Let Me In review

Time to talk remakes again I suppose. That dirty little word that's uttered anytime people in the film community want to discuss what appears to be wrong with the American system. I guess we'll just overlook the highly unimpressive Asian remake of the Coen brothers "Blood Simple"or the fact that the Italian's were doing worse things in the 70's and 80's by ripping off whole movies and retitling them. Ok, soap box moment over... my feverish annoyance at this idea that we're the only country to remake things tends to always put me in a bad mood. Even more so when they write off pieces of work that are actually very, very good before they come out because 'it's an American remake'.

"Let the Right One In" is regarded as a modern classic in the geek community and somewhat in the film community. Is it as the Washington Post put it "the best vampire movie ever"? I can't truly say. It's a great story, but personally I don't think it's a great movie. It's really, really damn good, but there's more than a few things that I wasn't completely taken with where I can't fall in love with it. Matt Reeves' remake on the other hand does have that quality and I am shocked. Granted I was interested/skeptical to see what Reeves had planned and after reading his thoughts a few months back I was even more interested, but I still had my doubts about things. However pretty much from the minute the film starts it's clear that he's aiming to make something different. It does tie well into it's book source, but also take a few cues from the original film. It's not playing the "Psycho" game where everything is just as it was, but there is that subtle safety net that's there if needed from time to time.

The entire movie really hinges on two things; the performances and relationship between Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and Abby (Chole Moretz). There honestly is nothing for Reeves and co. to fall back on. The adult characters (Richard Jenkins and Elias Koteas) are in VERY much supporting roles and the true, blue horror movie elements are secondary at best. Happily it all works though. Their chemistry and performances are golden and actually work to make you believe it. From there it's simply making everything move in a slow, but strong pace of building that relationship and shaping the world around it. Owen is mercilessly bullied at school, his parents are going through a rough divorce and it's clear on both sides things are far from getting better. In effect Owen is an anti-social outcast. Abby moves in during the night with her father (Jenkins) and slowly build what becames a friendship and then possibly more. Again a lot lays on their shoulders and when they get closer on Reeves' (who also wrote the screenplay).

It's easy to pull vampire-human romance with attractive teens or twenty-somethings. Granted "Twilight" hasn't been able to do it in three movies, but for people with at least half a creative thought in their head it's simple. When it's kids around twelve or so... not so much. With kids romance or general strong feels aren't really about arriving at sex. Let's face it once you hit a certain point that does become even if subconscious or way removed from your up front feelings, an unavoidable thought concept. And as the relationship progresses so does the sexual build up. But with kids it's not nearly that far up the ladder. For them kissing and maybe light groping could be the 'end game'. Unless of course if the kid is a straight hormone charged freakazoid. They play off the advanced relationship with much of the same quiet subtly they place on everything else in the film. For them it's not about a bunch of big moments, but tons of fucking great small ones.

Composer and Oscar winner Michael Giacchino ('Star Trek' and 'Up') delivers what I think is one of his best, but most subtle pieces of work yet. His musical score plays up the slow creepiness of the picture along with the emotion and then gives us some fantastic operatic thrusts to send it all home in the more intense segments. Something else that Matt Reeves had stated in an interview was that he was visually inspired by 70's and 80's Spielbergia where films like "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "E.T." and "Poltergeist" took place. Those little places in middle America that were like advanced, living forms of Norman Rockwell paintings. It's photographed beautifully and with a film grain that often even gives it an 80's appearance. It's an atmosphere that so few horror films and thrillers kind of lack and can honestly only help your picture.

Fuck it, I'll say that yeah I do love this version a bit more than the original. It's similar to my love of "Sorcerer" over "The Wages of Fear". Both are great, but I get way more engrossed with Friedkin's remake than the original film. I still feel the best remake probably is "The Departed". The original Hong Kong film "Infernal Affairs" remains an example of the type of H.K. action film I don't like; where it's over edited to such a point to where the biggest scenes resemble trailers rather than an actual movie. As far was this goes though it's probably too soon to tell, but it's among the best I've seen. As a American horror picture it is the way I feel we ought to be heading. We've proven that we can have fun still and be bloody, but it's so rare that we can produce strong, dramatic horror anymore. We're afraid of the slow burn horror so we simply don't make it anymore. Granted audience also choose not to see them also... ummm... I wonder could there be a connection?

Now while I'm writing this on Monday morning I'm already aware of the film's box office results. Personally I was rooting for David Fincher's "The Social Network" and it performed as I would have imagined. Congrats to them and Sony on that and for making at this point the most engrossing and entertaining film I've seen this year. Seriously before that the best film I'd seen was "Exit Through the Gift Shop" and that came out in March. Seven months and even the closest film to it wasn't nearly able to top it. However I was looking for "Let Me In" to perform a lot better. I imagine it didn't because people didn't see the original, but might not have wanted to support a remake. "Twilight" has honestly fucked up chances for good vampire stories to come along and do well. And also because the trailers are angled at... I'll say it... idiots. Overture did for this what Focus Features did for "The American". They lied. This IS NOT a straight or kind of straight horror film. It's a drama with horror elements. They lied because they wanted that horror fan money and sadly it seems they didn't get it. I guess now I have to wonder what might have been if they did release a slow moving, dramatic and methodical ad campaign instead. Landing at #8 your opening weekend is rough. It's hard to bounce back and considering "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" was at #4 and couldn't do, I'm sure this won't either. There's not a lot of convincing I can give to see the movie that hasn't already been stated so I figure readers that have the interest will do it on their own accord. But... even though films like "Paranormal Activity 2" and "Saw VII" and "My Soul to Take" by Wes Craven are a little ways off... I can almost assure you that by missing this you will be missing the most impressive horror film of the season.

Surprisingly writing this review sort of depressed me by the end. Yet another bitter finale to a great piece of work.