Is a 2024 American remake of the Danish social horror film of the same name. This one boasts a strong performance from the epic James McAvoy and little else. 

This mediocre remake of the excellent Danish film of the same follows the exact same plot points but lacks the perspective and the meaning of the original. 

A quick recap, American couple Louise and Ben, played by Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy, meet eccentric couple Paddy and Ciara, played by James McAvoy and Aisling Franciosi, and agree to stay at their remote farm house for an extended weekend. 

The original film cuts with a scalpel. This film bludgeons with a mallet. The original uses subtle moments of micro aggressions and tiny shifts in interpersonal dynamics to create a sense of unease. This film basically relied on James McAvoy to put the film on his back and carry it across the finish line. There’s no subtlety or subtext here. There’s just brute force and blunt statements. 

An example of this is that in the original, the Paddy character convinces the Ben character to pay for an expensive dinner by using social cues to Ben’s desire to help and be polite. In this film the same situation plays out. Paddy remarks on how expensive the meal was. Ben nervously offers to maybe contribute. Paddy says great, slams the check on the counter, and walks out. Gone is the subtle power dynamic. Gone is the shifting social power that made the first so uneasy and effective. Just one “alpha male” bulldozing his way through the weaker man. 

But I’m not going to spend the whole time comparing the two films. Looking at this movie on its own terms, it’s only okay. There’s good and bad in this, but starting with the good…

The cinematography is strong. It’s well lit and well framed which puts it head and shoulders ahead of most films released these days. There is intention behind the way the movie was shot and the deep shadows and strong colors add a lot to the the experience of watching the film. 

James McAvoy’s performance is excellent. He is always a brilliant actor who gives 110% to everything he does. He is passionate and powerful. His emotions seem to be threatening to tear out of him at every second. He has a hair trigger and plays that volatility so well. I would watch this man do anything. He’s one of those actors that I am watching no matter what the movie is. 

Everything else about the film is sadly just very muddy. 

Ben and Louise are the main couple and they are awful. Ben is weak and blames Louise for his weakness. He is such a weaselly little dweeb. Louise hates her husband and does’t seem to care about her daughter. She has recently had an affair with a coworker, but has inexplicably stayed with this loser. 

How am I supposed to care about the fate of this family when they don’t care about each other? The fact that they dislike each other so much without any undercurrent of love or wounded love or even basic affection just sucks all the suspense out of the film. Who cares about these people?

This is why the film wisely centers on the kids in the story. Their daughter is Agnes, played by Alix West Lefler. Agnes is full of insecurities and anxieties. She is 12 maybe 13 but is obsessed with her stuffed animal. Ant is Paddy and Ciara’s son, played by Dan Hough, he cannot speak, but finds ways to communicate with Agnes. He gives her clues as to what’s really going on and that something is very wrong with Paddy and Ciara. 

The kids are the only likable characters here, but they are all wrong. Agnes is way too old to make sense. I never buy her. Her behavior is that of a much younger child. It feels like they wrote a child then cast a preteen and forgot to rewrite the script. Ant is way too active of a protagonist. The character has been abused and mistreated by these people for years at this point. Yet he’s sneaking around like a secret agent. He’s defiant and seems fully capable. I just don’t buy him. 

The movie has abandoned the slow burn approach of the original in favor of letting James McAvoy run the show. He generates tension by being unhinged and unpredictable, but the situations the films presents don’t have any bite. The movie is lacking the deeper meaning that would make the situations truly unsettling. The social pressure isn’t applied here. The fact that Ben and Louise don’t just leave seems to be because Ben and Louise just suck. 

All right spoilers…

Ant shows Agnes a secret room filled with the belongings of past families and a photo album of pictures of Paddy and Ciara with various vacationers. This album reveals that they kill the tourists and take their victims kids as their own. Once they get a new kid they kill the old one. 

Agnes tells her parents. Ben and Louise concoct a plan to escape. They are almost home free when Paddy reveals the Agnes’ favorite stuffed bunny is on the roof. It’s so dumb and unsubtle. It’s just stupidly obvious that he put it up there. Ben decides to climb a dangerous ladder to retrieve the bunny even after Agnes tells him they should just leave. This is so dumb. It’s completely unmotivated. Why does he delay saving his family in order to retrieve a stuffed animal that his daughter has stated she doesn’t care about? Why doesn’t Paddy just tip the ladder and kill Ben? He’s going to kill him in a minute anyway. Why delay? It’s just dumb. It’s nonsense. 

Anyway the bunny has been retrieved. They family is ready to leave, they look in the rear view mirror to see Paddy throw Ant into a pond. Ant can’t swim and the family decides to go back to rescue him. This is also dumb. What if Paddy didn’t notice Ant get thrown in? What if they just kept on driving? For an evil mastermind Paddy is a real dummy. 

The family saves Ant, but find themselves tied up in the garage. They sign over their bank accounts and worldly possessions to Paddy. This is unnecessary. We can imply that this is what they are doing. We don’t need multiple explaining the financial gain. 

The part that pissed me off the most was when Ben sniveling and weak asks why Paddy is doing this. He responds, because you let us. This is a direct quote from the original, but here it is meaningless. It is just an insultingly flat version of what happened in the original. In the original the family did let the villains walk all over them. Their choices directly lead to the finale. Here they haven’t made many decisions and have mostly stayed around due to plot contrivances and storytelling convenience. The theme of the original is removed from this film don’t transplant its thesis statement as if it still fits. 

Anyway, because this is an American remake we can’t have a dark and resonant ending. We need a blood bath. Better yet, we need a Home Alone style blood bath. Ben and Louise and the kids escape Paddy and look themselves inside the house. Paddy, Ciara, and a third villain who shows up as canon fodder try to break in and kill them. 

Traps are set, blood spilled, and a lot of sound and fury is expressed ultimately signifying nothing. Ben and Louise escape with Agnes and Ant. Ben and Louise have not resolved any of their issues. They still hate each other. The kids are traumatized. A bunch of people are dead. I don’t know what we’re supposed to get out of that. 

A big mistake that the film makes is that it makes Paddy the only villain. He is an abuser and has forced Ciara to go along with everything. The problems presented in the film can be boiled down to this one guy. One evil monster is to blame for all the problems in the movie. Once he is vanquished we don’t have anything else to think about or fear. Just kill the right bad guy and everything will be better. That’s such a lame message. 

Another big mistake is focusing on this antiquated “alpha male” “beta male” dynamic. For anyone who hasn’t heard, there is not such thing as alpha males, not in nature and not in human interaction. That theory was based on bad research and false conclusions. This film blames Ben’s problems on his beta male nature. The fact that the family gets ensnared by Paddy is because Paddy is such a strong alpha male. He just bulldozes his way through Ben and Louise. If this is the theme they want to explore that’s fine but it is mostly abandoned once the action starts. Ben never asserts himself and becomes the powerful alpha male that triumphs over Paddy. If anything Louise becomes and even more powerful woman. She becomes the alpha female and Ben becomes even more weak and ineffectual. She is the one who triumphs. Ben has no arc. And now that I’m thinking about it, no one has a character arc here. Ben is a weakling from start to finish. Louise is a tough resentful woman start to finish. Paddy is a domineering bully. Agnes is still an insecure little girl. Ant is defiant at the start and ends the story smashing Paddy’s head with a brick. I guess that’s a bit of an arc. He at least moves a few inches away from his starting point. 

Spoilers over

Is this movie good? No. Do I recommend it? No. Watch the original. As I’ve been writing this I’ve found myself disliking it more and more. The mishandled themes and stupid plot decisions just anger me. Do yourself a favor and skip this one. 

Not my cup of tea. D