Let Me In (2011)

Directed by: Matt Reeves

Chloë Moretz goes from Kick Ass to Bite Neck, establishing a bit of a trend for starring in movies whose age-rating means they are unwatchable by her (unlike her latest movie, Hick, which was simply unwatchable by anyone).  In fact, she also gets to do some ass kicking in this movie, which is a remake of the Swedish film Let The Right One In.

In a snowy Los Alamos, New Mexico, a man is admitted to hospital, his face horribly burned.  Before he can be fully interviewed by the police, he manages to throw himself from his hospital-room window…

Two weeks earlier, we meet twelve-year old Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) small for his age, a loner, bullied at school, and harbouring some nascent fantasies of revenge and violence.  Owen lives in a small apartment with his recently separated mom, who divides her solace-taking between the bible and the bottle, leaving her son to brood in the play area outside the apartment, or spy on his neighbours with a telescope. His solitary existence is interrupted by the arrival one night of a man and a girl who move into the next-door apartment.  When they meet one evening in the play area, Owen is intrigued by this strange girl who walks barefoot in the snow, who smells strange, who announces that she cannot be his friend (but seems driven by a need for his companionship) and whose windows are blacked out.  Then people in the area start to go missing and, when bodies are found, they are lacking blood.  Owen gradually realises Abby (Moretz) is not an ordinary twelve-year old, but his fear is overcome by his growing need for Abby’s affection and protection.

Let me start by saying this is really a rather good movie – a superior vampire flick in a completely different vein (sorry) from the Twilight series.  Cold, dark, occasionally bloody, it can subvert your expectations about sweet-looking children, and vampires, just as it can about the climate of Los Alamos.  It’s just not quite as good as the original, and it follows so hard on the heels of the Swedish version that direct comparisons are easy.  

I completely understand the logic for wanting to remake the film.  Since, dubbing has (I am glad to say) fallen out of fashion, the only way to create a mass audience in the English-speaking world for this tale of childhood vampiric friendship and love is to produce a new version.  So the next decision for the producers was whether to go for a loose adaptation or a fairly strict translation, and they have opted for the latter.  

Overall, that’s a good choice, as the sense of the uncanny and of shock (with sudden changes of pace, and disconcerting outbursts of violence) that so distinguished the Swedish film are still there – for the most part.  Sometimes the remake signals its intentions a little too clearly: eerie ghost-music launches the film, and scenes are occasionally rather obvious (we know, as Owen closes the door to his locker, that the bully will have appeared); we know that when the detective is called away to the phone in the hospital, something horrible will happen to the incinerated patient he’s been questioning).  The movie does not rely on special effects, which is just as well because, on the few occasions they are used, they are clunky (to be fair, the earlier film shared this fault).

So, should you see it? Absolutely, if you haven’t seen the Swedish film.  If you have, it’s a harder case to make, but even then, not one that will leave you feeling short-changed.