When I heard about the production of an American remake of 2022 Danish film “Speak No Evil” in last year, I instantly had a few reasonable concerns. Considering that the original version is one of the bleakest “feel-bad” movies I have ever watched during several recent years, I naturally worried about whether I could endure more, and I also worried about whether how much of the original story and characters would be changed in the American version for being more, say, “audience-friendly”.

Although it does provide a less disturbing version of the original version, I am glad to report to you that the remake version is a fairly competent genre product with enough interest to hold my attention. No, it does not surpass the sheer nihilistic evil of the original version at all, but it did its job pretty well with its modified story and characters while also often skillfully making us uncomfortable and unnerved as expected, and I appreciate that to some degree.

The opening part of the remake version is pretty much same as the beginning of the original version except some changes in the character background. This time, we are introduced to an American couple, Ben (Scoot MaNairy) and Louise (Mackenzie Davis), and their 11-year-old daughter, and we also get to know a bit about how their family life has been rather problematic since Ben decided to move to London for his professional career a few years ago.

Anyway, Ben and Louise are trying to enjoy their little vacation along with their daughter somewhere in Italy, and that is how they come across Paddy (James McAvoy) and Ciara (Aisling Franciosi), a British couple who instantly draws Ben and Louise’s attention not long after they arrive along with their mute young son at one night. Looking like your average confident alpha male, Paddy surely makes Ben look meeker, and Paddy’s seemingly passionate marital relationship with Ciara certainly makes an interesting contrast with Ben and Louise’s rather plain status.

Nevertheless, Paddy and Ciara gladly befriend Ben and Louise when these two couples come across each other again later, and they even suggest to Ben and Louise that Ben and Louise should visit their country house in Devon, England someday. Although they still do not know that much about Paddy and Ciara, Ben and Louise eventually decide to visit Paddy and Ciara along with their daughter not long after they return to England, and Paddy and Ciara look quite eager to greet Ben and Louise with hearty hospitality.

However, of course, we begin to notice a number of bad signs here and there, and so are Ben and Louise, to some degree. For example, Paddy and Ciara’s country house is indeed located in somewhere in Devon, but its location is so remote and isolated from the world outside that Ben and Louise could almost lose their way before eventually arriving at their destination.

Furthermore, Ben and Louise often find themselves quite bothered by Paddy and Ciara’s rather rude and unpleasant behaviors. For example, Paddy blatantly offers a piece of cooked duck meat to Louise even though Louise previously told him that she is a vegetarian, but Ben and Louise hesitate to say no because they do not want to disrupt the supposedly pleasant mood between them and their hosts.

From that point, Paddy and Ciara continue to annoy or disturb their guests bit by bit, and the screenplay by director/writer James Watkins has a vicious fun with how Ben and Louise still hesitate to be honest about how uncomfortable they really are with Paddy and Ciara’s frequent rudeness. Besides being constantly running out of her patience, Louise becomes more exasperated by her husband’s meekly indecisive attitude, and this consequently brings more strain on their martial relationship, which turns out to be more troubled than it seems on the surface.

Around the narrative point where Paddy and Ciara eventually reveal what has been behind their back all the time, the movie shifts itself on a full-throttle thriller mode, and that is where the movie deviates more from the original version. As a result, it becomes relatively less dark and impactful than the original version, but it still engages us at least after building up enough ground in terms of story and characters. While the main characters of the original version are merely the monsters or puppets of its cruel and heartless genre exercise, the main characters of the remake version are depicted with a little more depth here, and we actually come to care a bit about what is being at stake for them during the climactic part, which incidentally often feels like a morbidly reversed version of many home invasion flicks such as Sam Peckinpah’s “Straw Dogs” (1971).

It helps that the main cast members of the movie are quite committed to their respective roles. While James McAvoy has the most fun in the bunch as gleefully swinging back and forth between casual charm and unnerving menace throughout the film, Aisling Franciosi also brings a fair share of tension the story, and James McAvoy and Mackenzie Davis complement well McAvoy and Franciosi’s showier acting. As another crucial part of the story, young performers Alix West Lefler and Dan Hough are also solid, and Lefler is particularly excellent when her character must hold herself as much as possible under a very tricky circumstance for her and her parents during the last act of the story.

Overall, “Speak No Evil” may feel rather redundant because it comes out only 2 years after the original version was shown in US, but it is not as disastrous I worried at first. Sure, it is indeed safer and milder than the original version in many aspects, but it is mostly effective on the whole, and I will not deny that I was relieved to see that I did not feel that bad when the movie was over.