Let Me In (2010)

A bullied young boy befriends a young female vampire who lives in secrecy with her guardian.

When I heard that they were remaking one of my favorite movies of 2008, Let The Right One In,  I was very upset. Not only that they were remaking the foreign film which I thought was already excellent, but that they were doing in 2 years later. I was also worried about the director choice, Matt Reeves, who was the director of Cloverfield. The cast was one thing that did excite me, Kodi Smit-McPhee was excellent in The Road and Chloe Moretz was great in Kickass.

The best comparison for these two movies I can think of is Let Me In is a color by numbers version of Let The Right One In. Imagine getting a color by numbers version of the Mona Lisa, you are told what colors to go where to make it look as good as the original, but many factors would hurt it. Are the colors exactly the same, did you color over the line, did you try to make parts original? In the end of it all though it really never had a chance to be as good as the original but it could be very good.

They decided to keep many of the same dialogue and scenes which was very nice to see, if it's not broke, then why fix it? Other things that they decided to add I thought worked really well. They made Abby's guardian more of a villain when he goes to find blood for Abby. They also put more into the story about Abby's relationship with the guardian and who he really was. It may be pushed on you a little much, the less you have to keep pushing it on an audience seems to be better.

The changes were also for the worse in this movie. Making Abby turn into a monster I think was a huge mistake, the relationship she has with Owen is build on them both needing friends because they are outcasts. Turning her into a monster would really change that dynamic. Also the police man who is not in the original, is neither made into a good guy or a villain so in the end you don't know how to feel about him, whats the point of having him be such a big character if you aren't going to develop him. I think Matt Reeves really failed to understand the mindset of some of these characters in the original or just decided to change it, which was a bad idea.

In a world where Let The Right One In doesn't exist, Let Me In would a good film. It would be different than anything that we have seen in the vampire genre. Unfortunately there is a better version of this film that has a better script, much better cinematography, quality acting and is original.

When To Watch Rating: Need for Entertainment

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