Let Me In Review

• 29th Oct 2010

It’s 1983, Owen (Kodi Smit-Mcphee), a 12 year old boy from Los Alamos, New Mexico, leads a solitary existence with a neglectful mother, spending his time trying to stay under the radar of the school bullies and dreaming about revenge. He finds unexpected friendship in the shape of the new girl next door Abby (Chloe Moretz) although it’s not long before he realises that walking barefoot in the snow and being able to solve a Rubik’s cube in hours are not the only strange things about her. She’s also a vampire…

Die-hard fans of the superbly crafted and beautiful original Swedish film (which was also faithful to John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel) will of course see this as an unnecessary remake. Especially as it’s been less than two years since the last one. However, I would urge you not to let your feelings about Let The Right One In influence whether you see Let Me In or not. The English-language remake, although not as multi-layered as the original, is still a moving and unsettling tale strengthened by affecting performances from the two young leads.

This is the first film from the revamped (pardon the pun) Hammer Studios and, it’s good to have them back! The last vampire film they made was The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires which merged kung-foo with vampirism with mixed results. We mustn’t forget that this is also the studio which pretty much invented the vampire-as-sex-object genre (take a bow, Christopher Lee). Before Hammer, vampires generally came in the form of long-fingernailed ghoulies (see Nosferatu). Robert Pattinson has a lot to thank them for.

As in Let The Right One In, the darkest parts of the novel are played down or left out entirely (e.g. the paedophilia) but the gore has been amped up – there are lashings of it, and it’s bright Hammer red. CG has been employed for the vampire attack scenes, but only sporadically, making Abby’s violent incidents all the more shocking when they do occur. Gone are the silhouettes so beautifully employed by Tomas Alfredson in Let The Right One In, here we have vampirism in close-up blood-soaked glory. Director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) makes great use of point of view shots which draw you into the film, giving it a slightly voyeuristic feel, the best of which is an amazing sequence showing a car accident shot entirely from the back seat.

Chloe Moretz puts in a nuanced and understated performance as Abby; somewhat surprising considering the last time we saw her she was peppering her conversation with expletives and gunfire in Kick-Ass.  Abby seems like an old soul -not a 250 year old vampire in a child’s body, but a 12 year old girl who just happens to “have been 12 for a very long time”. Kodi Smit-Mcphee, who made me cry for about a week and a half in The Road, gives a fantastic performance as Owen, the neglected, bullied and slightly disturbed young boy in desperate need of a friend, who is willing to put aside almost anything to get one. The score (Michael Giacchino) is beautiful, varying from haunting single instruments to a booming full-blown orchestra and choir. Interestingly, Owen’s bullies are often accompanied by the same music as Abby when she’s doing the vampire thing, implying that their crimes are on a par with, if not worse, than hers.

The secondary characters are perhaps a little two-dimensional as there simply isn’t enough screen time for them to develop. There is little left of the original Swedish group of booze-fuelled workers who are inadvertently pulled into the vampire world and Elias Koteas’ confused and world-weary cop is not much more than a caricature, but that’s kinda the point – Abby and Owen only have eyes for each other. This is evidenced especially in the case of Owen’s mother, constantly out of focus or in shadow, we never see her face, while his dad is nothing more than a disembodied voice on the phone. “The Father”, Abby’s human companion (Hakan in the original film and book) is played wonderfully by character actor Richard Jenkins, who spends much of the film killing people with a bag over his head, throwing himself around in snowdrifts and disposing of dead bodies. He is Igor to Abby’s mad scientist, locked in a cycle of blood and death from which he can see only one grisly way out.

In Let The Right One In, the vampirism was never the focus of the story – it’s a tale of loneliness, growing-up and first love. Reeves has honoured this, despite the addition of crowd-pleasing horror and gore. If this was the first version I’d seen of it, I’d be shouting from the rooftops about what an amazing film it is, so it’s a shame that the film does suffer in comparison. However, it does stand up on its own (bare) feet and if you haven’t seen Let The Right One In, or read the novel, then you’re definitely in for a (dark and disturbing) treat. If you have, although the snowy setting and story will feel familiar, you’ll still find much to enjoy in the new version.

Emma Wilkin