Speak No Evil: Scoot McNairy joins the cast of Blumhouse remake

Last month, it was announced that James McAvoy is reteaming with his Split and Glass producers at Blumhouse for a psychological thriller called Speak No Evil, which Universal Pictures will be giving a theatrical release on August 9, 2024. Mackenzie Davis (Terminator: Dark Fate) joined the cast soon after, and now Deadline reports that McAvoy and Davis are being joined in the cast by Scoot McNairy.

McNairy’s previous credits include Monsters, Argo, Killing Them Softly, 12 Years a Slave, Batman v. Superman, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Narcos: Mexico, and True Detective.

James Watkins, whose previous credits include Eden Lake and The Woman in Black, will be writing and directing the film, which will center on a family who takes a dream holiday to an idyllic country house, only to have the vacation turn into a psychological nightmare. Speak No Evil is a remake of a 2022 Danish film called Gæsterne, which was directed by Christian Tafdrup. The director wrote the screenplay for the film with his brother Mads Tafdrup. Gæsterne was nominated for eleven Danish Film Awards, which are the equivalent to what the Oscars are in the United States. That film had the following synopsis: A Danish family visits a Dutch family they met on a holiday. What was supposed to be an idyllic weekend slowly starts unraveling as the Danes try to stay polite in the face of unpleasantness. And if you’re interested in checking it out, it’s on the Shudder streaming service under the title Speak No Evil.

Blumhouse founder Jason Blum is producing the Speak No Evil remake. Christian Tafdrup serves as executive producer alongside Paul Ritchie, Jacob Jarek, and Bea Sequeira.

Have you watched Gæsterne / the original Speak No Evil? If so, are you interested in seeing a Blumhouse remake that stars James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, and Scoot McNairy? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

I haven’t watched the original film yet… and to be honest, after seeing some comments on the film, I’m not sure I want to. Some of what I saw was negative, but even the positive reviews indicate that Speak No Evil is a bummer on a scale that I don’t really need right now. But I will be interested to see how viewers think this remake compares to the original.