It’s all fun and games, kids, until you make James McAvoy mad. In Speak No Evil, James Watkins’s remake of the 2022 Danish film, McAvoy plays Paddy, a doctor (maybe?) who, along with his much younger wife (Aisling Franciosi), invites another family to his sprawling country home for a weekend getaway. Louise (Mackenzie Davis), Ben (Scoot McNairy), and their daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler) are delighted to accept. (ed note: hello, unexpected partial Halt and Catch Fire reunion?)
And then everything goes wrong, starting with an unsatisfactory dance performance by the children. Also, what’s with Paddy’s son, who doesn’t talk? This is explained as the boy having trouble communicating, but that trouble might have come from, uh, outside. (The trailer is really not subtle at suggesting what might have been done to this poor child.) The horror takes a while to fully appear, in this trailer, but it appears in McAvoy’s eyes: He is alarmingly good at going dead-eyed and murdery at the bat of an eyelash. He’s so charming! Just kidding, he wants to kill you. Or do something very bad to you, at least.
Speak No Evil is written by director Watkins (The Woman in Black), based on the original screenplay by Christian Tafdrup and Mads Tafdrup. It’s in theaters September 13th. Which, yes, is a Friday.
