Speak No Evil director points out glaring problem with film trailers

Speak No Evil director James Watkins has complained that movie trailers frequently “show more than filmmakers want”.

His new film is an adaptation of the acclaimed Danish horror by the same name, which was directed by Christian Tafdrup. The 2022 movie quickly became a cult favourite among fans of the psychological thriller genre.

Scottish actor James McAvoy plays Paddy, a father of a British family with a dark secret. McAvoy said he based the character on “toxic” influencer Andrew Tate.

The remake switches the nationalities of the families to British and American respectively, with Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy as Louise and Ben Dalton, a couple with a young child who visit the seemingly idyllic estate of Paddy, Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) and their son, Ant, after meeting them while on holiday in Italy.

*Spoilers ahead*

Watkins opted to change the original ending of the film in his new project, but has since complained that a major part of this is exposed within the movie’s trailer.

“Well, as a filmmaker, you don’t make the trailer, you watch the trailer and you respond to it,” he said in an interview with Variety.

“Generally, we live in a world where trailers probably show more than filmmakers want.”

However, he added that the business of trailers should be taken seriously.

“It is trying to entice people into seeing the film,” he said. “They do that brilliantly. It’s very easy as a filmmaker to get a bit precious and go, ‘I really want that really cool, classy poster.’

“And then they go, ‘Well, yeah, but no one’s going to see your movie.’ These people are very skilled at their jobs and have a lot of experience. It’s just so empirical, how they try and figure out these things. It’s just a different creative part of our industry.”

Watkins’ explained his decision to change the ending of the original movie: “The person who actually steps up is [Louise], and the notion of this kind of these kind of tropes of masculinity are shown to be complete nonsense. It’s not sort of gendered, who is strong,” he said.

“And then also with Ant, the young boy, I wanted to track that whole theme there, in terms of the Philip Larkin poem of how violence is sort of cyclical,” he continued. “‘Man hands on misery to man.’”

He concluded: “People might want the catharsis of that release, but I don’t think you can say it’s a Hollywood ending. It’s a pretty European version of a Hollywood ending. It’s not triumphant. It’s not an easy solution, saying, ‘Okay, our problems are behind us.’”

Speak No Evil is in cinemas now