Let Me In Review

It’s such a strange thing. Let Me In arrives as the American remake of Let The Right One In, barely two years after the original film was released. Director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) clearly has great respect for the original version but that respect results in him following the original almost to the letter and so his remake struggles to assert its own identity or justify its own existence in any meaningful way. So far so predictable. But Let Me In turns out to be a very good film, way better than expected, and what’s interesting is that, those moments where Reeves dares to be different, to add his own touches or moments, the film really flies. This makes you wonder what might the film have been if he had had the courage to go his own way even further.

If you’ve seen Let The Right One In then story wise you’re in for no surprises. Owen (The Road’s Kodi Smit-McPhee) is a lonely outsider, bullied at school, harbouring revenge fantasies against his bullies, and living with his recently separated (and, in this version, highly religious) Mother. Into his apartment block moves Abby (Hit Girl herself, Chloe Grace Moretz) and her apparent Father (the always excellent Richard Jenkins). Chloe is, of course, a vampire and Jenkins is her helper, going out at night to kill for blood to keep her alive. The story progresses, sometimes scene for scene, as the original film and we watch Owen experience his first love, the relationship between he and Abby being the focus of the film and that which drives it towards its fantastic last act.

One of the best things in the original film was the performances and Moretz and Smit-McPhee are both excellent in the remake. There is a palpable sadness in both children, both for very different reasons of course, and this lingers over the whole film. Reeves makes the choice to remove some elements and, for the most part, they are not missed. The now infamous “cat scene” is mercifully gone. What might just be the most famous shot from the first film is also missing. You’ll know it when you don’t see it. Owen’s Mother always appears out of focus or out of frame and it’s a visually interesting touch that underscores the nature of that relationship. The most successful changes are small moments that deserve to be seen without being spoiled beforehand, though I will say that a failed attempt by Richard Jenkins to capture a victim for Abby to feed on results in a sequence arguably more tense than anything in the original. Not all the changes work, CGI Abby being the worst offender, and its similarity to the original means the whole “what’s the point” question looms large over its entire running time. Most of the last act is completely intact, including the most famous scene, and the impact is diminished by virtue of it being so similar.

Ultimately Let Me In is a good film, atmospheric, deliberately paced, well acted and well written and directed and, as such, deserves to be seen. Would it have been like that without the first film? Even though both are based on a book, you still get the feeling that the original film was the bigger influence on Reeves’ remake and so therefore the answer is no. At the end of the day you should see Let The Right One In. But if you simply don’t do subtitles, then Let Me In is a more than adequate substitute.

7/10