Two Fresh Looks at ‘Let Me In’
by Marc Patterson
I like to think there’s a lot going on in this first official image from the Matt Reeves helmed remake of Let Me In. The blood on Abby’s chin, the cold distant look in her eyes… There’s a level of emotion present in that single shot that I hope extends throughout this highly controversial remake. Chloe Moretz has blown us all away in Kick-Ass and she’s the one shining hope that most of us are clinging to that is stopping us from spewing forth incendiary remarks towards what could still possibly be a fully unnecessary remake of Let The Right One In. But what’s better than one first look is two. Today the LA Times ran a great article that allowed director Matt Reeve’s to address the concerns of the genre community over this remake:
Matt tells the LA Times: “I think because of ‘Cloverfield,’ people have an assumption, which is, ‘Oh, crazy handicam, he’s going to jazz it up,’ and I think that’s probably what a lot of people were afraid of when they thought of the most cynical version. And that’s the last thing we tried to do. We tried to create the approaching, foreboding dread of movies like ‘The Shining,’ where you feel like something wicked is unraveling and it’s not going to end well. That’s what I responded to about the original, the juxtaposition of those tones, this very disturbing story but at the center of it there are these very tender emotions. That’s a very unusual mix, and that’s what drew me in and dug into me.” He goes on to say, “In the same sense I want the photography to have this kind of messy realism, to be beautiful but gritty.”
And when it comes to the messy gore and special effects he states that “It’s not going to feel like a movie with a crazy number of effects. It’s, hopefully, going to feel like an intimate coming-of-age story.“
Additionally, the article gave us another great look at the film. The scene is a familiar one where in this telling Owen passes Abby his Rubix cube. It’s a sign of burgeoning friendship, reluctant trust, but also a bit of a flippant challenge as if to say “Here. You try to solve this.”
Let Me In opens on October 1, 2010 and stars a terrific cast that in addition to Chloe Moretz includes Kodie Smit-McPhee and Richard Jenkins. Just two great additional reasons to keep our hopes up.
