Speak No Evil Ending Explained: Who Survives and How It Differs From the Original Film?
Speak No Evil Ending Explained: Speak No Evil has just hit theaters, an American remake of a 2022 Danish and Belgian horror film of the same name. Speak No Evil (the original) has achieved great critical acclaim and is considered by fans to be one of the best horror thrillers of recent years, both for the originality of its story and for the ferocious violence of some of its twists. It was only a matter of time for the US remade it, but Blumhouse’s promptness in starting the operation was still surprising: just two years after the first film, Speak No Evil (distributed here with the full title of Speak No Evil – Don’t talk to strangers) is here, directed by James Watkins and starring James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Scoot McNairy, and Aisling Franciosi.
And those who have seen the original will find themselves faced with a nice surprise, if the premises and much of the development are identical, Watkins’ work decides to completely turn the tables and distort the ending. An unexpected choice given that among the most iconic (and cited) moments of the first film is precisely its caustic and cruel ending: why change what the original is largely remembered for? On the one hand, there is certainly the need to adapt the film to the American “sensibility” (the first was truly very very “Nordic”), on the other perhaps the need to find one’s own identity, to experiment with a new path. And, as we explained in our review of the film, the new ending works rather well, it will not be as unforgettable as that of the 2022 film (which we talked about in this in-depth article), but it remains in its own way impressed the viewer.
Speak No Evil (2024): The Story Plot
Ben and Louise Dalton (Scott McNairy and Mackenzie Davis) are a couple on holiday in Tuscany with their daughter, Agnes (Alix West Lefler). During their stay, they meet another family, the English Paddy (McAvoy), Ciara (Aisling Franciosi), and Ant (Dan Hough). Unlike the Daltons, Paddy and Ciara are extroverted and out of line, even if little Ant does not speak due to a speech disorder. The couples become friends and then say goodbye at the end of the holiday. Once back in London, where they live a life that is not exactly exciting and with obvious friction after moving from the United States, the Daltons receive a letter. Paddy and Ciara have invited them to spend a weekend at their house in the countryside. Ben and Louise accept, convinced that they can recharge their batteries a little away from the gray of the city, but their stay soon turns into a siege of strange behaviors and omens from their hosts, perhaps decidedly less affable and welcoming than they initially seemed.
For much of its length, Speak No Evil is a carbon copy of the original work’s screenplay, following its path that puts into friction the hypocrisies of a bourgeois class close to derailment when in contact with a reality thought to be idyllic and which then reveals itself to be far from its idealization. Suddenly, however, two-thirds of the way through the film, Speak No Evil chooses to trace its path. It is an interesting choice, and it is essential to underline it in the review, trying to avoid the risk of revealing too much, because it is in this type of choice that a remake, and therefore a film, takes on an identity. It takes on a certain posture. No small challenge, looking at the original source material, was trying to understand how to convey that profound nihilism, and that terminal hardness, towards an audience prone to reassurance like the American one. Tafdrup’s film played the implacable requiem of bourgeois idiocy, of its claim to quiet and composure even when behind the facade the skeleton rots. It was a point of no return not easy to digest, and right there was the needle prick of a clear, abysmal shock.
Speak No Evil Ending Explained: Better to Stay at Home…
But let’s start with order: what is Speak No Evil about? Playing with the concept that sometimes we prefer to say yes to things we don’t want to do so as not to be forced to disappoint the person in front of us, thus feeling even more uncomfortable, the protagonists find themselves in a nightmare situation because they were not able to say no. If in the original we had a hyper-polite Danish family (the cold kindness of the Nordic peoples was essential to kick off this story), here there are three Americans transplanted to England, eager to rebuild their lives and make new friends in a rather difficult period of their lives. During a vacation in Tuscany, they meet another young family, coming from an isolated and remote corner of the English countryside. After a few days together, the unexpected request arrives: the new friends invite Luise, Ben, and their little daughter Agnes to their farm in Devon (the so-called “West Country” of the United Kingdom) for a weekend, and the protagonists find themselves accepting.
As you can imagine, no choice has ever been more wrong: Paddy and his (very young) wife Ciara – who have a son, a shy boy (and with a deformity of the tongue that prevents him from speaking) named Ant – although extremely hospitable, behave in a progressively stranger way, from unmotivated tantrums to decidedly inappropriate physical contact, up to a series of lies that slowly end up coming to light. The Americans try to leave on several occasions, but the others can manipulate them and make them feel guilty, thus managing to make them stay at home as much as possible.
And Then all Hell Breaks Loose!
It will be little Ant who reveals, with difficulty since he doesn’t have a tongue, the truth to Agnes. After taking the little girl to a basement of the farm where dozens and dozens of trophies are piled up, the truth soon becomes clear. Paddy and Ciara are professional serial killers, who have been repeating the same plan for years: they befriend a family, invite them to their house for a weekend, and after a few days they kill them, stealing – we will find out later – all their money as well. The son of the unfortunate victims is adopted by the killers, who cut out his tongue so that he can no longer speak until the new unfortunate predestined ones arrive. Ant shows Agnes an album with all the photos of the previous families, of which the last one is that of the child and in which, in a white space already prepared, the one of Luise, Ben, and their daughter will be placed.
Once the little girl manages to communicate the discovery to her parents, aided by a series of photos taken with her cell phone, the three mobilize to try to escape. With an excuse and not after a few difficulties (Agnes’s doll, which the little girl uses to combat anxiety, keeps disappearing…), they manage to get into the car but Paddy, who is finally completely exposed, throws little Ant, who can’t swim, into the pond in front of the property. Ben can’t help but stop to help him, and the family is once again a prisoner of their crazy guests. From this moment on – after Paddy has Luise deposit a large sum of money into their account and has declared that he will cut out Agnes’ tongue to turn her into Ciara’s new daughter – a game of cat and mouse begins between the families. Luise, Ben, Ant, and Agnes manage to take refuge in the house, leaving Paddy, Ciara, and their accomplice Mike, the restaurateur they met a few nights earlier, outside.
The Final Showdown?
After several attempts, Ciara, Paddy, and Mike break into the house to kill Ben, Louise, and Ant, and a series of clashes take place between the survivors and their evil attackers. Louise, who shows unexpected strength and resourcefulness, manages to seriously injure Paddy and kill Mike and Ciara. The final confrontation occurs when Paddy captures Agnes and holds a gun to her head, forcing Ben and Louise to drop their weapons. Paddy declares that he has no intention of harming Agnes, but since Ciara has been killed, he now wants the little girl to replace her and take care of him. As we previously discovered, Ciara was Paddy’s first victim, who had kept her with him since she was a child and raised her (with all that this unfortunately entails) to be his wife. It is Agnes who manages to free herself, the little girl has hidden the syringe of narcotics that Paddy and Ciara previously wanted to inject her with to cut out her tongue, and with that, she hits Paddy, who collapses stunned. At this point, the protagonists are finally free to escape from the nightmare, but Ant decides to stop and kill Paddy before running away.
The Killers’ Motivations?
Paddy and Ciara, even though the latter is also a victim in her own way, are a couple of serial killers who kill families and take possession of their children in a never-ending vicious circle. In addition to taking possession of their money, and therefore earning from their terrible actions, it is clear that the two have the desire to build their own family (it is said that Ciara lost a daughter when she was still a newborn) and that they kidnap children to become their children. At a certain point, however, the two get tired and decide to replace the child with someone else, and the murders begin again.
It is not explained whether their main motivation is profit (the money they steal from the victims), the desire to build a family (even if terribly dysfunctional), or simply the pleasure of killing. In our opinion it could be a mix of the three reasons: to the question posed by Ben to Paddy about why the two do what they do, the man replies, “Because you let us do it” (a phrase also said in the original). This indicates how much the two are certainly driven by the pleasure of killing, as well as by the need for profit. Paddy is probably repeating dynamics learned during childhood: in a conversation over dinner, the man had declared that his parents left him terrible traumas and that he grew up in a sick environment.
Why Does Ant Kill Paddy and Not Ben?
In the finale, Paddy lies wounded on the ground and Ben decides to leave him alive, saving the family. It is little Ant who kills him, crushing his head with a stone. This passage clearly reflects the main themes of the film and highlights a significant difference between the characters. Ben, although showing anger, is mostly passive and incapable of action throughout the film, even when Louise saves him from a certain death during the fight with Mike. In contrast, Ant, who appears shy and silent for most of the film, has been shaped by the physical, emotional and psychological abuse inflicted by Paddy. This parenting style is clearly reflected in that moment, with Paddy even taking a certain pleasure in seeing his own son want to kill him. Paddy, in the same conversation in which he spoke about his own childhood, also said that parents always influence their children, inevitably leaving them with trauma: violence and the need to kill is the legacy that Paddy left to Ant.
The Differences with the Original?
The 2024 remake only takes the first part of the original Danish film from 2022, but the two endings differ radically in both execution and the fates of the characters. The inciting incident for the ending is different: Ant reveals the truth about Paddy and Ciara to Agnes, who then informs her parents. In the original film, however, Ben’s character Bjørn discovers the truth on his own and finds the child dead. This leads them to flee the house while Patrick chases them in the dead of night, with Louise only discovering the truth when their guests kidnap Agnes. The new film almost completely reverses the fates of the characters from the original’s ending. Instead of dying, Paddy and Ciara in the original film survive along with Agnes, while Bjørn and Louise are stoned to death. Agnes is kidnapped and has her tongue cut out, and the 2022 film ends with her joining her new “parents” on summer vacation the following year, ready to look for a new family to target.
The original 2022 film ends in an extremely dark and distressing way, with the death of the protagonists due to their excessive politeness (they are never able to say no, even when they feel uncomfortable), and with the cycle starting again for the antagonists. The main characters fail to seize the few opportunities that could have guaranteed their salvation, remaining passive even when they could have acted and saved themselves. The 2024 remake, however, reverses this dynamic, emphasizing the determination of Ben but especially of Louise in doing whatever is necessary to survive, act correctly, and save their child. This narrative choice transforms the protagonists, showing their change: from people incapable of reacting to individuals ready to make difficult decisions to save themselves.
The contrast between the two versions highlights a central theme: while the original explores inaction and its tragic consequences, the remake celebrates courage and the will to fight for one’s survival. In particular, this remake talks about parenthood, the film highlights the importance of the role of parents and care in raising children. Ben and Louise have raised Agnes to be kind and respectful. Despite the problems they face as a couple, they try to do their best as parents, and Agnes proves capable of discovering the truth and reacting. It is thanks to her that in the end, the family manages to save itself. On the other hand, Ant’s upbringing, under the guidance of Paddy and Ciara who took him away from his real parents, is completely different. This contrast emerges clearly when Ant kills Paddy; Agnes, instead, with a gesture of compassion gives the child her bunny to comfort him in the last scene. It is a final reminder of the great power that parents have in shaping their children, giving us a decidedly more optimistic vision than the original film.
