or: That Let the Right One In remake.
One word to sum it up: Surprising.
Growing up is hard. You go to school, and suddenly you are surrounded by people who are all competing to be the best. There are those cliques who like to show that they're the best, and they're happy making everyone else miserable. They never spare one thought for their victims and they see bullying as something that will make them cooler. But what's life like on the other side?
Let Me In's protagonist, Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) shows exactly that. He would put on a mask and make these fellas beg for mercy, but of course, he's a little too scared. So instead, he suffers in silence, and when he's not at school he's living with his mother in an apartment block in New Mexico, hoping that he might have enough courage to stand up to his tormentors. One day, he comes across a new neighbour, Abby (Chloe Moretz), a young mysterious girl who seems to have a heater installed inside her, because she walks around in the snow with bare feet. Along with her comes an older man (Richard Jenkins), which leads Owen to wonder about what this young girl is. The pair strike up a friendship, and Abby becomes something similar to a mentor to Owen. All the while there have been a few unexplained murders going on around town and Owen discovers that his new friend - however good she might be for his confidence - isn't all she seems.
Now, you're probably expecting me to spend the rest of the review comparing this to
Let the Right One In. I thought I would too. But I have very few things to say about that. First of all, you probably know that the original is my ninth favourite movie of all time. I absolutely love it to bits. So naturally, unless
Let Me In burst out of my screen and made a pretty fireworks display outside of my house, I wasn't going to like it as much. In fact, I was adamant that I would hate it. I thought the Americans would, well, tarnish it with their American-ness. Alas, this did not happen. Everything was kept slow and restrained, as beautiful as ever. The only things that bugged me in the way of comparison is the fact that I'm so used to this film being in Swedish that I got pissed off that they were speaking in a language I could understand.
Let Me In does the inevitable, though: it improves on the original. This film starts in the middle of the story when Abby's 'father' is in hospital, and then centres the film around that scene. They also bring in a cop, played by the ever-brilliant Elias Koteas, which brings the story fluidity, even if it reduces the role of Virginia (Sasha Barrese) and her boyfriend, slightly.
Let Me In also cleans the story up, as it doesn't have all of the strange subplots coming out of it. It just picks a point and it runs straight for it. I imagine, if I saw
Let Me In before
Let the Right One In, then I may actually find myself gravitating towards this version much more, but I don't imagine I would have been as taken by it as I was taken by the original. I still love my
Let the Right One In to death, and nothing can take that away from me.
The vampire genre has become something of a phenomenon, ever since they started sparkling in the sun and going to school like old Edward Cullen. Now, those
Twilight fans are looking for every blood-sucking fragment of air they can find. Unfortunately,
they'll be disappointed by
Let Me In, as it's as slow as anything. Well, sorry guys, but
this is the way a vampire movie should be. Abby is evil trapped in an innocent facade, not a bloody wimp stuck in a wimpy facade. She's 12 years old, the ripe age when kids start learning more about themselves and start to become more wary of who they are because they are trying so hard to find their feet. Well imagine being stuck in that exterior for 400-odd years? Having to see people live the life that was given to them, while you stay paused in reality? Not only that, the only way of surviving is at the expense of others?
Let Me In does a brilliant job of portraying that,
really getting into the psychology of being a vampire. Which is why it isn't like all of the other vampire movies. It's just a movie about being different, and having to deal with it, in whatever way possible.
Matt Reeves is obviously being faithful to being a wonderful tale of friendship with a supernatural theme rather than being a movie supernatural movie with a bit of friendship. He keeps things as beautiful as they ever were, with long, lingering shots that prove that the film hasn't been made just to give gore and guts fans a good time. However, he definitely remembers the fact that this is still a horror, and there is a lot of blood. Abby, as cute as she seems, is terrifying when he goes into full vampire mode. Her eyes glowing while her face loses colour and has blood dripping from everywhere is enough to give me nightmares. One scene that works really well is the scene where Virginia catches on fire due to sunlight. One minute, she's sucking on her own blood (a sight which is haunting my dreams at the moment), the next, she's turned the whole room into a sea of flames. There are plenty of genuinely scary moments, just like this one, which are hard to shake after watching the movie.
Last, but not least, the performances are absolutely brilliant. Kodi Smit-McPhee continues to impress with his performance as creepy loner Owen. He just looks like the type of boy who would be bullied, and isn't the kind who could possibly stand up for himself. He does the fragile thing really well, and holds really nice chemistry with his co-star Chloe Moretz. With this film, Moretz confirms herself as not only a very capable young actress, but probably the most exciting we've seen in a long time. Her performance in this is absolutely amazing. I don't know how she played such a tortured soul so well at just her age, but I have to admit defeat to jealousy. Richard Jenkins, too, is great, even though he only has a small part. I personally think that his character is the most interesting, considering he is the one who has to commit most of the evil for Abby since she is too young to be anything but innocent, and Jenkins brings this emotional integrity to the role which is absolutely great. But considering 85% of this films success comes down to a pair of young actors, it does extremely well for itself, and makes for a wonderful adaption/remake.
THE VERDICT: Fans of the original need not worry: Let Me In doesn't tarnish that film in any way. It's scary, beautiful and haunting, which is exactly what a vampire movie needs to be.
What I hoped for:
What I got:
