Family dysfunction in horror often presents a wealth of disturbing dynamics and with it some memorable performances. In recent years Toni Collette’s unhinged turn in Hereditary should have won her multiple awards and going further back Jack Nicholson’s frustrated writer in The Shining was absolutely terrifying. Speak No Evil, British writer/director James Watkins’s (Eden Lake) remake of the taut 2022 Danish psychological horror by Christian Tafdrup takes its lead from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining in its approach to twisted parenting with intense performances and tense scenes set in an isolated home.
The setup and many of the scenes are the same as in the original film, but this time the culture and class clash and differences in parenting techniques take place between an American family Louise (Mackenzie Davis), Ben (Scoot McNairy) and Agnes (Alix West Lefler) who meet a British family (James McAvoy, Aisling Franciosi, Dan Hough) on holiday. When Ben and Louise decide to visit their new friends in the UK, they are confronted with confusing behaviour and uncomfortable social outings.
There is dark humour in both films, and shocking acts of violence, but where the Danish offering was vague in its characters’ motivations, the remake offers more explanation as to why they enact cruelty. The use of popular music and occasionally unsubtle approach makes the British version a more (intentionally) laugh-out-loud experience. Themes of masculinity (both toxic and healthy), power imbalances and predatory behaviour are dealt with in unsettling and amusing fashion. When it all inevitably kicks off at the end, Watkins’ uses the labyrinthine country house the families are staying at to eke out genuinely nail-biting suspense. It’s all precisely directed and choreographed to great effect.
To say too much about the performances would be to give the game away but the actors lean into the painfully awkward relationships with gleeful gusto. McAvoy is having so much fun as an unpredictable muscly countryman against McNairy’s neurotic dad, while Davis once again proves what a talented and versatile actor she is in a role that allows her to show off all manner of emotive facial expressions in Watkins’ claustrophobic close up-shots. The impressive performances and the specificity in the approach to culture and class sets this remake apart from the original.
Speak No Evil will be released in cinemas on 12 September
