Cinefile

I still think Tomas Alfredson's Swedish film Let The Right One In is the best vampire film to come along in quite some time. Stunningly photographed, eerily atmospheric and featuring an unorthodox narrative (grade school bullying bunched with a broken home family dynamic, pubescent love and a hundred year old male vampire who looks like a twelve year old girl), Let The Right One In set the benchmark for all bloodsucking screen stories to follow. So a mere two years after this Swedish gem wowed U.S. audiences along the festival circuit, Matt Reeves' (Cloverfield) English-language remake, Let Me In, debuted to a practically non-existent crowd. Released during the same weekend in October as David Fincher's The Social Network, Let Me In never stood a chance: loyalists to the original scoffed at its very existence and hordes of other moviegoers were being dazzled by Fincher's soon-to-be crowned masterpiece on the birth of a social media revolution. But the question remained: Was Reeves' adaptation any good?

Luckily for cinephiles everywhere, Let Me In hit the DVD shelves this month and the film is surprisingly effective. Following the original film closely, Let Me In tells the story of a sweet, soft spoken twelve-year-old boy named Owen (The Road's Kodie Smit-McPhee) who quietly suffers between his parents' sloppy, phone-driven-divorce and the physical, violent bullying he gets everyday at school from snickering (and bigger) brats. Owen's micro-universe seems inescapable. His recreation is honed down to hanging out at the monkey bars in his apartment complex's backyard or frequenting the arcade/candy shop of his snowy New Mexico town. So when Abby (Kick-Ass' Chloe Moretz) and her "father" (Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins) move into the same apartment building, the possibility for new friendship--or even a possible girlfriend--seems greater than ever for Owen. You see, Abby is refreshingly cool and naturally cute. Their first exchanges in the backyard are harmless: Owen presents a Rubik's Cube to a grateful Abby and later Abby gives Owen some strong advice about his bullying predicament.

So where's the pinch? Well, Abby is in fact a vampire. It explains why she doesn't attend school, only comes out at night and has the uncanny ability to travel via window hopping. But Reeves--like Alfredson--appreciates the parallelism between a vampire trapped by the elements (blood-thirst, daylight) and a preteen trapped by his social mechanisms (school status, peer rivalry). In a strange, horrific way Owen and Abby need each other as strongly as do any other partners in bond. Through Owen, Abby can see a reflection of normalcy for an age she's been trapped in for who knows how long. In Abby, Owen sees an impressive strength and excitement that he feels incapable of attaining.

But is the film scary? Like Let The Right One In, the scares are not trimmed down to depending on loud sound effects or smokey cinematography. Here, it's more of an under-your-skin terror. Sure Abby and her "father" (note the quotation marks!) kill the innocent in order to replenish the need for blood but isn't it more horrifying that Owen's classmates would physically and emotionally humiliate him at school everyday? Like the best horror films, Let Me In draws inspiration and vitality by being able to juxtapose the horrors of its lore (blood! death!) with the horrors of everyday life (puberty! rejection!). And even though Reeves and company execute much of the aesthetics and story elements beautifully, Let Me In still surfaces as a not-so-striking piece of work because the original, much more powerful Swedish version is still so very fresh in our minds. In the end, if you haven't seen Alfredson's film, Let Me In will seem exquisite. But if you have seen Alfredson's version, Let Me In plays as a nice reminder of something you've already been moved by.

DVD Special Features:

The features here are worthy of picking up this disc though. From The Inside: A Look At The Making Of "Let Me In" is a strong making-of featurette which offers some good content. For example, Reeves touches upon how the novel of which the film is based on struck a special cord with him (the school bullying to precise) and how he aimed to make certain that the VFX did not overpower the story. A nice "industry" bit comes in a section where the restricted child actor working hours really wrangle up the crew to knock out their shots efficiently. The Art of the Special Effects shows several scenes in the film through different layers--Comp, Sim, Light Pass and Final Comp. Car Crash Sequence Step By Step offers a voiceover narration by Reeves explaining how they combined a studio rig, location shooting and an animated CG setting to pull off an impressive single take sequence in the film. Three Deleted Scenes also come on this disc and one of them--titled "Be Me"--should really have been included in the final cut. Some strong stuff there. Finally, a Trailer and Poster Gallery round out these special features.