The remake of “Speak No Evil” becomes a furious tour de force for James McAvoy at his most villainous, a bristling thriller that presents an unspeakable dilemma that a fragile and trapped family cannot reason or trick their way through.

At some point, facing a pitiless, sadistic/narcissistic bully, you’ve got to fight.

Still, a simply-plotted lean Danish thriller about the futility struggling to maintain civility and good manners in the face of boorishness that masks seriously murderous intent becomes a more laborious Hollywood/Blumhouse remake in the hands of writer-director James Watkins (“The Woman in Black,” “The Take”).

Watkins makes this a star vehicle thriller, and given the performances of Mackenzie Davis, Scoot McNairy and McAvoy, it’s hard to quibble with that choice.

Two families meet on vacation — one American, with a troubled almost-twelve-year-old (Alix West Lefler) who still clings to her “worry bunny” and needs a therapeutic app to calm her and let her drift off to sleep. Louise (Davis) focuses on her and comforting tools from doctors and self-help books to guide her parenting. Bookish Ben (McNairy) figures the kid “needs to grow out of that,” but defers to a smart and beautiful wife he probably still worries is out of his league.

Gregarous Paddy (McAvoy) makes everything about his family’s Italian idyll bigger, noisier, more reckless and by extension, all about him. Wife Ciara (“Game of Thrones” alumna Aisling Franciosi) seems to get in the spirit of things, but their little boy (Dan Hough) is mute,

“He has a condition,” life-of-the-party-Paddy bellows, and as he’s a rich doctor who’s “retired” and only doing charity medicine for non-governmental organizations, the Americans accept his word on his authority.

Paddy is the sort of over-sharing, overly-friendly and handsy life-of-the-party who bowls over one and all by violating decorum and personal space, by never yielding the floor or surrendering the mike. Maybe he’s a bit cruel in the pranks he plays on other, less colorful tourists (Danes) at their resort.

But his overbearing “fun” quickly has Louise letting little Agnes play with the troubled mute child of strangers and ride a Vespa without a helmet with the cocksure and heedless Paddy.

The Americans have transplanted to London, where his job fell through and her career has little chance of restarting, thus the extra attention to mothering. If they’ve got the time, they simply must “come visit us in (England’s remote) the West Country!“

Louise’s “maybe this will be good for us, all of us” implies trouble in the marriage and the manners of someone conditioned to not say “no” for risk of offense. Remembering the Danish film, I was surprised how well this cultural plot point translates from polite Danes to “let’s not be rude” Americans.

But once on this remote, old farm, Paddy’s Man of the Land macho, confidence in every assertion and overbearing ways come to full flower.

Louise is a vegetarian and a doting mother. He picks at the “morality” of her positions and lifetstyle and parenting, making her question herself.

Ben’s fretting over his sense of worth as a breadwinner, and about his masculinity. Paddy picks at that too, which could widen a rift in the Americas’ marriage.

This is classic bullying or “narcissistic personality disorder” behavior. Poke and poke until you find the weakness, then taunt your way into a dominant position in the relationship. And yes, we’ve learned a lot about that and psychological “projection” and the like the last four years.

McAvoy has turned out to be a natural at this sort of villain, bulking up for the roles, fixing his face with a wicked gleam that can easily be read as on the “deranged” spectrum.

Adaptor/director Watkins gives him poses and shots, as the situation darkens and the “Big Reveal” turns things deadly, that summon up memories of Jack Nicholson in “The Shining.” Over-the-top? Sure. Subtle? Not in the least.

The “Big Reveal” was given away not just in the first film, but in the trailers to this one. With that surprise tossed aside, Watkins wisely concentrates on the adults, and the two children “working the problem.”

How might a mute child warn a fearful little girl? How can adults be alerted to the danger?

And once alerted, how far can one maintain “appearances” and “good manners” and hope for the best when just a look and a brief listen to the villain should make fleeing priority one?

I enjoy a good McAvoy scenery-chewing, be it “Split” or “The Book of Clarence.” And Davis and McNairy are quite good within the confines of the “types” they’re playing.

But there’s no denying that suspense and “thrills” in a thriller are heavily reliant on surprises and jolting twists. And it’s not just memories of the tighter, more tense Danish film that reinforce what’s lacking here. Giving away too much in the trailer hobbles “Speak No Evil.”

McAvoy’s performance leans more on the superficial than on the psychological just as his character is more “he’s just like that” than anyone we truly understand.

And slowing things down so that we savor the helplessness and work-the-problem dynamics of one family’s plight, trapped on the farm of a madman, only engages and entertains up to a point.

But slower and more superficial than the original or not, the riveting performances and the vague political parable of the way the story is spun this time out put this one thriller over.

The biggest monsters any of us will ever confront aren’t supernatural. They’re the ones who find our weaknesses and pick at them until we bleed to death, or abandon our manners and fight back.

Rating: R, graphic violence, sexual situation, profanity

Cast: James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Scoot McNairy, Alix West Lefler and Aisling Franciosi

Credits: Scripted and directed by James Watkins, based on the screenplay for the Danish film “Speak No Evil” scripted by Christian Tafdrup and Mads Tafdrup. A Universal/Blumhouse release.

Running time: 1:50