I recently watched Let the Right One In, a mighty fine coming of age film about two twelve-year old misfits finding each other and falling in love in suburban Stockholm. One of those twelve-year olds just happens to be a vampire and abides by the vampire conventions: he drinks blood, he has superhuman powers, he can’t endure sunlight, he has a creepy Renfield-like minion. And though the stars of this film are pre-teens, this is definitely a film for adults, and though it’s a genre film, it’s not about showing off how clever it can be within the confines of its genre. It is about human relationships. That may seem like an odd assertion when one of the characters is Undead, but if you watch this film I ask that you to consider the dynamics between: Eli, the young, castrated vampire and his new best friend, the milquetoast outcast Oskar; Eli and his servant, Hakan; Oskar and his alcoholic father.
The relationships are shown and not articulated, and often there is a healthy and welcome dose of ambiguity to them. In the book, Hakan follows and aids Eli because he’s a pedophile; in the film, that could be the reason, or it could be that Eli, who has been twelve for a long time, befriended Hakan when he was twelve and Hakan, a mere mortal, has aged but his love and devotion to Eli have not waned. We don’t know, and not knowing with certainty that history brings tension to the Eli-Oskar relationship. Are Eli’s feelings for Oskar genuine or is Oskar just one in a series of Hakans? The viewer is left to draw his/her own conclusion. Wow, imagine that?
It is chillingly shot (and not because it’s winter in Sweden) and achieves an atmosphere of dread through unsettling mise-en-scene (a bloodletting in a wood, a massacre in a pool, a body retrieved under a frozen lake) and somewhat standard horror movie camera movement, color, and light. There are few gee-whiz vampire effects and just a little bit of gore--the climactic scene is a perfectly envisioned piece of Grand Guignol and is simultaneously comic and horrific. (Note: I recommended this film to a friend who found it very gory—gore is relative, I suppose.) There are no Van Helsings and no police detectives delivering lines like, “You expect me to believe there’s a vampire here in Blackeberg?”
Which leads me to Let Me In, the English language remake—excuse me, they’re calling it a re-imagining—scheduled for release in October 2010. If IMDB.com is to be believed, there is a character in it called “The Policeman,” played by the very fine actor of strange roles Elias Koteas. That there is a character called “The Policeman” is not a good sign. How else I, wondered, were they going to alter this film? I came across an interview with Simon Oakes, the producer of Let Me In, on fearnet.com. Now I know I shouldn't pre-judge, but I must remind you, dear reader, that I am not a professional critic and so I don't abide by those rules, so following are some signs that the re-imagining could be good, and some signs that it could just out and out suck.
Good: Produced by Hammer Films.
Not so good: Hammer Films 2010, not Hammer Films 1961.
Good: “What I decided was that Hammer shouldn't make what I call ‘torture porn’ or ‘gornography,’ that it would damage the legacy of the brand to suddenly come out with a film in the image of a Saw or Hostel. I have no judgment about those films except to say that Hammer would not make films like that.” Simon Oakes
Not so good: “…it'll just have perhaps a little sheen
to it that makes it a little more accessible I think. But again, I don't want
to tempt faith (sic). It's a relatively faithful adaptation. There are a number
of things that we're doing which I don't want to give away, which I think open
it out a little bit more, and make it a little bit more thrilling.” Simon Oakes
Good: “But at the same time we're not gonna mess around
by having crazy effects and stuff like that. I mean, one of my favorite scenes
in the original is when she [Not so good: Eli is a castrated boy and
that’s clearly shown] goes outside, and the camera pans back on a dolly and you
see her scampering up the side of the building. That's just genius.” Simon
Oakes
Not so good: The change in title. I came across the title Let the Right One In before knowing anything about the plot. I thought it was a romantic comedy. This is not to say it’s a bad title; it is to say it’s a brilliant title, because it works with and against the plot of the film. It could be argued that Let Me In smacks of romantic comedy as well, but for my money, “Me” in this case is much less provocative than “the Right One.”
Good: Richard Jenkins, the actor who captivated me in The
Visitor, will play the creepy companion.
Not so good: “We're doing quite a faithful adaptation of it, but we're fleshing it out a little bit. We're not going to change it massively, just make it very accessible to a wider audience.” Simon Oakes. (Italics are mine.)
Not so good but my own prejudice: the vampire character is
no longer androgynous, but is a girl. That’s fine, there’s plenty of good adult
drama to be found in the relationship between a boy and a girl of that age. But
the androgyny lent a whole other layer. There is something charged and sexual
about the love two boys of that age feel for each other, but I’m guessing going
there would make an American audience uncomfortable.
Not so good, but to be expected: Tomas Alfredson, the
director of the original, has expressed his disappointment with Let Me In.
“Remakes should be made of movies that aren’t very good,
that gives you the chance to fix whatever has gone wrong. I’m very proud of my movie
and think it’s great, but the Americans might be of another opinion. The
saddest thing for me would be to see that beautiful story made into something
mainstream.
"I don’t like to whine, but of course – if you’d spent years
on painting a picture, you’d hate to hear buzz about a copy even before your
vernissage!" *
I’m going to be generous and toss out my prejudice and the
director’s reaction. So then it’s even? Maybe not.
I’ve saved this one for last. Perhaps it tips the scales.
Not so good: Name three remakes out of the countless remakes
that came even remotely close to being as good as the original?
* The Tomas Alfredson quotes are from Wikipedia (god forgive me) via a site called
“Bloody Disgusting” which translated the interview into English from a Swedish film site, moviezine.se.
