Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Thoughts on the "Let Me In" Remake

Over at Fatally-Yours.com we received some news and a new trailer on the Let Me In remake, which prompted this post...


Ever since I heard about the remake of the jaw-droppingly awesome Swedish flick Let the Right One In (my review) I've been a little pissed. The remake is totally unnecessary (except for the money factor...hey, filmmaking is a business) and I just didn't see the point to "re-imaging" it for American audiences. However, I finally took a peek at some of the trailers and I gotta admit they don't look all THAT horrible (bonus point to the filmmakers for casting "Hit Girl" from Kick-Ass, Chloe Moretz).

It looks like it stays pretty true to the original in story, tone, setting and atmosphere. My concern with this is, am I just going to be bored with this remake? I mean, I've seen the original, so if director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) doesn't tweak anything then I'm probably NOT going to see it...imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but I much prefer the original to just a carbon-copy!

Still, the new trailers have piqued my interest enough that I might actually go see this in theaters October 1st.

What do you guys think? Will you go see it October 1st? Do you think this remake was unnecessary or do you think it has some value? 

Check out the trailer below:

4 comments:

  1. It is unnecessary. The only people this serves are lazy ones who can't be bothered to read subtitles. Hell, Let the Right One In had an English dub??? If they did something new, like situate it in New York, or add some different twists, then it might stand on its own, but this trailer looks like they shot this film in the same locations as the original. I'll stick with the original, thank you.

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  2. Like you I am unconvinced by this - the key thing the filmmakers have to get right is the desolate and alienated housing project setting, and the rest should hopefully flow from that. The fact that Hammer are involved in the production makes me optimistic.

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  3. I am soooo tired of the remake trend. Very few remakes make the cut...now we've reached the point of doing remakes of remakes i.e. the 2011 slated remake of The Thing(1982) which is in itself a remake of the 1951 film The Thing from Another World.
    Ok, wrap your brain around this...in 1991 Disney released Beauty and the Beast. A Broadway musical based on the film followed...now a movie based on the musical is rumored to be in the works. So it's a movie that's based on a musical that based on a movie???
    I need to take a tylenol and lay down...
    Dreaded Dreams
    Petunia Scareum

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  4. Matt Reeves has said, and I hope this isn't just PR, that his plan is to not remake the film but to simply re-adapt the novel. I'm fine with that. The original Swedish film is near perfect, but there is certainly room for more interpretation, as several characters and storylines were dropped and could be worked back in in interesting ways.

    And to Pete's comment about remakes of remakes: look at the Body Snatcher series, which yielded one genuinely great remake (the '70s version), one okay one (90s) and one admittedly awful studio-fudged mess.

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