MOVIE REVIEW: Let Me In (2010)

Let the Right One In, a Swedish vampire-romance film between two children was everything Twilight should have been, and deserves over half the attention that the latter, pedestrian, disaster-of-a-vampire-film turned out to be. Now we have an American remake, Let Me In, which is more of a re-imagining of sorts that draws upon the original literary source material a la last year's True Grit. While it presents some stylistically interesting departures from how I originally came to know the beautiful story, I had a problem shaking the overall feeling of deja vu which made the two films seem almost too similar to one another.

In the early 1980s, a bullied young boy named Owen, living in an apartment complex in New Mexico befriends his new neighbor; a shady young girl named Abby. What Owen doesn't realize is that Abby is in fact, a vampire, and her serial-killer guardian assists in her dirty work in order to provide her the sanguine sustenance she needs for her survival. When the curiosity of outsiders and Owens bullying start to go to a head, the two decide to take matters into their own hands.

Having really enjoyed Let the Right One In, I was determined to view Let Me In with an open mind. The trouble is, there wasn't really a whole lot stylistically, aside from the cinematography and art direction, that allowed me to disconnect those feelings of overly-embellished familiarity. While the acting and directing are quite good, I was still yearning for the tragic, gruesome subtlety of the Swedish version. Let Me In is played out more like a contemporary horror film, complete with explicit gore and loud scares. I can accept that fact as this is supposed to be a re-imagining, but again, it distracted me from my interest in how the relationship between Owen and Abby was supposed to develop. There's a lot to enjoy in Let Me In, and fans of the original will probably find it entertaining, if not, somewhat indulgent, in the tradition of most American remakes.

7/10

Peace,
- Jon