James McAvoy has learned to love horror movies, and they love him too

James McAvoy was once known for being quite a cuddly on-screen presence. Films like Starter for 10 and Atonement introduced him as a terrific romantic lead with an eye for comedy. He could've played those roles forever. But instead, McAvoy has diversified his portfolio in recent years — and horror has been a massive part of it.

McAvoy has always had edge as an actor, with his excellent early performance in the film Inside I'm Dancing — as a fearsome rebel living in a home for people with long-term disabilities — showcasing his ability to play a level of concealed danger. Of course, the 2013 film Filth showed this even more clearly, thanks to his bravura portrayal of Irvine Welsh's loathsome cop Bruce Robertson.

But it was in 2016 that McAvoy delivered his breakout horror performance, portraying the central villain at the heart of M Night Shyamalan's mystery-thriller Split. McAvoy played all of the many personalities living within the mind of Kevin Wendell Crumb — a young man with dissociative identity disorder.

This wasn't McAvoy's first horror appearance, though. Way back in 2001, he showed up in a German slasher movie called Swimming Pool and, a year prior to Split, he had played the title role in Paul McGuigan's dismal Victor Frankenstein.

But it was as Kevin and his many alternate personalities — including some very evil ones — that McAvoy showed how comfortable he could be in the horror space. His performance is complex and physical, hopping between personalities with skill and precision. He's also completely and utterly terrifying when called upon. The less said about the return of that character in Glass, the better.

Read more: James McAvoy couldn't cheat being ripped for Glass, so he did it for real (Yahoo Entertainment)

McAvoy continued his horror boom in 2019, when he played Bill Denbrough in It Chapter Two, taking over the role played by Jaeden Martell in the first movie. As the de facto leader of the Losers Club, he's a key part of the fight against Pennywise. The film might not have matched its predecessor, but it showed that McAvoy could turn his hand to being a horror hero as well as a horror villain.

Five years later, McAvoy is embracing his spooky side with open arms in Speak No Evil. A remake of a daring, nihilistic Danish movie from 2022, director James Watkins' film follows the holiday friendship between a British family and a US one. The British couple, played by McAvoy and Aisling Franciosi, invites the Americans to stay with them at their secluded, rural home.

However, this is anything but a simple act of kindness. To say much more would be to spoil the twists and turns of the story, but anyone who has seen a trailer will know for sure that McAvoy is obviously the villain of the piece.

Read more: Speak No Evil director defends changing the original's bleak ending (Digital Spy)

The performance is very much a McAvoy special, with critics noting the star's mammoth physical presence and his willingness to include lashings of comedy within the gruesome material. Variety described him as wearing a "big grin full of knives", while The Independent wrote that he provides "a viscerally, uncomfortably familiar take on entitled masculinity delivered with a self-satisfied smile". The man himself has said Andrew Tate was an influence on the character.

McAvoy has embraced horror, but he's using many of the same tools he has always deployed over the course of his career. The same wolfish, gleeful danger he brought to Inside I'm Dancing is now deliberately curdled into the shape of a slasher villain, while the dashing good looks that made him a romantic lead in the 2000s have now become a honey trap for unwitting victims.

There's no doubt that McAvoy remains a versatile star capable of doing many different things. But there's something about him in the horror space that just works perfectly. Hopefully he'll continue to scare us many more times in the years to come.

Speak No Evil is in UK cinemas now.