The leaves are changing colors, the weather is getting colder, and Halloween decorations are swamping every store. You know what that means? Horror movie season! That’s right, with the first day of fall quickly approaching, the horror movies are suddenly in the theaters.
This is one of my favorite times of the year. Horror movies are a subsect of film that can have audiences screaming at the screen, crying in their seats, and hiding behind their popcorn buckets. The horror genre is a personal passion of mine, and as of recently, we have been downright spoiled with great horror films this year!
Following the horror film summer that we had with Longlegs, Cuckoo, and Trap, we now jump into the fall with the newest and latest collection of thrills and chills! Among the fine line-up is the Blumhouse and Universal Pictures production: Speak No Evil. Let’s get into it!
About the Movie
Blumhouse is the production house behind many of the scares we are familiar with: The Conjuring, Get Out, The Invisible Man, Nanny, M3GAN, and now Speak No Evil!
The original Speak No Evil came out on September 9th, 2022. Written and directed by Danish filmmaker Christian Tafdrup, the film follows a Danish couple who befriend another couple; however, after things start to go awry, the Danish couple struggles to stay calm in sudden horrors. The film was met with great adoration from critics and made an adoring fan out of director James Watkins.
Who Is the Cast and Crew of Speak No Evil?
James Watkins made his screenwriting debut with the 2000 short film Look. His credits continue down the line of horror shorts and features. Watkins eventually dipped his toe in the director pool in 2008 with his film Eden Lake. From there he took off, directing and writing cult horrors like The Descent: Part 2 and action movies like The Take.
He’s not the only genre lover that has taken a step into this project. The film is packed full of horror sweethearts, from cast to crew. Working alongside the multifaceted director, is James McAvoy and McKenzie Davis. McAvoy made his mark on the horror audience with his role in Split from director M. Night Shyamalan. James McAvoy collected credits for a variety of horror projects following Split, including Bill Denbourgh in It Chapter Two.
McKenzie Davis starred in the 2020 horror The Turning, alongside Finn Wolfhard and Brooklyn Prince. After her stunning performance, her return to horror has been met with much enthusiasm. In addition to Davis and McAvoy, the cast boasts names like Dan Hough, Aisling Francoisi, and Scott McNairy- who is set to star in the new book-to-film adaptation of Nightbitch.
Nightbitch is one of a handful of thrilling books you can catch as films pretty soon. For more adaptations coming to screen, check out Bookstr article 9 Anticipated Adaptations To Make You Laugh, Scream, and Cry.
From Production to Premiere
One by one as the actors joined the project, the production sculpted into a project. Universal Pictures and Blumhouse started production in 2023 with shoots taking place across both England and Croatia. The production did suffer a minor setback as in the summer of 2023, the SAG-AFTRA strike took place. This brought a pause to filming before the production resumed in November of the same year.
At the premiere, the cast of Speak No Evil shared what we can expect from the September horror. In snippets of their discussion, the cast describes the film as being everything from “scary” to “cathartic.”
The first official trailer for the movie was released in April of 2024 by Universal Pictures. The trailer showed a happy couple on vacation with their daughter befriending another family. Everything seems so sweet until it all reveals to be a little too perfect.
The Story Speak No Evil Tells
Following closely to the original themes for the 2022 film of the same name, Speak No Evil takes the audience on a psychologically thrilling experience as a family tries to survive the unthinkable in a part of the world they are unfamiliar with. James Watkins spoke on his desire to pull the same satire from the original film to the forefront of his remake with Deadline. Yet his biggest change, as he noted, was the want to include fun alongside horror. It’s no secret that Watkins has accrued a history of bleak and twisted films while working as a director. Due to this, Watkins wanted to take a step away from that approach to horror and filmmaking. For Speak No Evil he wanted to include moments in the film that were easy to “talk about in the pub.”
But don’t be walking into Speak No Evil expecting all laughs! The film still covers a wildly grounded horror, even if it is done with a satirical tongue in cheek. James McAvoy, portraying one of the twisted individuals that traps the protagonists, searched for inspiration in our society. For his approach to his character, Paddy, in Speak No Evil, James McAvoy drew upon the personality of podcaster Andrew Tate. This want to portray the characters in a highly realistic manner was also an approach Watkins took when structuring the scenes. In a behind the scenes filmed by Universal Pictures, Watkins voiced his way of driving tension and how he based this in grounded experiences of everyone.
When and Where To Watch
The cast and crew walked the black carpet for the Speak No Evil premiere in dazzling outfits on September 9th in New York. For the rest of us, we no longer have to wait! Speak No Evil comes out September 13th in theaters. If you’re looking to enjoy the film from the comfort of your own home, you’ll have to wait for the movie to join Peacock after its theatrical run.
Speak No Evil, starring James McAvoy and Mackenzie Davis, takes the original themes and script of the 2022 film of the same name and adds that Watkins’s touch to it.
If the thought of fall scaries is getting you excited to dive into a new book. Bookstr has a list of spine-chilling reads that you’ll love here!
Find a thrilling horror book to add to your spooky season TBR from our Bookshop here.
