* Reposted from October 14, 2010
On the surface, Let Me In may appear to be just another entry in what many would consider an overdone genre at the moment. The vampire/ love story, or vampire/ anything story. But if you dig deeper, you’ll begin to find much more disturbing themes at play, certainly themes that you won’t find underneath all of the sparkles of this year’s other vampire film.
Set in 1980’s Arizona, the film follows a young boy named Owen. He’s a scrawny kid, who loves candy, and is a victim of not only divorce, but of bullies as well. He’s also a peeping tom, which is how he catches his first glimpse of the new neighbor, Abby. As the film progresses, Owen comes to learn about Abby’s true nature, and we watch as these two young children begin to form a very strange bond.
If you don’t already know, Let Me In is a remake of the Swedish film, Let the Right One In, released back in 2008. I’m telling you this because I firmly believe that even if you see this version, you should definitely make an effort to see the original, as it is just as well made, and also includes some extra scenes you won’t see in this film. But with that said, director/writer Matt Reeves has done well bringing this story to the wider American audience. It retains the great atmosphere set by the original, while cutting some of the fat, and then amping it up a bit for our American tastes.
The casting feels pretty much spot on. Which is important, because this is a film that survives on its relationships. You have the relationship between Owen and Abby, played by Kodi Smit- McPhee and Chloe Moretz. And then between Abby and her “father figure”, played by Richard Jenkins. And then, of course, Owen and his school yard tormenters. If there’s one common theme throughout these relationships, it’s that they’re all unsettling. The father/ daughter relationship is especially disturbing, because it shows you where Abby’s manipulations over Owen will eventually take their “friendship.” And the bully/ victim relationship goes to some really awful places, including one locker room scene that provokes images of rape.
While this film shares a lot with it’s predecessor, Reeves didn’t just do a shot for shot remake. He adds a bit of his own ideas, while also trimming away some of the fat of the original. For instance, I thought one of the more interesting improvements was on the character of “ The Father.” In the original, this character is nothing but a man with a hapless job to do… find dinner for the girl. This involves stalking the streets for people who may be vulnerable to attack, and then dragging them out into the woods to be prepared as a snack. The problem is there’s no pizzazz to the way he approaches this job, and thus it’s not very interesting. In the remake though, Reeve’s imbues that character with a sort of legendary status, turning him into a sort of devil worshipping serial killer, being hunted by the cops. And while it’s not explored to it’s fullest extent, it’s still tons more effective than what was done in the original. The second thing worth mentioning is the loss of the party scene. In the original film, the story veers off slightly to introduce us to a whole new set of characters, just for the sake of getting a good kill scene. Reeve’s still accomplishes everything in this scene, but by using already established characters. It was a smart move that cut down on the size of the film, and kept the story in a more intimate world.
It’s not all praise though. One of the major distractions of this film is it’s horrible CGI. And while there’s not much of it, it’s still enough to draw you out of the film for just a few minutes. And here’s the thing, if a film like District 9 can be made for $30 million and look as good as it did, then Let Me In should be able to manage 3 or 4 heavy effects shots with it’s $20 million budget. And then there’s what I feel is the one glaring omission from this film, which is present in the original, that I feel adds a whole new layer to the story. And that’s the fact that Abby is not a little girl vampire, but is in fact a little boy vampire, who at a young age, and sometime before his turn to the undead, was castrated. If you watch the original, it’s not something you would notice immediately, in fact I didn’t notice at all until I read a quote from the director pointing it out. But it’s an extra bit of information that I feel is important to the character of Abby, and causes me to view the film in a whole new light.
One last thing worth mentioning is the score by composer, Michael Giacchino. I think I read at some point that he would be providing the score for Let Me In, but I guess that between that point and actually seeing the film, the info left my memory. But as the film opens up on that wide shot, and those first strings of the score come through the surround sound, I immediately recognized the sound and a smile crossed my face. I’m a huge fan of the television show LOST, and a big part of that love comes from the music that Giacchino produced on a weekly basis. And he does the same thing for me here. I couldn’t imagine this film without his influence on it. It just wouldn’t be the same.
Finally, if you’re looking for a good offering in the horror genre, especially during the month of October, then you would do good to check this one out, along with the original film. It’s a lot more psychological, and interior horror, rather than the bloody and superficial kind, but in my opinion that’s when horror is at it’s best.
In Review 