A “Darkly funny and deeply unsettling” Horror Remake Is Now Streaming on Prime Video
We are living in the IP era. If a film performs well, we’re all but guaranteed to get a sequel in the short term and a remake down the line. Sometimes, studios are even content to bypass the sequel altogether and go directly to the remake. We saw this very phenomenon with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. The Swedish-language version bowed in 2009, only to be remade for U.S. audiences in 2011.
That’s not an isolated incident, either. The very same thing happened with another Swedish film, Let the Right One In. That feature was released to much critical acclaim in 2008 and was subsequently remade as Let Me In in 2010. Though the timing is a little unorthodox, both of those reimaginings work well and have garnered ample critical acclaim.
Speak No Evil is yet another example of a celebrated foreign-language film that led to a well-received English-language remake in record time. The Danish original was released in 2022, with the redux landing in 2024! On that note, we’re pleased to report that Prime Video recently added the remake to its streaming catalog.
The setup for Speak No Evil is this:
A dream holiday morphs into a horrific ordeal for an American family as their idyllic weekend at a British country estate spirals into a terrifying living nightmare.
Dread Central editor-in-chief Mary Beth McAndrews gets what I mean about how peculiar it is to remake a film that came out fewer than five years prior, yet she still sees value in the remake. She critiqued the reboot when it bowed in 2024 and rated it 3.5/5 stars. You can check out an excerpt from her coverage below.
“While remaking [Speak No Evil] just two years later is certainly a fascinating decision (to put it lightly), [director James] Watkins still crafts something darkly funny and deeply unsettling, all supported by a phenomenal cast, including a stellar James McAvoy.”
Mary Beth McAndrews EIC Dread Central
It’s great when filmmakers find a way to effectively retell a perfectly effective story and somehow make it their own. And as Mary Beth points out, director Watkins manages to do precisely that. With that said, I’d expect nothing less from the talented director of Eden Lake.
On a similar note, Dread Central managing editor Josh Korngut recently had the occasion to speak with a couple of high-profile fans of the Danish original. I’m talking about none other than Hollywood power couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco! Franco spoke to his penchant for introducing his partner to genre fare, an endeavor that sometimes yields unpredictable results.
“My biggest miscalculation—but ultimately one of my best choices to share—was the Danish film Speak No Evil,” Franco begins. “I knew nothing going in. I just turned to Alison and said, ‘I’ve heard great things. Let’s go in blind. Let’s see what happens.’ And then the movie takes such a dark turn, and I remember it finally ended, and she just turned to me and said, ‘Why did you do that?‘”
As it turns out, the fateful decision actually yielded favorable results in the long run. Brie later chimed in to reveal that the flick stuck with her and she ultimately considers it one of the best she’s watched so far.
So, there it is, dear reader. The English-language remake of Speak No Evil is now streaming on Prime Video. If you’d like to start with the original, you can find it streaming on Tubi!
Categorized: News
