Speak No Evil - Movie Review

Speak No Evil is the American remake of the Danish thriller that came out just two years ago. This has got to be the fastest turnaround I have ever seen for a remake. And the film is about a family that's invited to spend a weekend in an idyllic country house, unaware that their dream vacation will soon become a psychological nightmare. But before we go any further, I want to give a special thank you to the sponsor, BetterHelp. All of us deal with stresses in life. We live in a very fast-paced world. It feels like every day there's a new challenge we have to face. And being able to talk to someone at a place like BetterHelp has been really great for me. BetterHelp is on a mission to make starting therapy easier. BetterHelp is a platform where therapists and their clients can communicate effectively and get the most out of therapy. There's a journal inside the platform for personal reflection, and there are group sessions on a number of different topics available every day. Starting therapy is easy with BetterHelp. You fill out a questionnaire and you will match with a therapist in as little as a couple days. One of the best features of BetterHelp is that if the first therapist doesn't feel like the right fit, you can easily switch to another one until you find someone you really connect with. And they carefully make sure therapists on their platform are well qualified and their customer support team is there to help you if you have any questions. And with over 7,000 reviews and a 4.5 rating on Trustpilot, BetterHelp is a platform you can trust. So if you're struggling and think you'd benefit from a therapy session, click the link in the description and go to BetterHelp.com slash Chris Stuckman and get 10% off your first month of therapy. That link is in the description below. That's BetterHelp.com slash Chris Stuckman for 10% off your first month of therapy. Thank you so much to BetterHelp for sponsoring this video. So this is kind of a new frontier because oftentimes remakes take a lot longer to come to fruition. You have to go through all these rights issues, wonder if the first one's going to be successful or not before you set off making the new one. But coming out just two years after the first one, it feels like it was almost instantaneous that Blumhouse jumped on the opportunity to make a remake of the very good Danish thriller Speak No Evil. If you haven't seen that film, you should really check it out. But be warned, it is not for the faint of heart. And even though this movie is definitely more cleansed, I'll say, this one also still not an easy watch. Both films aim not only to test our patience, but our ability to empathize with our protagonists as they continuously make choices that make us want to leap into the screen and say, what the hell do you think you're doing? But while some genre films with characters like that become very irritating and it's a turnoff, that's the whole point of Speak No Evil. And in this remake, you're following people who are making choices that you know aren't the right choices because you know that you just went in to a horror movie put out by Blumhouse and you saw the trailer probably way too many times, by the way. Wow. I have seen nothing but this trailer lately. You know all of that. The characters don't. So you're screaming at them in your head to just leave. But really what Speak No Evil is about is how we can find ourselves in dire situations because we are too nice. Because socially, we cannot accept the idea of an awkward conversation that might make us get up from a table or leave the room or, in the case of these characters, leave a house they really shouldn't be at anymore. But it would be awkward. And they're trying so hard to not be impolite that they seal their own fates by continuing to allow James McAvoy and Aisling Franchosi to put them in increasingly awkward and eventually dangerous situations. So if you have any kind of issue with awkward social encounters in movies, this movie is nothing but that. It is your worst nightmare. You are going to be squeezing your fingers into fists wondering why these characters are still talking to each other. In my case, I found a lot of enjoyment in that because I love the idea that this movie, as well as the original, challenge our notion of what we can accept out of a protagonist in a genre film. Because as I already said, sometimes you scream at somebody, don't go into the basement. You know something bad is down there, but you have to put yourself in the character's shoes and wonder, would they actually go into the basement in this moment? If I were them, what would I do? And that's part of the fun, but sometimes it really does make you detach from the movie when you watch characters make endless stupid choices. In the case of both of these movies, because this is fairly faithful to the original film, you're watching characters make choices that you know are wrong and that's what's building the suspense and that's what's making you feel tense because you can understand why they might do it. And it's an exploration of what different classes of people, too, might view as a rude thing to do in the middle of a conversation or at a dinner party or at someone's house when you're a guest. Where most people are watching this movie thinking, oh my god, these are like 5,000 red flags. Why are you still there? This family isn't thinking that way. They're just thinking, man, it'd be really rude for us to right now, so maybe we should stay a little bit longer. And it's a rather ingenious way to build tension. Now, I can't really give this movie all the credit because, obviously, two years ago, the very good Danish thriller came out. And there are things this movie changes for sure, and I won't get into them for spoilers sake, but it's certainly been made a little more palatable, and I don't really think that's a bad thing. And you still have the original film if you prefer some of the choices that that film makes. But I also think that the choices this film makes works very well for the story. And it wasn't the type of thing where I thought, oh, well, that just ruins everything. In fact, my entire audience really seemed to like it. So I don't know. It's going to depend on how you are as a person. If you want to go to a movie and feel a certain way or if you want everything to be the exact same in a remake, when more than likely, you probably don't even want the remake at all. Let's talk about remakes for a second. I think probably my favorite movie remake of all time is Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven. You could say John Carpenter's The Thing, but that is based off the book Who Goes There? And The Thing from Another World is actually a pretty good movie. Carpenter did an incredible job with his version. But Ocean's Eleven is not only completely different from that Frank Sinatra movie, but that movie, the original, is not all that great. It's a great concept. And someone finally did that where they were like, oh, we could do a remake where there's a great concept and improve upon everything, which is how I would love to see more remakes go forward in the future. I've said that for years, but it's pretty impossible to do that when you're basically saying, hey, I've got this property that nobody really liked all that much, and I'd like to make another version of it. And you don't really find a lot of money. That's a kind of tough pitch. But this is a remake that definitely honors the original in its tone and its feel, and in particular, James McAvoy's standout work. He is magnificent in this movie. Absolutely terrifying. So physical. He puts his entire body into everything, and he is so off-putting. I loved him in the film. Scoot McNary has a very difficult role, too, because he has to play the husband and father who doesn't really want to do anything. And you're kind of staring at him like, dude, step up. And he's just not doing it. It's a tough role to play because it's rather thankless. But he's very, very good in it. Mackenzie Davis, also really, really good. She's more of our audience avatar, where she's kind of saying, like, isn't this kind of strange? And we're like, yeah, yeah, it's very strange. And Scoot McNary's like, let's just, let's stay a little bit longer. And you're like, oh my god. Honestly, I will say this movie is much better than I thought it was going to be. Even though there are some changes, I think that they work just fine for the story. And I was surprised at how, honestly, how less Americanized it was. It really wasn't that crazy. I was expecting, like, jump scares every 10 minutes or something, and it's absolutely not that. They've retained the idea of slow building tension over time here, and I got to give them props for that. So if you are a massive fan of that original film, I don't necessarily think this movie is going to bother you or offend you. I do think that you might look at some choices and be like, well, you took the easy way out. But I especially think if you've never seen the original, I think it'll work just fine for you. But I would strongly encourage you to. It's on AMC+, I think. Check it out. It's worth your time. So guys, if you've seen the original or the remake, I'd love to know what you think of both of them. Thank you so much, as always, for watching. And if you like this, you can click right here and get Stuckmanized.