Let Me In by The Professor

Director: Matt Reeves
Writers: Matt Reeves & John Ajvide Lindqvist, based on novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Starring: Chloe Moretz, Kodi Smit-McPheeki
Length: 115 Minutes

The original Swedish film adaptation was very good, but I was looking forward to a re-imagining, wondering what would be done with the story that hadn’t in the original movie. The two movies are very similar in many respects, despite the location being moved from Sweden to Los Alamos, New Mexico and the main characters names being changed to the more Anglo-Celtic Owen and Abby – from Oskar and Eli in the original.  

Some of Reeves changes were good, the scene in which Abby’s caretaker douses himself in acid to hide his identity was much better in the new film, both in suspense and in story-sense: it seemed more coherent and logically flowed from the story and made sense based on the caretaker’s M.O. I also think the way Reeves worked the extra character storylines into the lives of people within the complex: it seemed tighter and more fluent. The turning of the female victim worked better and her storyline was accomplished more succinctly and elegantly, without what was in retrospect the unnecessary addition of the feline antipathy toward the undead from the original. 

The bullies of Let Me In were more physically violent and the main character of Owen a little more sexually curious, but probably less psychotic than his Swedish counterpart; he kept no journal of serial killer clippings hidden under the floorboards, but was keen on peeping his neighbors’ intimacies; quite a bit more normal for a boy of 12 years, at least on this side of the Atlantic.  

For some reason, Reeves felt the need to make the mother of Owen markedly religious. She is not in the film much, but says grace twice, adding a ‘protect us from evil’  on the end, which seems strange for a table prayer, all to prelude Owen calling his father, who doesn’t physically appear in this film (no big deal, since his role was pretty much superfluous in the Swedish movie), and asking him about the nature of evil and can human beings be evil immediately after Abby attacks the woman in his complex. I thought this was rather clumsy and stupid, especially since Reeves didn’t see fit to pursue this didactic theme any further in the film, but proceeded to return to the original storyline with Owen and Abby as hesitant friends. This little moral aside was the only part of the movie that I would have just tossed. Though it also seemed odd that only one cop was investigating what seemed to be an on-the-loose serial killer, even in a town of just 10,000 people.
 
Matt Reeves played the story with less ambiguity. It is eventually evident in the American film, who exactly the caretaker had been, and Abby is more obviously, though subtly, manipulative and cynical than Eli ever could be proved to have been, though Owen is never aware of it in the course of the film.  
At the first of the film, Moretz seemed awkward in the character, and it took a bit to realize it was purposeful and to remember that the character herself is awkward. In hindsight, I think Moretz and Smit-McPhee both did an excellent job with their characters, at least as good as Leandersson and Hedebrant. And the movie, taken on its own merits without reflection on the original is a great piece of film overall.  

It’s hard to know if it was worth millions of dollars to produce this rather good film given how it was in some ways so very similar to the original. But truly Reeves put enough of his own stamp on the film that it certainly can’t be considered a clone. And it’s well worth the watch even if you’ve seen the Swedish version.  

4 out of 5