Let the Twilight In…(my “Let Me In” rant)
Let The Right One In is a truly beautiful movie. It’s a movie about a friendship between a child and a vampire trapped inside the body of another. It’s not a natural friendship, it’s a relationship between a predator and its prey but against all the odds it just happens. I’ve rated it before as a must see movie and I stand by that.
What annoys me though is the remake “Let Me In”. When I heard about it my first thought was why? Why remake something that is good enough and has only just come out recently? It’s money of course. One positive reason I could see also was that if the movie is made in English then it would reach more people and they would have the chance to enjoy the story. Things of course do not always go that simply.
In recent interviews I’ve read people comparing the remake to Romeo and Juliet but with little kids. Now am I the only one seeing issues with this? Firstly that’s an over simplification of the relationship between Oskar and Eli. The other thing is it’s not really a love story, save that for Twilight. The next part mentioned was how it won’t be like Twilight because Eli wears old tattered clothes, she’s not as fashionable as the Twilight vampires. Now I have a huge problem with this.
Let the Right One In is about a vampire, it’s not about sparkly emo vampire like creatures who hardly ever even touch blood. Eli is a cold hearted killer and is shown to be that way throughout the movie (the original at least). The so called love story is very subtle and plays out as more of a friendship between two very lonely creatures who are just looking for companionship. Eli may be a vampire and Oskar may be a human being but Oskar is not a normal boy. Oskar is a shy boy who is estranged from society apart from the love of his parents and the bullying from school. He collects stories of murder and even practices how he would attack people who hurt him. He’s not your average little kid.
Eli although she is in the body of a child is not a child in any way. She is a killer who is hinted to be hundreds of years old, and at times she even seems to age on screen as hunger or the vampire within her takes over. She does not feel guilt for her actions she kills to survive, she is what she is. If the remake tries to bring emotion out of her and implies she shows guilt for her actions then they miss the point of what she is.
I doubt Hollywood can get this movie right, especially looking at what news is coming out about it. The current climate for vampires is disastrous for horror fans as the real money is seen to come from teenagers who just want to see Twilight and anything like it. This is why Let Me In will not work, they can either give the horror fans the movie they want (and look at possible low sales as a result) or “Twilight” the story up and alienate the fans of the original movie (which will make more money and result in a success). As we live in a society where money is god, the horror fan will come last and so will the vampire.
The original interview that caused my bitching:
Yay, I can comment now! I just had to throw my two cents in here, and voice the same pessimism. Let the Right One In (my review here: http://shezcrafti.com/a-vampire-movie-done-right/) is a vampire movie like no other. I also believe it’s the most realistic one ever made. If vampires really walked among us, they would no doubt be dependent on the Oskars of the world to sustain their wretched existence. What I think makes this film so special is its focus on that delicate relationship, which is part love-like fascination, part parasitic. Hollywood is going to suck the soul out of this one.
The remake sounds almost as horrible as I imagined it would be.
I wonder if the clues will still be there that Eli isn’t truly female… I’d expect not.