So, critics and horror fans seem to love “Let Me In,” the Americanization of the Swedish film (and novel of the same name) “Let The Right One In.”
Me? Not so much. Maybe if I hadn’t seen the Swedish version first, I would be all up with love for “Let Me In.” But, that’s not the case.
Some things that I really liked in the Swedish version are gone … like the subplot involving neighbors in the apartment complex. That’s replaced but a subplot involved a cop that just really didn’t work for me. Also a major problem for me was the staging of the iconic scene in the swimming pool towards the end of the movie. For some reason the director thought it would be a great idea to stage this in the dark which muddies down seeing all the violence from the cool perspective of being underwater. Dr. Phibes will be happy that the bad CGI cat attack didn’t make it state side. But, alas, it’s been replaced with quite a few badly done CGI shots in other parts of the movie.
Ultimately, what makes “Let Me In” so lackluster is it slavish devotion to the original foreign version. If you’ve seen that, then there is nothing here that’s going to really wind your crank. You’re basically seeing the same movie … just in an American setting with different actors and some very minor plot changes. This was the big problem with “Quarantine” (the almost shot-for-shot remake of the Spanish film “REC“).
All this makes me wonder what the big Hollywood remake of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is going to be like. Will it be a bold reinvention or a “been there, seen that” affair like “Let Me In?”
Well I was wondering how the American version would turn out and it sounds like what I was expecting/fearing. I quite liked the original (CGI puddy tats aside) and there really was no need to make another version for us Yanks. How many bad U.S. remakes (REC, Pulse, The Grudge) will they have to do before they just distribute the originals for the Americans who would like to see these films?
As retaliation, I think the rest of the world should start making their versions of classic American films just to piss everybody off.
“ The Devonshire Chainsaw Massacreâ€
“Fist full of Eurosâ€
and to top it off, a French version of ‘Die Hard†…..Yippee ki yay, nique ta mère
“The Devonshire Chainsaw Massacre†… LOVE IT!
It’s funny you should bring up “other countries remaking American films,” because I was thinking about that while I was writing the post. I seriously wonder how many Hollywood films get remakes in other countries. Maybe we just don’t hear about them because we don’t live overseas … or maybe they just don’t happen because our original films are so “blah” no other country will touch them.