Original ‘Speak No Evil’ director condemns ending of remake
Christian Tafdrup, the Danish director and co-writer of 2022’s original Speak No Evil, has openly condemned the ending of the new James McAvoy-starring remake.
Tafdrup wrote the original Danish movie alongside his brother, Mads, and directed the production. Despite being filmed in Denmark, the Netherlands and Italy, most of the movie is shot in English, with some scenes in Danish and Dutch.
The film follows a Danish couple, played by Morten Burian and Sidsel Siem Koch, who are invited by a Dutch couple, Fedja van Huêt and Karina Smulders, to their country home for a weekend. However, they walk into a trap, with the ending one of the most shocking cinema has seen in recent years.
American remakes of European films have been attracting more controversy lately, as they appear to water down the power and substance of the original story for mass consumption. This is what Tafdrup has said about his tale, with its horrific ending being changed markedly in James Watkins’ American remake, where the invited couple, played by Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy, escape alive from the clutches of McAvoy’s Paddy and his wife Ciara, played by Aisling Franciosi.
Produced by Blumhouse, Watkins’ Speak No Evil was released in the US on September 13th and has grossed $23million worldwide against a budget of $15m.
However, it’s safe to say that Tafdrup is not a fan of the remake. The director slammed it for rewriting the “entire ending”, saying: “I don’t know what it is about Americans”.
It’s not just the switch of the families’ nationalities to British and American that annoyed Tafdrup, but the ending. Speaking on the Danish radio show, Kulturen explained (per dr.dk): “I don’t know what it is about Americans, but they are brought up for a heroic tale, where the good must win over the bad, and this version of the film cultivates that”.
He noted that the story had been changed to make it “less dangerous” than the original, adding: “I found that they have made a wildly entertaining, effective, well-acted version of my original film. But it might not be that dangerous either.”
Tafdrup revealed that when he saw the film, he could understand that they would never succeed with a movie where the characters are stoned to death like in his. Due to the target audience, the couple must fight back and beat the villains.
He summarised: “It is a kind of happy ending, and it is so deep in their culture that America must be able to handle it all.” Tafdrup expressed that people were clapping and whooping at the end of the remake, a starkly different feeling from how people left his film “traumatised”.
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