REVIEW: Warm, Passionate Let Me In Rescues Vampire Genre

Movieline Score:

letmein_rev_2.jpg

Reeves follows the original picture fairly closely, even to the point of re-creating specific shots. But he and cinematographer Greig Fraser have somehow managed to change the hue of coldness from blue to red, most notably in the courtyard scenes where Owen and Abby meet in the snow: Despite the cold, there's a warm, reddish glow about these two characters, a visual suggestion of the fierce connection between them. (In contrast, a scene in which Jenkins' character goes hunting, dragging his prey into the woods, is adamantly frosty and desolate.)

Let Me In could use some streamlining in the last third -- Reeves may get a little too drifty in his romantic moodiness. But he's fully alive to what his actors can do, which may be why the characters in his version linger in the memory longer than the original ones do (though I did enjoy the dark, sorrowful quality of Lina Leandersson, the vampire girl in the Alfredson's version). McPhee -- the young actor who played the Boy in John Hillcoat's Cormac McCarthy adaptation The Road -- has the look of an amphibian-alien: His character's too-short haircut makes his enormous, wide-set eyes look like something not of this earth. It's no wonder the school bullies taunt him. But he's a deeply sympathetic weirdo, and his protectiveness of Abby -- long before he knows anything about who and what she really is -- prove to us that he's an OK kid at heart. And Moretz is gently magnetic: With her sad, pillowy half-smile, she resembles a very young Nastassia Kinski, a perpetual 12-year-old who's forever on the cusp of womanhood.

Let Me In isn't all doomed, spooky romance. It is, in places, suitably horrific, and Reeves shows a special knack for using period source music. In one sequence, an unsuspecting high-school kid, waiting alone in the front seat of his buddy's car, is attacked by a murderer who's been hiding silently in back. When this very human beast moves in for the kill, he snarls with the force of a wolf pack, as Blue Oyster Cult's Burnin' for You trails from the car radio. Edited with hairpin precision (by Stan Salfas), this is one of the most exhilarating horror-action sequences I've seen in years, thrilling and funny and sick in a dark, glittering way. Reeves understands that even the cheerful ordinariness of pop culture -- in this case, top-40 radio -- can be a genuinely sinister thing, and he's made a pop entertainment that's keyed in to that idea. Let Me In is a chilly little story set in a very cold place. But Reeves still knows when to go for the burn.

Pages: 1 2



Comments

  • Lovehandles says:

    "In a pop-culture world that’s coming dangerously close to vampire overload"
    Coming close? We've gone well past that stage.

  • googergieger says:

    Let Me In a near shot for shot remake of Let The Right One In that doesn't even get the story of the book right rescues the vampire genre?
    Watch more movies please.

  • Donald says:

    Yes, someone who writes about movies for a living should watch more movies... real bright.

  • googergieger says:

    And I work for Playstation for a living, doesn't mean I know everything about video games.
    *knocks on your head*

  • Trace says:

    Maybe you should read more. She explicitely said it recreated SOME shots. Key word SOME. So it's clearly NOT a shot-for-shot remake.
    And the book isn't sacred, so who cares if he changed a few incredibly minor details?
    The lack of reading comprehension from some of you guys demonstrates how American schools have failed. Honestly!

  • Ben says:

    You've got to be kidding. It wasn't even close to the original film. I agree it wasn't bad and it gets by on the strength of the source material, but the film making was ham-fisted and uneven. That soundtrack was probably the worst I've heard in years. It felt like the director didn't trust the film to come across and was trying to prop it up with an intrusive and manipulative score. I almost left about 20 minutes in, I was getting so tired of the drums and violins telegraphing ever scene.

  • Heisenberg says:

    DUDE... this movie looks crazy creepy and scary. Can't wait to see it. I haven't seen the movie it's based on but probably will at some point. http://www.letmein.ca