Like LET ME IN even needed TWILIGHT to bring it’s worth down. I don’t think I’ve seen a fan out there that is actually for this remake. Sure remakes are usually frowned upon in our little our genre as it is… but LET ME IN is widely hated. Why? Because it’s extremely hard to believe Reeves and company will capture the brutal and emotional style of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. But alas the film is happening… and Reeves recently chatted with MTV about all things LET ME IN including the fan’s hate for the remake and it’s comparison to TWILIGHT.
On people frowning upon this remake: “In a certain way, there has been a real bull’s-eye on the movie, because people had so much love for that [original] film. I share that love, and for me, what was important was to have reverence for the original while at the same time trying to find the way to make it our own. That has been what this process is about, to really want to mine the foundations of that story. It’s about the details and the things that make it an American story and putting it in an American context and the things that I relate to from my childhood and the things that the actors bring.”
On LET ME IN’s comparison to TWILIGHT: “I think that it has obviously really touched a nerve and tapped into a very, very deep vein. To me, the thing about genre stories that is the most interesting thing is what you do with the metaphor of the genre. You can do a grand, sweeping love story, like “Twilight,” and use that metaphor of the two people that are just being torn apart and the aching-ness of it, and that’s a great fantasy. I think that what people respond to in “Twilight” is the fantasy of it. It’s such a grand, romantic fantasy, and in a way, the reason why I think there is room for a film like ours is, though it’s a vampire film, it uses it in such a different way. Whereas “Twilight” is kind of a fantasy, this will be a darker, scarier kind of journey. Obviously, “True Blood” is also really big these days too, and that’s a different thing using the sexual side. I think it’s really about what sort of emphasis the story takes and how you use the metaphor. The amazing thing about genre films is the way to smuggle in different kinds of themes and things worthy of exploration. I think what so struck me about this story is that what it is exploring is so different and so real.
Reeves also touches on CLOVERFIELD 2 and THE INVISIBLE WOMAN so the interview is definitely worth a look. Check that out right over HERE. While you’re at it be sure to keep track of the film’s Facebook and Twitter. LET ME IN stars Chloe Moretz, Richard Jenkins, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Jimmy ‘Jax’ Pinchak. It’s slated for release October 1st.
An alienated 12-year-old boy befriends a mysterious young newcomer to his small New Mexico town, and discovers an unconventional path to adulthood in Let Me In, a haunting and provocative thriller written and directed by filmmaker Matt Reeves (Cloverfield).
Twelve-year old Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is viciously bullied by his classmates and neglected by his divorcing parents. Achingly lonely, Owen spends his days plotting revenge on his middle school tormentors and his evenings spying on the other inhabitants of his apartment complex. His only friend is his new neighbor Abby (Chloe Moretz), an eerily self-possessed young girl who lives next door with her silent father (Oscar®nominee Richard Jenkins). A frail, troubled child about Owens’s age, Abby emerges from her heavily curtained apartment only at night and always barefoot, seemingly immune to the bitter winter elements. Recognizing a fellow outcast, Owen opens up to her and before long, the two have formed a unique bond.
When a string of grisly murders puts the town on high alert, Abby’s father disappears, and the terrified girl is left to fend for herself. Still, she repeatedly rebuffs Owen’s efforts to help her and her increasingly bizarre behavior leads the imaginative Owen to suspect she’s hiding an unthinkable secret.
The gifted cast of Let Me In takes audiences straight to the troubled heart of adolescent longing and loneliness in an astonishing coming-of-age story based on the best-selling Swedish novel Lat den Ratte Komma In (Let the Right One In) by John Ajvide Lindqvist, and the highly-acclaimed film of the same name.