Speak No Evil (2022) (Movie Review)

Speak No Evil (2022) I must admit, all through the film, I had James McAvoy’s head in my mind… as he’s actually in the remake. I can see him in both male roles, even though I know which one he was cast for. Good old James!

That said, I’d have liked to see Javier Bardem in this role too. But given that he’s already terrorised and traumatised everyone in No Country for Old Men (2007), he had to avoid certain roles! But why remake the film just two years later? To make it even more violent? Or add some pseudo-justice? This time round, the Americans have really made a big mistake in terms of their ego. It’s quite clear that they want to appropriate the most important works of other countries. It’s a shame, because they really do have the talent to make good original films. It takes effort, and directors don’t always want to make them.

Let’s move on to the film! It’s comparable to two other films that have also been remade. As if by chance! It has the malaise of Funny Games, although Funny Games (1997) and its remake Funny Games U.S. (2008) – both directed by Michael Haneke – are unbearable from the start. These films all have the same impact: you don’t emerge unscathed. You’re marked for life by these images that you can’t erase. The other film with a similar atmosphere is Spoorlos – The Man Who Wanted to Know (1988). Yes, that Franco-Dutch film that was remade as The Vanishing (1993). The same kind of trap that closes, the same kind of hopeless film. Details of the last 20 minutes reminded me of Get Out (2017). Inevitably! But there are other films in this genre whose names escape me.

This Danish film is gripping right from the start. There’s no time to get bored. You get caught up in this nightmare at the same time as the main family. We ask ourselves lots of questions. Most of the time, we’d have the same reactions as them…But injustice and bad luck take over, unfortunately. We discover how to sink into horror and get the worst possible holiday.

Being too nice or too polite can be very sickening in these situations. It’s the last quarter hour that’s really atrocious, violent and gory. It can spoil the fun for a lot of people who would have made it that far. All of a sudden, the audience changes. Fans of haemoglobin will find that only the ending is good. The others will turn a blind eye. The most solid will remain stoic… but not intact.

Christian Tafdrup, the director, is also an actor and, hard as it may be to believe, he has acted in a comedy. So either he got fed up, didn’t like the experience and said ‘Never again!!!’ Or maybe he’s really capable of playing several games.

My Rating