Let Me In

LET ME IN is completely unnecessary. It is an American remake of the great Swedish film, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, and in the case of the remake, we get a film that is much, much worse. It is almost a copy of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, except the director of this American version is simply not as good a director as the Swedish one. There's a tonality and texture to films, and LET ME IN lacks the flair that the Swedish film had. Both films tell of a young 12 year old (here played by THE ROAD's Kodi Smit-McPhee) who is abused by bullies at school, and practically invisible to his parents. One night, playing in the courtyard by an apartment complex, the boy meets his neighbor, who just happens to be a vampire. Here, the 12-year-old-girl-vampire Abby is played by a radiant Chloe Moretz, who is probably the only good thing about the film. In this stupider version, we learn that her caretaker Thomas (an underused Richard Jenkins) was her best friend when they were both 12 and Abby was bitten. Abby is still 12 and Thomas is old, and now Abby has her eye on the young boy. This adds a terrible creepiness to the film, and undermines the effect of the Swedish version. The makers of LET ME IN have seen the Swedish version, and in an attempt to copy the eeriness of that film, it employs clichéd or copied dialogue that would never be said in real life, gaping mouths, and obvious, instructive music to illustrate the enigmatic nature it believes it possesses. This film exhibits a faux profundity, for every scene is so over-attired and intentional that scenes become cluttered and brief. LET ME IN is also remarkably dark in tonal color, and only from seeing the Swedish film was I able to comprehend what was going on. The film tries to be too weird and eery, and unlike the Swedish film, has no poetic value, so these eery scenes just become discomforting.
Let Me In: ★★