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Even in the finale where the two are bonded, it's not clear if Abby will keep him as a lover, or if she'll just use him as much as possible and throw him away when his wide eyed view of love has deteriorated in to the grim realization that she is pure unbridled evil and nothing more than that. Reeves really succeeds in building this world in to a hopeless land of sadness and shame where kids are evil, and adults hide their woes behind closed doors. The highlight of "Let Me In" are the riveting performances, and Reeves excels by casting Chloe Moretz and Codi-Smit McPhee, two truly gifted and incredible child actors both of whom have a startling chemistry and sexual tension that's hidden behind childlike bashfulness and discretion. Moretz in particular is fantastic as Abby, a young girl who is at first unassuming and docile, but is really just black to the pit of her core with zero definition of morality or restraint. Reeves thankfully keeps her true demonic form a secret for us preferring to focus on her childish glare but when unleashed she is a horrible demonic entity, one unwilling to forgive or take pity on. This is demonstrated in the fierce and intense re-working of the finale by the pool, one that's too flashy for my taste, but still effective. Reeves centers his film around the children and emphasizes the relationships of the kids among the adults and in that regard it works and is quite compelling in instances.
And Elias Koteas is added as a cop who is also on the hunt for the killer that is Abby's caretaker and provider and sees first hand the unusual circumstances before his eyes, and little else. There's not a real motivation for his character beyond pushing Abby and Owen closer together to fit the time constraints. Meanwhile the sub-plot with the bullies is expanded upon and Reeves makes the sad mistake of creating more empathic bullies, one of whom is a complete and absolute monster who is a victim of bullying himself. Thus when the big finale rolls around with blood and body parts, we feel sadness for him, but since there's no resolution to his storyline, we're never sure why. We just have to feel bad for him because Reeves makes it painfully clear that head bully is just a bigger version of Owen who has his own menace he can't escape. Subtly is obviously not what Reeve strives for as the finale, while absolutely fierce, throws in your face violence and sound effects that force down the audiences throats that something horrible is happening off screen, you can tell by the severed head that just float in to the screen. Booga! There's no real poetry or grace as the predecessor possessed, and that's why it's not a complete success from Europe to America.
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I think "Let Me In" will be deemed as a respectable companion piece to
the infinitely superior "Let The Right One In" if only because Matt
Reeves directs this version with his eye on convention more than edge.
The original was already so gruesome and complex and filled with subtext
and undertones that Reeves opts instead for simple and superficial and
it will rely on the audiences preference if they want a movie about a
vampire and a boy falling in love, or if they want a story about a boy
and a girl falling in love, one of whom mutilates people and drinks
their blood. "Let Me In" is not the wash out I originally predicted it
would be, but I'm not going to call it a masterpiece either. It barely
warrants a re-watch, when all is said and done. At the end of the day
it's just there, it's a remake that's wholly unnecessary that does have
its advantages and strives to at least live up to the original. Reeve's
direction is quite startling in its way of painting this snowy New
Mexican land as something of a bleak world beyond our own. The world is
illuminated only by natural light and when the darkness comes it slowly
transforms in to a world where the grisly and disgusting can take its
form. This is a time of night where Abby comes out of her darkness to
loom and wait around for her meal.
While many
welcomed a new vision of "Let the Right One In," the only reason why
this film was even open for discussion as a remake was because the
vampire market is hot in the new decade, and in spite of it flopping
at the box-office, it's surely a film that will appeal to Twilight
fans. As a remake and reworking of the original film, it's utterly
unnecessary and pretty much a by the numbers copy. Instead though
Reeves rethinks the entire story eliminated anything taboo and
completely relies on complete convention to tell a story. Instead of
a boy and a vampire with a sex that ambiguous, we instead get just a
boy and girl love story. Rather than a cold tundra in a foreign land
we get a cold tundra in New Mexico set in the eighties. By the way
the movie makes is painstakingly clear that "Let Me In" is set in
the eighties, and you must remember that for some reason. Now and
Laters, black and white TV, and Ms. Pacman make an appearance for
nothing else than to add an artsy gloss that's not completely
necessary. Meanwhile all themes of incest, pedophilia, homosexuality
and the like are completely dropped in favor of a generational gap
love story of a boy and a vampire girl who may or may not be old
enough to be his great great grandmother.
Not at all the masterpiece many easy to please viewers have deemed it
as, "Let Me In" is a respectable time waster, a movie that is pointless
in its purpose and goal and strives to maintain its creativity and
horror edge while also appealing to "Twilight" fans in the process. The
symbolism and undertones are nowhere to be found, but the highlight are
the performances, and the atmosphere, both of which this film brings in
droves.