Speak No Evil
Universal Pictures | Release Date: September 13, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
66
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
11
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Film ThreatJason DelgadoSep 16, 2024
Even though McAvoy is the brightly shining star, it takes a large, cohesive team to make it all come together, and when it works like Speak No Evil does, pure nail-biting magic happens. Read full review
88
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiSep 13, 2024
A film about adult problems that preys on adult fears, made for audiences with an attention span and high standards. Read full review
88
Washington PostAmy NicholsonSep 12, 2024
Speak No Evil is the rowdiest horror flick in ages, a hilarious and venomous little nasty that cattle-prods the audience to scream everything its lead characters choke down. Read full review
85
SlashfilmBJ ColangeloSep 10, 2024
It completely stands on its own and almost serves as an argument for a franchise starter (please, don't) because the combinations of different couples from different cultures are endless. Those who are willing to roll with the changes are in for a hell of a bonkers treat. Read full review
83
Original-CinThom ErnstSep 13, 2024
Director James Watkins’ American remake of Speak No Evil, starring James McAvoy and Scoot McNairy, is a thrilling, fun night at the movies. Read full review
80
Screen RantSimon GallagherSep 13, 2024
Horror movies often have to rely on the stupidity of their characters for the story to work: victims in waiting either make terrible decisions in high-pressure situations or simply lack any survival instincts until the bodies start to rise up. Speak No Evil plays with the audience by subverting those expectations very precisely, posing the question of when exactly you would have walked away from all the red flags. Read full review
80
The GuardianCatherine BraySep 13, 2024
McAvoy is the most compelling reason to see this one. The original may be darker, but it didn’t have McAvoy. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithSep 12, 2024
As lean and effective as its thriller elements are, especially in a breakneck third act, the movie is most intriguing in its subtext—an implied clash between conceptions of masculinity and the eras with which they’re associated. Read full review
80
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeSep 10, 2024
James Watkins’s version easily justifies its independent existence, however. Four first-rate performances find new energies in the story. The shift in nationalities adds other interesting angles. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 10, 2024
It is McAvoy you will remember, because you won’t be able to forget his full-throttle performance. Read full review
80
NMEJames MottramSep 10, 2024
All the cast play their parts, but an off-the-leash McAvoy is a joy to behold, channeling the same twisted energy he mined for his addict-cop in Irvine Welsh adaptation Filth. Touching on issues of class and the rich-poor divide, the result is a top-notch British thriller that’ll scare the bejesus out of you. Read full review
80
The IndependentClarisse LoughreySep 10, 2024
While this might be a flashy, American production (courtesy of Blumhouse, behind the Insidious movies and Get Out), it’s also the distinctly observational work of a British writer-director. And then there’s McAvoy, delivering one of the most impressively repugnant performances of the year. Read full review
80
EmpireKim NewmanSep 10, 2024
The business of this story in both versions is suspense, and Watkins is very good at ratcheting screws . . . but also springs satisfying reversals and pay-offs. Read full review
80
Total FilmJamie GrahamSep 10, 2024
The best horror remakes are not afraid to push the source material in new directions – exhibit a) The Thing; exhibit b) The Fly – and while Watkins’ movie is nowhere near the level of those masterpieces (few are), it’s shrewd, engrossing and pleasingly nasty. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliSep 13, 2024
Overall, although this version of Speak No Evil doesn’t leave as deep or lasting an impact as its predecessor, it represents another in the seemingly-endless Blumhouse stable of low-budget films to warrant a recommendation for those who appreciate the genre. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzSep 13, 2024
Speak No Evil is a throwback to the 1980s-’90s era of medium-budget thrillers like “The Hand that Rocks the Cradle,” “Unlawful Entry,” and “Fatal Attraction,” in which representatives of supposedly respectable bourgeoisie society were menaced by dangerous outsiders who smelled weakness in them and/or wanted to punish them for their sins, perceived or real. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedSep 12, 2024
Remakes are odious, but Speak No Evil, while thoroughly unneeded and unasked for, is an Americanized remake of a 2022 thriller from Denmark that services its original material well, thanks mostly to a sprawling, contradictory and totally galvanizing centerpiece performance by James McAvoy. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperSep 11, 2024
Speak No Evil eventually goes full-on with the familiar horror movie blood-spattering, but the social satire in that well-executed build-up is the real strength of the film. Read full review
75
LooperDominic GriffinSep 10, 2024
It wrestles with similar ideas as its source material, sure, but when push comes to shove, Watkins is more than happy to deliver all the violence and hysteria that's been bubbling underneath the surface the whole time. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreSep 13, 2024
In the new Speak No Evil, the ineffectual nature of the characters becomes not a shortcoming so much as a teased-out joke — a Straw Dogs moment that never arrives, leaving us instead to wince at these bumbling fools as they strive, however poorly, to save themselves. Read full review
70
ABC NewsPeter TraversSep 13, 2024
This English-language horror remake can’t touch the 2022 Danish original, but it gets in its scarefest licks thanks to a smiling devil of a lead performance from James McAvoy that will creep you out big time and fry your never to a frazzle. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisSep 12, 2024
Sleek and ever more unsettling, Speak No Evil is closely based on a far colder, downright nasty 2022 movie of the same title from the Danish director Christian Tafdrup. For the most part, Watkins adheres to the original’s overall design and trajectory while adding some new details and scenes; he also pads the running time an unnecessary 15 or so minutes. Read full review
70
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Sarah-Tai BlackSep 11, 2024
Where the horror of 2022′s Speak No Evil feels deeply, almost inescapably cruel in its final moments, Watkins’s film takes a relatively conventional approach, relying more on slasher tropes than producing a deep-seated sense of unease. Read full review
70
VarietyJ. Kim MurphySep 10, 2024
McAvoy’s big grin full of knives quickly dissolves any semblance of social credibility. But the film matches Paddy’s boorishness and commits to being a comedy about a bad marriage crumbling under the fist of a freak-of-nature vacation host. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 13, 2024
Slower and more superficial than the original or not, the riveting performances and the vague political parable of the way the story is spun this time out put this one thriller over. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsSep 12, 2024
The actors put it over, and Watkins is a genre filmmaker who believes in using his actors as more than pieces of plot in human clothing. That, I appreciate, with no reservations whatsoever. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldSep 12, 2024
That’s why we watch films like this, for that sensation of safely squirming from our comfortable seats — and for performances like McAvoy’s. With a smile like a demon elf — his teeth practically seem to be vibrating — and eyes that seem to pierce the house’s malevolent darkness, he’s wickedness personified. It’s a huge, pitched-to-the-balconies performance, and shivery fun to watch. Read full review
63
The Associated PressJocelyn NoveckSep 11, 2024
Director James Watkins and especially his excellent troupe of actors, adult and children alike, do a nice job of building the tension, slowly but surely. Until all bloody hell breaks loose, of course. And then, in its third act, “Speak No Evil” becomes an entertaining but routine horror flick, with predictable results. Read full review
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