In Speak No Evil, an American family is invited by a British couple to spend the weekend at a remote farmhouse, only to realize that they’re in the clutches of a pair of deranged serial killers who will stop at nothing to make them their next victims. It’s an unsettling experience to sit through as the tension slowly crescendos into an epic third act that’s flush with murder, mayhem, and, of course, a happy ending. It’s that ending that was recently criticized by Danish filmmaker Christian Tafdrup, who directed the original 2022 version that the James Watkins American remake is based on.
Appearing on the Danish radio show Kulturen (via World of Reel), Tafdrup had some harsh words for the remake, and its ending. In his version, the conclusion is much more bleak, and features the equivalent of the American couple getting stoned to death, rather than escaping with their lives to live happily ever after (albeit with a massive therapy bill to look forward to). The director believes that Americans have been brought up to always expect things to turn out for the best, and the remake only serves to further embed that belief into a culture that has been telling us for decades that the good ol’ American spirit will always triumph in the face of adversity.
“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. 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 [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.”
To further prove his point, Tafdrup contrasted the different audience reactions to both versions. He says that after seeing the remake, he noticed people “who were completely over-enthusiastic and clapped, laughed and whooped. It was like being at a rock concert.” By comparison, he says people were left “traumatized” by his movie, and therefore believes that the Blumhouse production is “less dangerous.”
Is Christian Tafdrup Right About Americans?
Tafdrup isn’t wrong in his assumptions about Americans. The notion of good triumphing over evil has been ingrained in us from a young age, and became a staple in Hollywood as far back as 1934 when The Motion Picture Production Code, a self-governing set of rules agreed upon by the industry, was amended to include the following:
“No picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.”
Named after the president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America at the time, Will H. Hays, the Hays Code fell by the wayside in the late 60s, replaced by the MPAA rating system as we know it today. Still, many production studios follow those rules in some form or fashion, believing that American audiences either prefer happy endings, or aren’t equipped to handle ones that showcase the fact that we don’t live in a fairy tale.
While that may be true to some degree, films which feature bleak endings are often remembered long after their happily-ever-after counterparts hit the bargain bin at Walmart. The Mist, Requiem for a Dream, Night of the Living Dead, and Rosemary’s Baby are all examples of movies which feature bleak endings, yet are regarded as classics today. Notice the trend, too, that most of those endings happen to fall within the horror genre, a category that has long been known to not sugarcoat reality.
That being said, the good thing about Hollywood is that there’s always something for everyone out there. Whether you prefer the original Danish version, or the American take on Speak No Evil, it doesn’t matter. You do you. The important thing is that we all keep loving movies.