James McAvoy hadn't seen the original Speak No Evil before he was cast in James Watkins' new take – and he's happy he hadn't, too, or else he might not have signed up to the horror movie at all.
"I'd heard of the original, but I hadn't seen the trailer and I certainly hadn't seen the film," the X-Men actor tells GamesRadar+ and Inside Total Film. "Which I'm glad about because I don't know if I'd have taken the role if I had – [I] just don’t really want to be comparing myself to what somebody else [has] done. So I watched it the day after we finished."
Based on Christian Tafdrup's Danish film of the same name, which was released in 2022, Speak No Evil centers on Ben (Scoot McNairy) and Louise (Mackenzie Davis), an American couple who have grown distant since uprooting their life to London. While holidaying in Italy, the pair and their daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler) strike up a fast friendship with a gregarious Englishman named Patrick (McAvoy), his wife Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) and mute son Ant (Dan Gough).
Back in the city, they receive an invitation from Paddy and his family to come visit their remote farm in the West Country for a weekend, which they accept after a little deliberation. Soon after they arrive, though, they realize that their new hosts aren't quite as friendly as they first appeared...
"I really liked that there was this good couple, with a kind of relationship and love that was so gray and depressing, and not anything you'd wish on your worst enemy," McAvoy adds, when we ask what drew him to the script. "Then you've got this bad couple, who get the kind of love that you can only dream of and you'd be desperate to have, who seemed so capable of happiness and joy in their lives. Sticking them at a dinner table and having couples' chat, it just felt so brilliantly tension-inducing. That was pretty much the backbone of what made me go, 'This could be really fun.'"
"What's so brilliant about James is that he knows how to walk that line without him becoming, from the outset, boorish and just... a bit of a dick," laughs writer-director Watkins. He's had to have as much charm and twinkle as he has, you know, mischief and danger."
While Watkins is no stranger to a bleak, claustrophobic flick, having previously made the bone-chilling Eden Lake back in 2008, Speak No Evil is less dark than its predecessor, and that's partly down to Paddy's undeniable charm and eagerness to find joy in everything he does.
"He was pretty fleshed out on the page; James did an amazing job," McAvoy says of the character. "When we first met, we talked about digging a little bit deeper into this projection of masculinity and at times, maybe the accepted, civilized face of modern Alpha masculinity? When does that verge into toxic masculinity? The other thing we spoke about was really rooting them in the farmland, in agriculture, in a way of life that's quite hard to live in now.
"It's really hard to make it as a farmer and he's sort of given up, because it's just impossible to make a penny, you know? So he's going to take instead, and the idea that somebody has gone back to nature – what does that mean? It sounds beautiful and bucolic and like the good life, but also going back to nature means becoming more animalistic, and animalistic means being subject to your instincts. So yeah, you're capable of great happiness, but you're also capable of great violence as well."
Speak No Evil releases on September 12. For more, check out our list of the best horror movies of all time, or our guide to the most exciting upcoming horror movies heading our way.
Listen out for more of our chat with McAvoy on an upcoming episode of the Inside Total Film podcast, which is available on Apple, Audioboom, Spotify, and more.
