Danish ‘Speak No Evil’ director hits out at remake for rewriting “entire ending”: “I don’t know what it is about Americans”

nme.com:

Speak No Evil has hit out at the new remake for rewriting the “entire ending”, saying: “I don’t know what it is about Americans”.Speak No Evil – which is an American remake of the 2022 Danish film of the same name – was released in cinemas on September 13.

Written and directed by James Watkins (The Woman In Black, Eden Lake), the film stars James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Aisling Franciosi and Scoot McNairy.Now, the director of the original, Christian Tafdrup, has criticised the film’s remake for a number of significant changes.The remake changes the nationalities of the families to British and American and Watkins has divided fans by completely changing the ending to the film.Tafdrup told the Danish radio show Kulturen that he was unimpressed with the film and went on to criticise several elements of the movie.He said: “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” (as per dr.dk).He went on to say that the changes to the story also make it “less dangerous”, making it a safer version than his original.*Spoilers ahead*He added: “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.“When I saw the film 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.

These people 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.”He also reflected on the different audience reactions to the film.