Unveiled: The Hidden Connection Between 'Speak No Evil' and a 2008 Film

James Watkins' Speak No Evil will make you reconsider house-guesting as much as the English filmmaker's directorial debut, Eden Lake, did with camping in 2008.

In Eden Lake, Kelly Reilly and Michael Fassbender's characters are on the verge of their engagement during a weekend camping trip in the English countryside, but their plans for a romantic experience quickly fall apart when a dastardly gang of local teenagers disrupts their jaunt to a point that becomes deadly.

Ultimately, Watkins' film ends in a memorably chilling way that is polar opposite from your stereotypical Hollywood ending.

14 years later, Watkins, on behalf of Blumhouse, set out to reimagine the Danish psychological horror-thriller Speak No Evil (2022), which also puts a couple through the wringer during a vacation getaway with their young child.

And similar to Eden Lake, Christian Tafdrup's Speak No Evil ends in oppressively haunting fashion.

So, when Watkins sat down to discuss his American remake with Tafdrup, the latter mentioned that Eden Lake actually had an influence on his 2022 film.

I love [2022's Speak No Evil]. I love the bleakness, which reminded me a bit of Eden Lake. In fact, I spoke to Christian [Tafdrup] before I made the [2024] film, and he was like, 'Yeah, Eden Lake was one of my references.' So there was a weird circularity there, Watkins tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Eden Lake is also one of the major reasons why Watkins decided to change up the ending of his Speak No Evil. He didn't want to repeat himself with another artistically brutal conclusion, and while some critics might say that he went for a Hollywood ending this time around, he insists that his choices were more rooted in American behavior, something his American actor, Scoot McNairy, also reinforced in their conversations.

(McNairy explained to THR that the ending of the 2022 Danish film didn't sit well with him due to his counterpart's inaction at a time