After what feels like several decades of the trailer playing before every movie in known existence (they are even playing it on the Universal backlot tram tour during Halloween Horror Nights), “Speak No Evil” is finally here.
The film, based on the Danish film of the same name from 2022, follows an American family, the Daltons (led by Mackenzie Davis and Scott McNairy) who come under the sway of a British family (James McAvoy and Aisling Franciosi are the parents) while vacationing in Italy. The American family decides to visit the British family and slowly come to realize that things are very, very wrong.
But how wrong? And how do they get out of it?
We will break it down now but must first issue a major spoiler warning. If you haven’t watched the movie, come back after. It’ll still be here. If you’re just curious and watching the trailer so many times has guaranteed that you’ll never actually see the movie, keep on reading.
What happens in the lead up to the finale?
Well, Davis and McNairy start to suspect that there is something amiss. McAvoy is more than just an alpha male with an imposing personality; he seems abusive and controlling, particularly to his young, mute son (hence the movie’s title). And maybe more.
What is going on with the mute kid?
As it turns out, he’s not really mute – McAvoy cut out his tongue!
Excuse me!
Yeah it is part of a larger scheme by the couple.
Go on.
Well, we first find out about the young boy’s condition after he shows Davis and McNairy’s daughter a secret compartment in the cellar underneath the rambling farmhouse where the British family lives. The boy isn’t the couple’s actually son – they’ve pulled this scheme before. McAvoy kills the parents, takes their money, steals their kid. It’s a whole thing.
Whoa.
Yeah you can say that again!
Do they get away?
Well, the parents confirm what their daughter tells them and they try to leave, but without letting McAvoy and his wife know that the Americans are on to them. They try to be sly. But wouldn’t you know it, their tire is flat? And a toy that calms their young daughter goes missing. Oh and the seeming innocuous villagers we have met earlier in the movie – they’re in on this crazy scheme too! Can you imagine?
But do they get away?
They do, eventually. They retrieve their daughter’s toy, get a new tire and even manage to save the young mute boy. They manage to kill the villagers and the British couple (the mute boy gets to finish off McAvoy) and they get away from this horrible place. The only thing they should have done is set the farmhouse on fire.
Good lord. Is this how the original ends?
No, incredibly, the original film is even darker.
This needs to be explained.
In the original movie, the little girl is held down by a babysitter and her tongue is removed. The parents (the McNairy/Davis equivalent) are forced into a ditch and stoned to death. They actually use the same snippet of dialogue in both films, with the couple asking the strangers, “Why are you doing this?” to which the McAvoy character says, “Because you let me.” The young girl is now going to act as the couple’s daughter. Oh also the couple’s mute “son” is killed before all of this happens.
Wow.
Tell us about it.
So this new version is more palpable?
Slightly!
“Speak No Evil” is in theaters now.
