Horror Remake Surprisingly Effective

By Christopher P. Jacobs
Staff Writer

Like most people who saw and liked the unusual 2008 Swedish vampire film, “Let the Right One In,” I was simultaneously looking forward to and dreading the new American remake by Matt Reeves, the director of “Cloverfield.” Most American reworkings of foreign films, whether horror thrillers, romantic comedies, or straight dramas, seem to take obvious plot elements and overexplain them, while simplifying characters and eliminating subplots for what studios apparently perceive to be the typical attention-deficit mass-market moviegoer.

Reeves, however, is remarkably faithful to the original film in content, mood, style, and especially in the crucial characterizations of its two protagonists.

“Let Me In” (the title is the first obvious change from the original) retains the 1980s time era, but does have a few notable differences in plot structure and minor characters, as well as changing the setting from Sweden to New Mexico and giving its characters more American-sounding names.

This version, as expected, also eliminates the notorious brief shot of nudity in the original, whose context would likely be both troubling and potentially confusing for American sensibilities.

While some may debate the need for these changes, they do not really detract from the overall film, which is based heavily upon its screen predecessor rather than going back to the original novel, and a few changes work very well.

An opening sequence with an aerial view of emergency vehicles rushing through a snow-covered landscape at night was inspired by the opening of Kubrick’s “The Shining,” which Reeves says lets you know “that something terrible is going to happen.” Other scenes have obvious connections to Hitchcock’s “Rear Window,” as its reclusive hero observes the apartments around him through a telescope.

Reeves’s interpretation, like the Swedish film (whose script had been written by the original novelist), focuses on the personal relationship that develops between its two 12-year-old outcasts, more than the vampire backstory and various other issues brought out in the novel.

And like “Let the Right One In,” “Let Me In” relies heavily upon its two superb child actors. Kodi Smith-McPhee is spot-on as “Owen,” the middle-school boy bullied by classmates and all but ignored by his mother who’s going through a divorce. Chloë Grace Moretz is perfect as “Abby,” Owen’s mysterious new neighbor who is apparently his own age and just as lonely, with even deeper personal secrets.

Also like its inspiration, “Let Me In” neither glamorizes its vampire theme nor exploits it for high melodrama or campy thrills. Its melancholy tone is more akin to Werner Herzog’s “Nosferatu the Vampyre” or possibly “Interview with a Vampire” than to classic vampire horror or recent vampire romance movies. In “Let Me In” we get a tender and tentative romance, a story of how two young people see something of themselves in each other and try to help one another through some tough situations.

The vampire element is crucial but is treated as merely a grisly fact of life instead of a stock source of fear.

What is especially impressive about this Americanization is that much of it keeps the slow, deliberate pacing of the original, concentrating on establishing mood and character rather than jumping to the next action sequence.

Equally impressive is how much of the ambiguity of the original film remains in this version (in fact this version is even more ambiguous in a couple of spots than the first film).

These two aspects, however, are likely to turn off mainstream mall moviegoers anticipating another “Twilight” or something more akin to “Zombieland” or Reeves’ own “Cloverfield.” (“Let Me In” opened at only Number 8 in the weekend boxoffice rankings.)

In short, while the original Swedish film “Let the Right One In” easily rates an “A,” the new American remake “Let Me In” deserves a respectable “A-minus.”

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