Monday, May 17, 2010

Let the Right One In // Let Me In

You can feel free to dock me "hip and current points" because I just watched the critically acclaimed 2008 vampire film Let the Right One In this past weekend.

But...you may know how I feel about modern horror films. So, I generally avoid the genre...but decided this film warranted an exception.

So, excuse the delay in discussing this film, but I have a feeling, despite it's critical acclaim that the majority of readers of this blog haven't seen this Swedish vampire film either...whether that's because it's foreign or is a "horror film" I can assume a lot of people are outside of the venn diagram.

In fact, I've made a venn diagram for this very point.




You see, this film Let the Right One In...is highly acclaimed, won many awards, and has been ranked in the IMDB top 250 as well. But you see, the film falls in section "C" of my diagram.

So...as it turns out this wildly popular 2008 film is already having a remake made...this time in English (the concept get rid of the foreign film angle and expand it to a wider audience).

As you know, this type of stuff is not for film purest...it can make them angry.

All the same, this Vampire Romance Horror (between 12 years olds, no less) has a remake set to come out this fall, similarly title Let Me In.

Let Me In is written and directed by Matt Reeve's who's previous accomplishment was for his direction of Cloverfield as well as being the producer creator of J.J. Abram's television show "Felicity".



This film, now will fall in section B of the venn diagram above, as a "horror film" and it's hard to say how this film will do, and how the appreciate of the Swedish film will (or will not) have an impact on the success of this film.

And if you're interested in how someone who doesn't care for horror films (or vampire films) felt about Let the Right One In? Well...I will say it's an impressive film...it certainly has a few "gore moments" but one of the reasons I imagine Reeve's was attracted to this project, is much like Cloverfield which plays down the images of gore, but plays up the implications of "the monster" this story is similar...the story is not the gore or the spectacle, it's the strange connection between two people. Would I say "go out and watch this now." Not necessarily, but I certainly walked away appreciating this film and the story telling.

I hope that the remake presents something worthy of respect. The reality is the two main roles (Oskar and Eli in the 2008 Swedish version and Owen and Abby in 2010 English version) offer up an exceptional opportunity for a young actor to give a powerful performance. We'll see how Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloe Moretz due in the remake.

3 comments:

Loren Eaton said...

Let the Right One In succeeds where the Final Destination franchise (or any of the splatterfests of the moment) fail because its director understood one simple thing: The visceral stuff exists to advance the narrative, not the other way around.

Someone Said said...

It's an uncreative Hollywood remaking an excellent film. I'm not confident it can be pulled off, remember what happened to The Vanishing?

Let the Right One In was also a book first. Debut novel by John Lindqvist.

Danny King said...

I loved the Swedish original, and am looking forward to the American remake mostly for the two leads. I though McPhee showed some impressive dramatic depth in "The Road," and even though "Kick-Ass" isn't necessarily a dramatic film, I think Moretz has more than enough ability to pull this roll off.

The first still of the film, however, looked almost identical to the playground set from the foreign film. Hopefully this doesn't turn out to be a scene-for-scene remake.