Last week, the American remake of Speak No Evil had a modest opening at the box office, but it was enough to come close to recouping the horror film’s low budget. However, it failed to impress Christian Tafdrup, the man who directed and co-wrote the original Speak No Evil as a Danish film in 2022. And Tafdrup didn’t hold back on his opinion during a recent interview.
Warning: There are some spoilers ahead for the ending of both versions of Speak No Evil. If you haven’t seen the film or don’t want to know any more about the conclusion, stop reading now.
Via World of Reel, Tafdrup was a guest on the Danish radio show Kulturen when he broke down his objections to the remake’s happier ending.
“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,” said Tafdrup. He also called it “less dangerous” than his vision for the original movie, which has a notably bleaker conclusion.
“When I saw the [remake ]yesterday, I could see that they would never succeed with a film where the characters are stoned to death, as they do in our film,” added Tafdrup. “These people [in the U.S. version] must fight for their family and defeat the bad guys.., It is a kind of happy ending, and it is so deep in their culture that America must be able to handle it all.”
While Tafdrup isn’t wrong about American culture, James Watkins–the director and screenwriter of the remake–successfully catered to his target audience. The remake has currently made approximately $24 million worldwide, which significantly outperformed the $631,249 that the original Speak No Evil made in 2022.
Speak No Evil is now playing in theaters.
