When a horror movie trailer is this effectively unnerving without ever even showing anything truly horrifying—other than the impressively alarming shiftiness of James McAvoy’s face—you have to wonder what further terrors are waiting in the full-length film. Speak No Evil, a remake of the 2022 Danish original, stars McAvoy as Paddy, a doctor (suuuuure) who invites a delightful and clearly unsuspecting family to visit his country home. His wife (Aisling Franciosi) is very young, his kid doesn’t (can’t) talk, and the family’s idea of social graces is, shall we say, lacking.
Being no fool, Louise (Mackenzie Davis), her husband Ben (Scoot McNairy), and their daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler) decide to split, which goes about as well as you might imagine—and then things get much, much worse. It’s not exactly clear why Paddy is so into tormenting his guests, though at one point in the trailer McAvoy says, “I’ve always wanted a family like yours.” Want could imply a lot of things in that sentence.
Speak No Evil is directed by James Watkins (The Woman in Black), who also wrote the screenplay (based on the original by Christian Tafdrup and Mads Tafdrup). Let James McAvoy invite you into theaters on September 13th. Yes, it’s a Friday.
