In an interview with MTV’s movie blog, director Matt Reeves assures fans that his remake of Swedish horror-masterpiece “Let The Right One In” will be “darker” and “scarier” than “Twilight.”
How could his film, called “Let Me In” (even the title seems watered down doesn’t it?) be lighter fare than a tween fantasy with glittery vampires?
Fans were nervous about this project from the beginning, and Reeves hasn’t done much to assuage concerns that his remake will be a sloppy and asinine shadow of the original. In the interview, he refers to his film being an “Americanization,” a horrifying prospect considering the current record of American remakes of foreign classics. Does anyone actually get excited at the prospect of a distinctly American (ie. dumbed down) film? He goes on to describe the film as a “beautiful coming-of-age story” and as “being about the difficulties of growing up.” So it will be darker than “Twilight,” but maybe not as dark as an episode of “7th Heaven.” He seems to be ignoring the subtleties and manipulation present in the “love story.”
Be warned and don’t let him fool you: this remake could be as heavy-handed and clumsy as his darling “Cloverfield,” a tragedy when you consider the incisive and eerie splendor of the source material.
So far, the only glimmers of hope have come from the casting of Richard Jenkins and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Smit-McPhee’s performance in “The Road” was understated enough to hint at the gravitas necessary for the role of the naïve object of the vampire’s exploitation.
We’d like to stay open-minded about this project, but Reeves is scaring us here. “Let Me In” is scheduled to hit theaters on October 1, 2010 just in time for Hallowe’en. Sigh.
-Jace Brittain