Let Me In

Preliminary reviews seem overwhelmingly positive, which is a pleasant surprise.

Now, if you ask me, the original didn't need to be remade anyway, but I admit I'm happy to hear preliminary reports that the Matt Reeves has at least done it justice.

Your guys opinions? Want to see it? Want to boycott it? etc.

First of all, the original wasn't as great as people make it out to be. I can easily name five better vampire movies than Let The Right One In (Nosferatu, the Spanish version of Dracula, The Hunger, The Lost Boys and Ferrera's The Addiction).

Second, the remake doesn't look too bad. Sure you've got the fanboys complaining that a remake is a terrible idea but then again, they seem to be okay with the numerous Dracula remakes.

I tend to agree that the original wasn't as game-changing as people were making out at the time. There was just such a blowback against Twilight that anything that depicted a nasty, dangerous vampire with traditional powers/weaknesses was going to be looked upon favorably.

That said, I don't really think a remake was necessary, but foreign language remakes are at least something I understand (bringing the stories to customer bases that don't like dubbing/subtitles), compared to re-making movies that are already in English and still great as they stand, like The Crow or Robocop.

Is it a remake of the Swedish film, or another imagination of the novel? People seem to use the two concepts interchangeably.

It's another interpretation of the book, so it will differ.

But then again, it's doubtful that the book would ever have been optioned here had the first film not been made, so...

Wasn't the script for the original movie written by the book's author?

I'm totally on board for this. I've been looking forward to it for months, and yes, I love the original.

Oh! And in case anyone's wondering, the best vampire movie ever made is (technically) Vampires Kiss. If you're in the right mindset, that is.

I just saw Let Me In. It is a straight remake of the earlier film adaptation (some scenes have exactly the same dialogue, mostly the moments between Owen/Oskar and Abby/Eli), not a retelling of the original novel. That said, I think it was mostly well-done, with some changes that I prefer over the Swedish version.

I'm just now reading the book, so my impression is imcomplete, but overall, I would say: Book is best. The American remake is best as far as overall tone. Not only do I prefer ditching subtitles, but they've made more changes that I liked than that I disliked. The Swedish film does the best job with the two big twist moments. In the remake, if you blink you'll completely miss the post-shower thing (maybe there will be a clearer uncut version on DVD later?)And the realization that, in the Swedish version, serves as the film's finale, is shouted to the rafters halfway through the American version. Which doesn't stop it from being a good twist, but I liked it better when it didn't kick in until the final moment.