(2010) **** 1/2
Let Me In is an awesome remake. Though, I must admit, I was initially skeptical of its success for three reasons:
1) Americans know how to butcher good films.
2) I rarely see the point of remaking a film if it’s verbatim to the original (based on the trailer this seemed to be the case).
3) Lina Leandersson played the part of the vampire so flawlessly that she made herself irreplaceable.
It’s certainly true that that the remake holds pretty true to the original, right down to the cold, lonely, snowy atmosphere we all love; however, where the film becomes it’s own and what ultimately saves it, is shifting the focus more on the boy, who was excellently cast. This was an unbelievably smart move because, as I mentioned, Lina Leandersson is irreplaceable. In Let the Right One In, the girl stole the show for me. It was her story. I felt her plight, and I could see her pain and loneliness saturated in her eyes. The boy took a backseat to her story. It’s the complete opposite in Let Me In, even right down to his eyes, which intensely pull at your heartstrings.
Although this film was pretty fabulous, I couldn’t give it five stars, which is what I gave the original, because, as Landshark also mentioned, there are some crappy CGI effects (though only a couple and they barely take away from the film), and there’s just something indescribable that makes the first one a little better, I think it lies both somewhere in the tone and in Lina Leandersson’s performance.
However, I think it’s definitely worthy of **** ½ stars, and without a doubt a minimum of **** because it takes an awesome film, keeps it so close to the original, but yet still manages to create a different perspective. It also has one scene, not in the original, which is really awesome. It takes place in a car (Landshark, you know what I’m talking about). Oh, and I love that it is set in the eighties. I believe the original is too, but American eighties is different than Swedish eighties.
