Review: Let Me In

Overture Films

I am fairly confident that I'm not wrong in assuming that most of American audiences will see the trailers for "Let Me In" and shrug it off as another dumb vampire movie attempting to revive the spirit of this genre that "Twilight" has so mercilessly tarnished. And there have been many to support this feeling such as "30 Days of Night" and "Daybreakers" (although I know many horror buffs seriously disagree). I myself was tired of these trends that just got more and more creature-like and tried to draw their appeal from having the most shocking gore or vampire design/makeup. But my reaction to the news that Matt Reeves (director of "Cloverfield") was working on getting a remake of this movie going, I was intrigued and a bit skeptical.

Because as most Americans DO NOT know, "Let Me In" was originally a book that was adapted into "Let the Right One In", a Swedish film that came out back in 2008. The original became an instant favorite and marvel among film buffs in the US and abroad, but still unknown to a wider audience. I saw it before news of Reeves' remake plans and was surprised to find something that was definitely different than any other vampire movie. It has a mysterious heart to it with the relationship between the young boy and girl but also a darker, horror side in regards to the girls' secret (yes, she's also a vampire). 

Initially there was a huge outcry among film nerds when Reeves' announced "Let Me In", but I remained curious. And while Reeves promised in interviews to not disregard the first movie and stick to the book, I found "Let Me In" to be almost a complete copy of the Swedish version. It's really hard to go about reviewing this movie having seen the first one. I knew literally everything that was going to happen. I was almost bored because of the lack of surprise. There's no doubt this would be a completely different review if I hadn't seen "Let the Right One In". But as it stands, there's not much difference between the two, but I will say there's a few key differences and things that both could have benefited from.

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First to consider (and what frustrated me the most) was the music. It's definitely an American trend to have the music build the tension. There seems to be this need for eerie violins slowly rising in volume and drums quietly creeping up as the man moves closer to the door, inch by inch, and slowly moves his hand to the knob and, AND,...BOOM! You know what I mean. This is something (if I am remembering correctly) the Swedish one did not have and was better for it. All we as an audience needed is the knowledge that "hey, there's almost definitely going to be a vampire girl on the other side of this door, this guy is a goner". The Swedish version built its tension from this knowledge. It let the story progress and showed us different horrors along the way and let the content do all the work. Music can make or break situations in movies and sadly, much of the tension was overdone in this one. 

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Secondly, the entire focus of the movie is on the boy, Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee from "The Road"), and the girl, Abby (Chloe Moretz from "Kick-Ass"). The whole movie works on building their relationship around the violence and slow unraveling of Abby's true identity and I believe "Let Me In" did a good job of sticking to the original feel of this relationship. It's delicate and interesting and reveals a take on the presence of Evil that I will discuss in a moment. But beyond this relationship, we don't get much else. In the original we got a little better of a glance at the other people involved such as the bickering couple who are Owen's neighbors in the apartment complex, Abby's guardian figure (played here by Richard Jenkins), Owen's mother, and the detective. All of these characters receive little attention which is OK in most cases except for one. I really wish we could've seen more of Richard Jenkins. He's a great actor and it's a very interesting role and one I can't say a lot about without giving away too much so I'll just leave it at that.

Now about the theme on evil. It's something I didn't really notice in the original and is done a bit better in the new one. It's established early on that Owen's mother is a fairly devout Catholic and tries to make Owen one too whereby establishing a presence of "good". And the fact that Abby is a vampire and moves in next store to Owen suggests that Evil is being imposed upon them. Then we are presented with this idea that vampires are not allowed to come into anyone's home without being invited in by the owner, and if they do come in without invitation, something awful happens to the vampire. Within this is the idea that Evil is something that will find us without our doing but ultimately it is up to us whether we will "let it in" or not. It's interesting to notice this and then see Owen, an innocent, young kid, let a vampire (a universally accepted symbol of Evil apart from Twilight fans) into his home (and life).

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So although I believe a few elements of "Let Me In" were handled in a way that made it a bit over-dramatic in comparison to "Let the Right One In"'s subtle coldness, it's a solid remake all around. Moretz and McPhee definitely have a promising career in front of them and they showed a good breadth of talent here. I think horror fans will be surprised to find this is a bit different from the usual bloodbath and gore that accompanies most vampires movies. That is not to say that there isn't any violence, because there is some that is quite disturbing. It's not often we get a horror film with a focus like this one and I would be very interested to hear what someone has to say about it who hasn't seen the original.