Watching Let Me In was difficult, because I wanted to be as objective as possible about the film as it stands alone, yet the comparisons to the stellar Let The Right One In are inevitable. In every way I can think of, this film comes up short in that comparison. But that doesn't mean this film is necessarily bad. It is, however, not great.
The thing about it that I really don't understand is why Matt Reeves wanted to remake it at all. I cannot think of what the audience for this film possibly is. People who are watching it simply because they liked LROI (where I fall) will be intrigued but likely disappointed, and people who responded to the completely misleading advertising for it will almost undoubtedly experience a range of emotion somewhere between disappointed and furious. The story is slow, its about loneliness and friendship and coming of age in a soft, touching, weird (and even violent) sort of way. It's really a simple character study and, at least in today's zeitgeist, is the antithesis of typical 'scary' movies like saw or Halloween. If I had to pick only one word to describe it, it would be 'subtle'. And Let Me In is anything but subtle, which is why it just completely doesn't work.
One of the most atrocious examples of this lack of subtlety and what made me want to bang my head against the chair by the end of the film was the absolutely HORRIBLE score. Honestly, it alone was more than capable of making sure I would never watch this film again. Michael Giacchino apparently wrote the score for LOST which I rarely watched, though I've heard it was very fitting. Here, its like being hit over the head with a hammer while someone tells you its a wet noodle. To be completely fair, in some of its softer moments it feels appropriate but they are far and few between. Its ironic then that LROI barely had much of a score at all, which worked fantastically.
The kids do alright here, in what are really pretty challenging roles. Chloe to me (especially at the start of the film) felt like she was forcing it a bit. I felt myself watching her act, instead of really believing her performance. Again, it really does illustrate just how fantastic the child actors were in LROI.
The film looks great, some fairly cheesy CGI aside. The hospital scene also looked a bit more campy than anything, and the choice to really go all out with Abby's vampirism felt a little jarring and again not super appropriate to the story, but its a choice that really doesn't make much difference.
Ultimately, while Matt Reeves obviously was trying to stay close to the tone and feel of the source material, and I commend this effort (less the awful score), this film was disappointing, and while I fully admit that I possess some biases that simply cannot be fully overcome, I would be surprised if the average film goer felt any different. 5/10
The thing about it that I really don't understand is why Matt Reeves wanted to remake it at all. I cannot think of what the audience for this film possibly is. People who are watching it simply because they liked LROI (where I fall) will be intrigued but likely disappointed, and people who responded to the completely misleading advertising for it will almost undoubtedly experience a range of emotion somewhere between disappointed and furious. The story is slow, its about loneliness and friendship and coming of age in a soft, touching, weird (and even violent) sort of way. It's really a simple character study and, at least in today's zeitgeist, is the antithesis of typical 'scary' movies like saw or Halloween. If I had to pick only one word to describe it, it would be 'subtle'. And Let Me In is anything but subtle, which is why it just completely doesn't work.
One of the most atrocious examples of this lack of subtlety and what made me want to bang my head against the chair by the end of the film was the absolutely HORRIBLE score. Honestly, it alone was more than capable of making sure I would never watch this film again. Michael Giacchino apparently wrote the score for LOST which I rarely watched, though I've heard it was very fitting. Here, its like being hit over the head with a hammer while someone tells you its a wet noodle. To be completely fair, in some of its softer moments it feels appropriate but they are far and few between. Its ironic then that LROI barely had much of a score at all, which worked fantastically.
The kids do alright here, in what are really pretty challenging roles. Chloe to me (especially at the start of the film) felt like she was forcing it a bit. I felt myself watching her act, instead of really believing her performance. Again, it really does illustrate just how fantastic the child actors were in LROI.
The film looks great, some fairly cheesy CGI aside. The hospital scene also looked a bit more campy than anything, and the choice to really go all out with Abby's vampirism felt a little jarring and again not super appropriate to the story, but its a choice that really doesn't make much difference.
Ultimately, while Matt Reeves obviously was trying to stay close to the tone and feel of the source material, and I commend this effort (less the awful score), this film was disappointing, and while I fully admit that I possess some biases that simply cannot be fully overcome, I would be surprised if the average film goer felt any different. 5/10
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