Coming hot on the heels of the success both critically and commercially or his first proper release Cloverfield (David Schwimmer vehicle The Pallbearer does not count, sorry!), Matt Reeves could have had his pick of probably any script he wanted. The decision to take his level of restraint and clever direction (yes, despite its bombastic nature, even Cloverfield is restrained!) and remake the aforementioned Let the Right One In was both a great career move and a joy for fans of really really good horror films. After 2 hours had passed, Matt Reeves' stock in Hollywood was on its way up again for the second time in 3 years.
Taking that restrained approach I mentioned before, Reeves crafts a vampire story built on characters and specifically, with the younger characters, a social drama about the difficulties of childhood, how being the outcast at a young age and the trials of childhoof bullying can be more painful that a smack to the ear from a metal pole
Let Me In never plays the cheap game of trying to make you jump, neither does it go out of its way or try especially hard to be scary, its not that kind of film. That's not to say it doesn't have some great moments. The tension of the tease when Owen refuses to confirm the invite, the brutally visceral car crash that triggers the primary cause and effect chain of the latter half of the story, the number of scenes where Owen encounters the bullies including the amazingly well paced and crafted finale. In fact, its because of these moments of quiet and restraint that when the film does amp it up, it makes it all the more impactful, not because it is over the top but because the hard work has been done in the build up. These moments work because there isn't so much a contrast from quiet and loud, it's more that the loud isn't that loud, the quiet is just so deafeningly silent.
The perennially great Chloe Grace Moretz is again outstanding as Abby, hopefully a sign of things to come for the upcoming reboot of Carrie. Then there are the various supporting characters, most notably Elias Koteas playing the investigating officer perfectly in the broader context of the film.
While some may prefer the original, I have such a fondness for the remake that I would go as far as to say I prefer it of the two. In a similar way to how Vanilla Sky retrod but didn't walk all over the same space as Abres Los Ojos, Let Me In takes the source material and fleshes out (no pun intended) exactly what is needed to in order to make such an incredibly compelling and subtle story of a young girls curse at being trapped with difficulties of adolescence and her escape from that by finding someone to connect to, to help, to empathise with and to share the experience and the pain.
I mentioned it earlier but the films final climactic scenes are so terrifyingly brilliant that from the moment Michael Giacchino's incredible score starts to rumble into gear that you find yourself gripping the edge of your seat. Michael Giacchino;s score reminded me of Howard Shore's pitch perfect mood setting score for De7en and its a great comparison as both films share a lot of tonal similarities. The quiet build up, the subtlety of the relationship and a character driven horror film that creates its tension and its horror from the relationships we the audience have carved with the characters and the fear that their well-being has been put in harms way brings.
As horrors go, this is one that will stand the test of time. That it will stand alongside Let the Right One In is all the more testament to how good both films are. Neither is better than the other, one of them simply came first. For me though, the one I enjoy watching the most is Matt Reeves "Let Me In".
I rated this film 5 out of 5.
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