does it because they allow him to, sure, but also because he’s going to steal all their money and make a living that way. He also had a difficult childhood. (Couldn’t be contemporary horror without trauma!) And he’s an emblem of toxic masculinity, which is why McAvoy based his performance on Andrew Tate.
These revelations are clearly an attempt to add more complexity to Patrick’s character, but they only dilute the message even more – especially because none of it really goes anywhere. There may be something to the idea of a men’s rights activist urging a mild-mannered father to throw off the shackles of polite society and protect his family, but the concept is never more than a fleeting thought. Blumhouse’s Speak no evil is burdened by restraint; it presents audiences with challenging themes and darkness, but shies away from traumatizing them like the original did. The cowardly “happy ending” underscores the remake’s true failure – its refusal to follow through.
