James Watkins’ “Speak No Evil” (2024) dismisses the nihilistic ending of its original Danish counterpart. Starring James McAvoy, the story follows a couple drawn into an idyllic estate by a happy-go-lucky couple. Only that they are not really the happy-go-lucky couple as they would like you to believe. Here, the law remains excluded and poetic justice reigns supreme. Each claimant of the narrative–whether American or Danish–offers its own explanation and resolution for the human degradation we stand to witness. And, yet, none is dispossessed of legitimacy. This article explores the ending that the American remake offers and how it deviates from the original one.
Speak No Evil (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
What happens in Italy should stay in Italy?
An Italy vacation causes an American couple, Louise and Ben Dalton, and their preteen daughter Agnes to come dangerously close to a British couple, Paddy and Ciara, and their son Ant. Right off the bat, the contrast between the two nuclear families is established. While the American couple is more aligned with mindful, self-aware parenting for their daughter with anxiety, the British couple seems quite flamboyant. Their son, Ant, it seems, has a speaking disability. Ben and Louise return to their London home where a letter from Paddy and Ciara reaches them. The couple, already dealing with tension in their relationship, are offered to spend a long weekend at Paddy’s Devon farm.
The threatening aura of Paddy and Ciara
Ben, Louise, and Agnes are warmly welcomed by Paddy and Ciara. However, what seems warm shows hints of microaggression. Despite being aware of Louise’s vegetarianism, Paddy force-feeds her roasted goose. What also largely bothers them is how passive-aggressive they are towards Ant. The couple learns that Ant has a condition that has left him with a short tongue.
One night, despite Louise’s anxieties over the offputting behavior of Paddy and Ciara, they leave Agnes in the care of a babysitter named Muhjid along with Ant for a night out. The Daltons are further thrown off balance by Paddy’s rash driving accompanied by loud music. The dinner is hosted by Mike, a local poacher who lives by the sea. At dinner, Paddy broaches the topic of her being a vegetarian and pokes holes in her choice of being a pescatarian. Making the situation even more awkward, Paddy and Ciara indulge in a sexual play in the open. Later, when Ben offers to pay a part of the bill, displaying a sense of callousness, Paddy and Ciara leave the entire bill for Ben to pay.
On the other hand, at the farmhouse, Ant tries to communicate something to Agnes but fails. While playing hide and seek with Muhjid, Ant shows Agnes a collection of watches in Paddy’s drawers and a message in Danish engraved on one of them. Agnes does not quite understand and is not able to fit the pieces in the puzzle. When they are sleeping in Ant’s attic room, Ant wakes Agnes up and shows her his scars but goes back to sleep once again hearing footsteps.
The final nail for Louise
That night, Louise is horrified to find Agnes huddling together on a bed with the drunken and half-naked couple and Ant. At dawn, Louise, Ben, and Agnes prepare to leave the farmhouse. Once on the road, Agnes realizes that she has forgotten to pack her stuffed bunny, Hoppy. Ben unable to withstand Agnes’ fit has no choice but to wheel back to the property. They come back and retrieve the toy but have to face the overbearingly quizzical Paddy and Ciara.
The Daltons are forced to stay back as Ant wants to play with Agnes and show her the chickens on the farm. While painting eggs, Ant writes a note for Agnes in Danish but she cannot read it. As Ciara comes closer to check on them, Ant gobbles up the note to hide it from her. Louise continues to notice the couple’s passive-aggressive behavior against Ant.
The secret that lurks in the basement
The couple’s pure apathy towards Ant quickly appears in full view when Paddy turns livid on the simple issue of Ant not being able to pick the correct rhythm in a dance performance. Ant gets shouted at vilely which causes Louise to lose her cool. When Paddy retires to sleep, Ant steals his bunch of keys and directs Agnes to a locked shed underground. Agnes is shocked to find the items neatly kept on display, ranging from luggage, shoes, and innerwear, to mobile phones.
Ant shows Agnes a photo album containing photos of unnamed families with Paddy and Ciara. One of the photos is that of Ant’s original parents. Ant looks particularly happy in the photo sticking out his tongue. However, a grave detail is that of the other child in the photo who looks grim. Ant shows the pattern to Agnes– the child who looks happy in one family photo looks grim in the next one. Ant mimes to make Agnes realize that his tongue was chopped off by Paddy and Ciara.
Agnes realizes that Paddy and Ciara are serial killers who lure families into their spatial property and butcher them after plundering them. The children of the previous families help them bait the successive families. Their ploy is to butcher the Daltons next. Ant asks Agnes to take a photo of the album so that she can show it to her parents.
Read More: Speak No Evil (2024) Movie Review: Trading Cringe-Horror for Cringe-Comedy
Agnes pierces her thighs to pretend that she has got her period. She uses this ploy to take Louise along to the bathroom and disclose what she has found out. Louise advises that they should get out under the pretext of Agnes’ anxiety surrounding her first period. The family decides to wear a nonchalant countenance to not germinate any seed of suspicion.
Will they or Won’t they?
Paddy and Ciara, however, catch the wind of the couple’s intentions and their own plan being on the verge of getting busted. They string them along by first puncturing their car and fixing it and then leaving Hoppy dangling on a high pipeline, forcing Ben to fetch it. As the Daltons drive out of the remote-controlled gate, Agnes watches in horror as Paddy throws Ant in the lake. Ben dives into the lake to save Ant but Louise does not manage to drive away and remains locked inside.
Speak No Evil (2024) Movie Ending Explained:
A Deadly Game of Survival: The Dalton Family’s Fight Against Paddy and His Accomplices
Paddy forces Louise to transfer their savings while Ciara holds Ben, Ant, and Agnes at gunpoint. Turns out, that the couple has also roped in Mike to torture them. When Paddy prepares to sedate Agnes, Louise disarms him by injuring his face with a pocket knife. Agnes takes the syringe and hides it in her pocket. Louise manages to release the gun from Ciara’s clutches. Ciara starts crying and begs Louise to save her as she claims that she is Paddy’s first victim abducted when she was of Agnes’ age and kept hostage ever since. Ben, Louise, Agnes, and Ant try to leave but Mike arrives from nowhere and starts shooting them. The four of them run back to the home for shelter.
What we see next is the relentless cat-and-mouse game between the Daltons, along with Ant and Paddy and Ciara joined by Mike. At last, Paddy is felled by Louise as she squirts bathroom acid in his eyes. Shortly, Kiara falls to her death from the attic window. However, Paddy is not dead. A livid Paddy unhinged by Ciara’s death hints at abducting Agnes as a replacement for Ciara. Just then Agnes plunges the ketamine-filled syringe into his abdomen.
Is Ant the True Harbinger of Justice in the Final Confrontation?
In the denouement, Paddy sinks under the spell of the sedative. Ben holds out the gun but eventually gives up and decides to leave him with his fate. Ant, however, shocks everyone. A low-angle shot of Ant seated on his father marks his final reconciliation. The child departs but not before he has performed the final act of violence. He exacts revenge through his own agency.
That is why, even when Ben withdraws despite having the chance to puncture Paddy with a bullet and finish him off, Ant alights on his body as the figure of death. Paddy accepts his fate and his violence meted out to Ant returning to him. That is why before Ant smashes his head with a brick, Paddy smiles and makes the first affirmative remark for him: “That’s my boy.” Having rescued Ant, the family leaves the farmhouse. In the car, Agnes passes Hoppy to Ant realizing that he needs the toy more than her.
How is Speak No Evil (2024) different from the Danish original of 2022?
If the American “Speak No Evil” (2024) ends with a vigilante resolution with the tortured becoming the torturer, the Danish original lets the cycle of torture continue with no seeming end. In the 2022 film, Agnes is not spared, and neither are her parents.
It is Abel (Ant in the American) whose drowning body causes Bjørn (Ben in the American) to escape the hellhouse. However, they do not manage to escape in time as Patrick starts following them. Muhajid, the babysitter, joins Patrick and Karin in their plan. Karin chops off Agnes’ tongue and Muhajid takes her away. Her parents are taken to a deserted road. In the end, Bjørn and Louise standing in the headlights of the car undress themselves as a preparation for their impending death. They are stoned to death. A mute Agnes, on the other hand, is strung along as bait to lure Patrick and Karin’s next target.
