Let The Wrong One Go

[rich_jacko]

Let Me In isn't a bad film.

If you like low-key, atmospheric horror, and you haven't seen the original, you'll probably enjoy it.

If you have seen the original, you won't come out of the cinema cursing it as an appalling travesty. It's reasonably faithful, and a lot of the scenes (even a lot of the lines) are the same.

It's just that - and I'm not sure whether this is ironic or not for a film with so much snow in it - it left me cold.

It focusses very strongly on the horror aspects, which is fine insofar as it goes, but it lacks nearly all of the tenderness and humanity of the original.

The biggest problem is the two leads, who seem to be out of that school of child acting which believes, "If we look and sound deadly serious all the time, the audience will think we're being really deep and meaningful". That makes it very difficult to feel much empathy towards them, or to see them have much empathy for each other. Having EliAbby go all 'game face' and scrambling about like Gollum probably didn't help much, but she never came across as at all vulnerable (even when she was bleeding over the floor) or to be doing anything other than cynically manipulating OskarOwen.

I resisted the urge to watch Låt Den Rätte Komma In again before seeing the remake, so it wouldn't colour my perceptions too much, but having done so tonight I was struck by how brilliant, subtle and emotive the two kids playing Eli and Oskar are by comparison.

Let Me In also chops out (either mostly or entirely) many of the supporting characters, making for an emptier story. That, and an over-indulgence in long moody pauses for ominous music, makes it feel quite slow and plodding.

It's not all bad. Like I said, it's atmospheric and quite faithful. Some parts that were done differently were very successful: Starting part-way through and flashing back is a tried and tested gimmick, but it fitted well. There's a scene in a car about halfway through that wasn't in the original at all, and is done in a quite unusual way that worked brilliantly. The swimming pool scene at the end was done in a less artistic, more visceral way that really let you experience it from OskarOwen's perspective - a slight twist on the original version of the scene, but just as good in its own way.

But taking the two films overall, the remake isn't in the same league. If you only ever see one of the two, make it the right one ;o)