From the production company Blumhouse, the horror churrería – with successful sagas in its very extensive catalog like Insidious either The Purge-, it comes to us now Don’t talk to strangersa time thriller which adapts the screenplay of a 2022 Danish film, Don’t say anything bad by Christian Tafdrup, well received during its performance at the Sitges Festival the same year.
In the director’s chair are the British James Watkinswho stood out in 2008 in the genre with Lake Eden (2008), a solvent film of intrigue and explosions of violence with Michael Fassbender and Kelly Reilly that announces a long and promising career in the genre.
However, expectations were disappointed due to the lack of success of the estimable The woman in black (2012) and a tedious foray into action cinema, Assault in Paris (2016). The filmmaker found refuge in televisionwhere he has participated in recent years in series such as Black mirror, McMafia And Harry Palmer: The Ippress File.
Howevero, Watkins now returns to the big screen with a film that plays with the same elements and settings as his first film.exploring class fears and cycles of violence, while toning down the gore. Yes in Lake Eden It was a couple who went on a romantic getaway to a lake only to find themselves facing a gang of sadistic teenagers, now it’s a family who will find themselves in the wolf’s den in Don’t talk to strangers.
It all begins when Ben (Scott McNairy) and Louise (Mckenzie Davies), an American couple living in London with a daughter named Agnes, arrive at a rural hotel in Tuscany, carrying a major crisis in life and marriage. There they meet the Daltons, another American family, consisting of Paddy (James McAvoy), Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) and little Ant, much more relaxed and in harmony. Soon, the relationship between the two families blossoms and Ben seems to find an example in the way Paddy approaches life to save his relationship with Louise.
So when Paddy and Ciara invite them to spend a weekend at their farm in rural England, Ben convinces his wife to accept the proposal. However, not everything is so idyllic in the Dalton household, which shows a slightly eccentric face in the small details: the dirty sheets, the search for discomfort in bold conversations, the interference in Agnes’ education… The visit is starting to get a little disturbing, although it is Ant, who suffers from a strange disease that prevents him from speaking, who will exhibit the strangest behavior.
Watkins knows how to maintain the tension of the story, playing with the point of view and dosing the information that the viewer has access to, who knows that sooner or later blood will start to flow. It is not for nothing that we are dealing with a Blumhouse production.
Furthermore, McAvoy, who has already been seen in a sadistic manner in films such as Multiple (2016) or glass (2019), is in the movie a force of nature that is always perceived to be on the verge of exploding, with this physicality and these gestures so annoying and typical of the actor.
However, The film is weighed down by a climax of home invasion to this home alone quite routine and also because of the difficulty of believing in the role that the docile Ant plays in the plot, incapable of revealing the Daltons’ secret to the frank protagonists.
It’s not a memorable movie, but at least 109 minutes provide enough fun, in addition to a critical look at the society of image and unbridled consumption in which we are immersed.
