How ‘Speak No Evil’ Starring James McAvoy Differs From the Original

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

No movie haunts me more than “Speak No Evil.”

Not the version starring James McAvoy that’s currently in theaters, but the Danish original from 2022 (streaming on Shudder and Hoopla). That film’s Danish title translates to “The Guests,” which feels more apt than the English name: It’s about an ordinary offer of hospitality that goes horribly, horribly wrong.

In the original formulation, written by the brothers Mads and Christian Tafdrup, its director, two couples meet on vacation in the Italian countryside. Bjorn and Louise and their school-age daughter, Agnes, are Danish. Patrick and Karin are Dutch; their son, Abel, is around Agnes’s age, though he seems nonverbal. The families hit it off, and months later, the Dutch invite the Danes to spend a weekend at their rural home. Almost immediately, things feel strange.

The genius of the original “Speak No Evil” — and, to an extent, the remake — lies in how it keeps the audience on edge. Most of the tension involves trying to decide whether Patrick is lacking the more buttoned-up Danes’ sense of social niceties or is actually a violent psychopath. Patrick and Karin’s offers of food, for instance, can be read as generous or menacing. Is this a horror film, or just a really, really dark comedy about cultural differences? The filmmakers make us second-guess our reactions to every image, word and action, exactly the way Bjorn and Louise do in their hosts’ home.

For a long stretch of the new “Speak No Evil,” directed by James Watkins, the plot matches the original more or less, but the visitors are Americans living abroad (played by Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy) and the hosts are British (played by Aisling Franciosi and McAvoy). The couples share meals, including one at a local roadhouse that becomes uncomfortable when the wine loosens everyone up and the conversation turns inappropriate. One night, Louise wakes to discover that her daughter is in the other couple’s bed. The guests try to flee based on a bad feeling, but are then drawn back because their daughter cannot find her favorite stuffed bunny.

By the end, the hosts are actively trying to murder their guests, who have realized their game: They meet families on vacation, invite them to visit, then murder the parents, steal their child and cut out their tongue. In both movies, when Ben/Bjorn asks Patrick/Paddy why he’s doing this, the response is the same: “Because you let me.”