Let Me In

Count me as one of those folks who turned up my nose at the idea of an American remake Tomas Alfredson's Let the Right One In. A perfectly heavy, moody vampire flick about an unlikely friendship between a bullied boy and the vampire girl living in his rundown apartment, it screamed out for audiences to pay it more attention. It deserved to be seen on its own terms. Subtitles, quirky Swedish sensibilities and all. Throw in director Matt Reeves and the prospects of Let Me In being any good were even slimmer. Proving yet again that my gut instinct has all the sense of a bloodhound with a head cold, Let Me In more than matches up to the original. Dare I say it, but could it even be better?  Blasphemy.

Very nearly matching the desolate, lonely feel of Stockholm by transporting the story to Las Alamos, New Mexico. Owen(Kodi Smit-McPhee) is a lonely, frail 12 year old boy stuck in a town that seems to have no kids around at all. Well, that is except for the ones who bully him at school. Owen is the victim of merciless taunting and school age violence. Wedgies are a common occurrance. Swirlies too, probably.The bullying has had an effect on him, and it's clear his thoughts are starting to get a bit disturbed. His mother, recently divorced from Owen's father and now some sort of born again Christian, might as well not exist. Owen is basically left to fend for himself.

That is until he meets a strange, new girl living next to him in the apartment. She's instantly strange and off-putting, walking barefoot in the constant New Mexico snow. She has a strange smell about her, and never seems to be around in the day. After an awkward greeting, she tells Owen that her name is Abby(Chloe Moretz), and they can't be friends. Can't really blame her for being that way. I wouldn't want to make friends with my potential dinner, either. Ofcourse that never turns out to be the case, and the two kids become fast friends. All the while Owen is clueless to her true nature, that she's an ageless vampire stuck in the body of a 12 year old girl. To keep from arousing suspicion, her "father"(Richard Jenkins) kills people and drains them of their blood for her. For someone who's lived for seemingly decades, Abby is extremely innocent and naive in the same ways as Owen.

It's the relationship between Owen and Abby that is the driving force of the story. Matt Reeves wisely jettisons some of the peripheral characters from the original film in order to give the two child stars more prominence. It's a wise move because of Chloe Moretz's maturity and presence. She's come a long way in a short amount of time, going from scene stealer(in 500 Days of Summer), to splashpage goddess(Kick-Ass) to now elevating the performances of those around her. I wasn't sold on Smit-McPhee at any time when Moretz wasn't on screen with him.  Unfortunately Reeves' decision to put the focus so heavily on them didn't leave Jenkins with much to do.

Reeves is smart, proving to have a more subtle directing hand than one would've assumed after his debut, Cloverfield. He mostly mimicks the Swedish film, which isn't a bad thing at all. One of my problems with remakes as a whole is that they have the tendency to leave out what made the original work to begin with. Reeves might have changed a few things around, like adding a new prologue that forces the story to take place mostly in flashback, but it's a change for the better. The sporadic, vicious violence remains mostly intact, although just a touch more up close to soothe our horror craving.

I will never be able to excuse people who refuse to see foreign films because "reading is too distracting" or "the words get in the way of what's going on". All excuses I've heard before. All silly. Let Me In is so good that I can't hate on anyone for preferring it over Let the Right One In. Just do me a favor. Lie to me. Tell me you saw the first movie, too.