Speak No Evil with James McAvoy: Why the ending is so different from the original movie

In Speak No Evil, James McAvoy embodies evil incarnate. The story follows the meeting of two couples during the summer in Italy. When they become friends, they propose to meet after a few months. When Louise (Mackenzie Davis) and Ben (Scoot McNair) visit their hosts for the weekend, they discover their true colors. Staying turns into an absolute ordeal.

Originally, this James Watkins film is a remake of a Danish thriller titled Say Nothing, directed by Christian Tafdrup. The plots of the two feature films are very similar. The same themes are explored, subjugation, social conventions and violent masculinity. However, the American version has several details, namely the ending, which is very different from the original film.

In the first Speak No Evil, a trapped family remains completely passive in the face of increasingly violent events. Out of politeness and in order not to offend the hosts, they do not dare to raise their voice and leave the area. Once the red line is crossed, there is no going back.

The writing of these characters irritated many viewers. Some even speak of “inconsistency“.”Without the survival reflex, the victims are flat-encephalic, it is impossible to identify with a character who makes decisions that are always stupid on top of each other.“, we can read from an AlloCiné subscriber.

Warning, spoilers! Make sure you’ve seen “Speak No Evil” before reading these few lines.

The American version corrects the situation. The so-called victim’s family struggles to respond, then, in a stroke of courage, decides to leave. When they realize they are stuck, they will fight back. In the grand tradition of American movies, the third act is based on a house chase. The audience, who experienced the passivity of the characters in the original, can fully identify with them this time.

Then comes the ending, surprising in many ways. In the Danish version, the victim is taken to the desert and stoned to death. Violent, the scene heightens the audience’s discomfort and sense of helplessness. In the remake, the trapped family emerges from the nightmare triumphant. Director and screenwriter James Watkins It even goes so far as to reverse the events of the original.

A surprising ending for an American film

Here, a child kidnapped by a psychopathic couple confronts her attacker, Paddy (James McAvoy). When the latter is on the ground, the young teenager repeatedly picks up a large stone to break his head.

The scene is all the more impressive because children involved in violence are quite rare in American genre films. They are more often victims than aggressors. In Speak No Evil, the character makes fun of all the head traumas by reproducing the same actions as his tormentor.

Speak No Evil is in theaters.