8. Let Me In (2010), dir. Matt Reeves
Saturday, 14 August 2021 17:51This is the American / British Hammer Productions remake of the Swedish film Let The Right One In (2008), which I watched last night on the Horror Channel. I've seen the Swedish version twice: once while travelling in Australia in 2017 (LJ / DW) and once at the Hyde Park Picture House in 2019 (LJ / DW). My previous experience of such remakes had led me to assume it would be crass and unsubtle, but for once that isn't a fair accusation at all. According to the film's Wikipedia entry, the producers aimed to stay true to the original novel and film, while making it accessible to a wider audience. I'd say they very much succeeded - though it's a pity for many reasons that the additional people this version will have reached won't normally contemplate stepping beyond their cultural bubble and watching a 'foreign' film.
The setting is transposed to New Mexico, which I did not know gets such a lot of snowy weather, but apparently it does, allowing the snowy setting of the Swedish original to be retained. The names are of course changed, so that Eli (the vampire) becomes Abby, her 12-year-old friend Oskar becomes Owen, and her previous servant Håkan becomes Thomas. Some of the special effects are slightly shonkier, like Abby's eyes when she is in full vampire mode, which definitely lack the subtlety of the original. But the general emotive power of the original is well matched, and so is the quality of cinematography and editing. Largely speaking, the story, the scenes used to convey it and the dialogue are unchanged except for being culturally Americanised: e.g. through more emphasis on religious belief in good and evil, more use of cars including a high-speed accident, and a more jockish feel to the high school bullies.
That said, there are various minor differences of detail - or at least I think these are differences, though I may be mistaken due to an imperfect memory of the original. We start with the capture, hospitalisation and suicide of Abby's previous servant, Thomas, from the point of view of the police and hospital staff, and then go back in time a couple of weeks to the two of them arriving at the apartment complex, before working our way back later on to the same events from his and Abby's perspectives. There's also more emphasis than I remember on the police officer as a character, I supposed again fitting American cultural expectations arising from the ubiquity of cop shows and movies. By contrast, Owen's father is largely removed from the narrative - Owen doesn't go and stay with him, and he appears only as an inadequately-supportive voice on the end of a phone-line. The cat-lady who gets bitten by Eli in the Swedish version and survives but begins turning into a vampire here has one dog instead of many cats, isn't as fully developed as a character, and bursts into flames because a nurse innocently opens the hospital blinds in her room, rather than because she has realised what's happening and asks for the blinds to be opened as a way of stopping it.
The questions which the Swedish version raised around gender were also pushed a little further here. Eli's statement about not being a girl is repeated verbatim by Abby, though Abby follows it up a bit further when Owen pushes her (them?) on it by saying she is 'no-one'. Meanwhile, on Owen's side, one of the main ways in which his bullies torment him is by calling him 'little girl' and referring to him using female pronouns. I'm 90% sure this isn't matched for the Oskar character in the Swedish version, so it becomes another thing they have in common in the remake: that both occupy a space outside of gender norms, whether willingly or unwillingly.
This version also seemed to make it more explicit to the viewer that Owen will become Abby's next servant, ending up like Thomas. This isn't to say that wasn't a suggested by the Swedish version - I noted exactly that in my first review of it (LJ / DW). I may also have been more alert to the pointers in this version, having already seen the other twice. But I felt there were two specific cues pointing fairly explicitly towards the parallel, and although the first may have been in the Swedish version too, I'm close to certain the second wasn't. One was a scene of Abby knocking on Thomas' hospital window and asking to be let in so she can kill him, followed immediately by another of her knocking on Owen's window and asking to be let in so she can snuggle up with him - i.e. the editing established a strong parallel between the two characters. The second was Owen finding passport photo booth pictures of Abby with Thomas when he was much younger in their apartment, looking just as nerdy as Owen and confirming for us the path that Thomas has been on. For me, this greater clarity made the developing relationship between Abby and Owen look rather less charming and a lot more like her grooming him, although again that may also be because I'm pretty familiar with the overall story by now.
Overall, definitely worth watching if you enjoyed the Swedish version, although the clearer delineation of Owen's future fate made the ending a little less bittersweet and more simply icky.
The setting is transposed to New Mexico, which I did not know gets such a lot of snowy weather, but apparently it does, allowing the snowy setting of the Swedish original to be retained. The names are of course changed, so that Eli (the vampire) becomes Abby, her 12-year-old friend Oskar becomes Owen, and her previous servant Håkan becomes Thomas. Some of the special effects are slightly shonkier, like Abby's eyes when she is in full vampire mode, which definitely lack the subtlety of the original. But the general emotive power of the original is well matched, and so is the quality of cinematography and editing. Largely speaking, the story, the scenes used to convey it and the dialogue are unchanged except for being culturally Americanised: e.g. through more emphasis on religious belief in good and evil, more use of cars including a high-speed accident, and a more jockish feel to the high school bullies.
That said, there are various minor differences of detail - or at least I think these are differences, though I may be mistaken due to an imperfect memory of the original. We start with the capture, hospitalisation and suicide of Abby's previous servant, Thomas, from the point of view of the police and hospital staff, and then go back in time a couple of weeks to the two of them arriving at the apartment complex, before working our way back later on to the same events from his and Abby's perspectives. There's also more emphasis than I remember on the police officer as a character, I supposed again fitting American cultural expectations arising from the ubiquity of cop shows and movies. By contrast, Owen's father is largely removed from the narrative - Owen doesn't go and stay with him, and he appears only as an inadequately-supportive voice on the end of a phone-line. The cat-lady who gets bitten by Eli in the Swedish version and survives but begins turning into a vampire here has one dog instead of many cats, isn't as fully developed as a character, and bursts into flames because a nurse innocently opens the hospital blinds in her room, rather than because she has realised what's happening and asks for the blinds to be opened as a way of stopping it.
The questions which the Swedish version raised around gender were also pushed a little further here. Eli's statement about not being a girl is repeated verbatim by Abby, though Abby follows it up a bit further when Owen pushes her (them?) on it by saying she is 'no-one'. Meanwhile, on Owen's side, one of the main ways in which his bullies torment him is by calling him 'little girl' and referring to him using female pronouns. I'm 90% sure this isn't matched for the Oskar character in the Swedish version, so it becomes another thing they have in common in the remake: that both occupy a space outside of gender norms, whether willingly or unwillingly.
This version also seemed to make it more explicit to the viewer that Owen will become Abby's next servant, ending up like Thomas. This isn't to say that wasn't a suggested by the Swedish version - I noted exactly that in my first review of it (LJ / DW). I may also have been more alert to the pointers in this version, having already seen the other twice. But I felt there were two specific cues pointing fairly explicitly towards the parallel, and although the first may have been in the Swedish version too, I'm close to certain the second wasn't. One was a scene of Abby knocking on Thomas' hospital window and asking to be let in so she can kill him, followed immediately by another of her knocking on Owen's window and asking to be let in so she can snuggle up with him - i.e. the editing established a strong parallel between the two characters. The second was Owen finding passport photo booth pictures of Abby with Thomas when he was much younger in their apartment, looking just as nerdy as Owen and confirming for us the path that Thomas has been on. For me, this greater clarity made the developing relationship between Abby and Owen look rather less charming and a lot more like her grooming him, although again that may also be because I'm pretty familiar with the overall story by now.
Overall, definitely worth watching if you enjoyed the Swedish version, although the clearer delineation of Owen's future fate made the ending a little less bittersweet and more simply icky.