Let Me In (Review)

Here’s the thing about remakes. No matter how faithful they are to the original source material, even if the source material is great, they hardly ever have anything truly unique to say. If they do, it's already been said. They always come across as another artist trying to copy the same painting and expecting the same result. A commonly-cited example is the woefully misguided remake of Psycho, which was made to be essentially identical to the original Hitchcock classic. I have not seen the remake in its entirety, but what I have seen comes off as utterly awkward, and it stands as proof that what makes a film great is not only its material but its execution. For a remake to be worthwhile it has to branch off and exist in its own universe, thus giving the audience a reason to see it. If you're doing an act that's already been done before, why should I stay and watch?

This is the problem that plagues Let Me In, the rigidly faithful American remake of the 2008 Swedish film Let the Right One In. Since it is so identical, it comes off as less original from front to back, and its sole raison d’être is to remove those pesky subtitles for an English-speaking audience. Illiterates everywhere rejoice.

To call Let Me In a bad film would be wrong, because it adheres so closely to one that is very good. In fact, there are some aspects of Let Me In that improve on the original. The acting is solid across the board, including our preteen protagonists now played by Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloë Moretz, two young actors who have already made a mark in films that children have no business watching (The Road and Kick-Ass, respectively). Their childlike innocence provides a warm center for the film’s dark edges, and I felt more emotion coming from them than I did the kids in the Swedish film. In the first I felt the filmmaker was doing a lot of the work, while here the actors really sell the whole thing. We also get good turns from Richard Jenkins as the new caretaker for Moretz’s Abby, and Elias Koteas does his best Richard Schiff as the Police Detective.

That said, there are several ways in which Let Me In is inferior, and most of my complaints lie in director Matt Reeves’ depiction of Abby’s vampirism. While in the Swedish film it seemed labored and intense, here there is an overuse of cartoonish special effects and the gore seems more exploitative. Let the Right One In attempted to hide the brutality from us just as the male protagonist (Oskar first, Owen here) refuses to see it, but here it’s all a little too literal. Also, Abby’s plans for Owen, which are merely hinted at in the first film, are made a little more obvious. In fact, as a whole this film is much more obvious than the first. Where the first had a form of subdued beauty, here it’s all much more in-your-face. That rings true right down to the climax, which just doesn’t work the same way here, despite the extreme similarities.

Matt Reeves claims that he intended to merely adapt the book rather than remake the film. I have not read the book, but the films are so incredibly similar that I must say that there’s no way that is true. Let Me In even uses some of the same shots as its Swedish counterpart. Let the Right One In is a very good film, and as such as an independent work Let Me In must be a very good film as well, but because it is so identical I lack the ability to see it as an independent work. I felt as if the original was simply being spit back out at me through a translator.


I highly suggest you see either Let the Right One In or Let Me In. It is a very good story that is told well in both instances, and all in all I really don’t have a preference as to which you choose. One is in Swedish, the other in English, and I guess when all is said and done my more reserved reaction to the remake is that, well, the Swedes got there first. If you see one without having seen the other, you will see a very good film which uses vampirism as a backdrop for a haunting story about adolescence that doesn’t involve Robert Pattinson staring longingly. Then stop there.

Rating:   (out of 4)