I had high hopes going into “Speak No Evil,” expecting a twisty thriller with three of my favorite actors: James McAvoy, Scoot McNairy and Mackenzie Davis.

Unfortunately, almost all of the twists are in the trailer, and even if you haven’t seen that, it is pretty apparent from the start that McAvoy’s Paddy is not a good person.

McNairy and Davis play and Ben and Louise, a married couple going through a rough time who decide to take a vacation from their life in London to Italy with their daughter, Agnes (Alix West Lefler).

They become friends with one of the other families staying at their hotel: Paddy, Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) and Ant (Dan Hough).

When they get back to their life in London, they get an invite from Paddy and his family to visit them at their remote estate. Louise reluctantly agrees to go after Ben gets a little excited about it.

From there, this family ignores red flag after red flag with Paddy, Ciara and Ant until it is too late. At one point towards the end, Agnes flat out says she wants to go home, but Ben does something so stupid that it takes you out of the plot a bit.

While this is by no means a perfect thriller or horror film, it does still provide tension if you put some suspension of disbelief aside. I definitely felt that tension, letting out some deep sighs, flinches and muttering under my breath when watching the movie. (I apologize to the strangers sitting next to me at the screening last night for some visceral reactions.)

This is a fun movie to watch with people, just to see and hear all of the reactions to key scenes in the last few sequences. Honestly, it was the highlight of the movie to me to hear people in the theater applaud at key points.

If you wind up watching this alone at home, it will be very easy to tune out.

The only advice I have is to avoid the trailer if you haven’t already watched it. Then, you might get more tension and twists out of the plot than I did.

Rating: 2.5/5