Speak No Evil Featurette Explores the Real-Life Origins of the Remake

The upcoming horror movie Speak No Evil is a new take on the 2022 Danish movie Gæsterne, but what makes the experience all the more unsettling is that the original movie was inspired by real-life events, though events which didn’t descend into as dark of a scenario as seen in either movie. In a new featurette for Speak No Evil, director/co-writer of the Danish movie Christian Tafdrup detailed how the premise is something that happened to him on vacation, as he wondered what would happen if he accepted an invitation to spend more time with a seemingly charming family. Tafdrup also expressed how almost immediately after the original movie was released, Blumhouse connected with him in hopes of developing their own take on the material. You can check out the new featurette below before Speak No Evil lands in theaters on September 13th.

When an American family is invited to spend the weekend at the idyllic country estate of a charming British family they befriended on vacation, what begins as a dream holiday soon warps into a snarled psychological nightmare. From Blumhouse, the producer of The Black Phone, Get Out, and The Invisible Man, comes an intense suspense thriller for our modern age, starring BAFTA award-winner James McAvoy (Split, Glass) in a riveting performance as the charismatic, alpha-male estate owner whose untrammeled hospitality masks an unspeakable darkness.

Speak No Evil stars Mackenzie Davis (Terminator: Dark Fate, Halt and Catch Fire) and SAG award-winner Scoot McNairy (Argo, A Quiet Place Part II) as American couple Louise and Ben Dalton, who, along with their 11-year-old daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler; The Good Nurse, Riverdale), accept the weekend-holiday invitation of Paddy (McAvoy), his wife Ciara (Aisling Franciosi; Game of Thrones, The Fall) and their furtive, mute son Ant (newcomer Daniel Hough).

Written for the screen and directed by James Watkins, the writer-director of Eden Lake and the award-winning gothic ghost story The Woman in Black, Speak No Evil is based on the screenplay of the 2022 Danish horror sensation Gæsterne, written by Christian Tafdrup and Mads Tafdrup. That film earned 11 Danish Film Awards nominations, the Danish equivalent of the Oscars.

Speak No Evil is produced by Jason Blum (Five Nights at Freddy’s, M3GAN) for Blumhouse and by Paul Ritchie (McMafia, The Ipcress File) and is executive produced by Beatriz Sequeira for Blumhouse, Jacob Jarek, and Christian Tafdrup. 

Speak No Evil lands in theaters on September 13th.

Are you looking forward to the new movie? Contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter or on Instagram to talk all things Star Wars and horror!