Say what you will about the 'necessity' of Cloverfield director Matt Reeves shooting an English language remake of hit Swedish vampire picture Let The Right One In so soon after the release of the original but temper your griping with this: The first teaser has just arrived and it is absolutely spectacular. I got chills. And then chills on top of the chills. The kids are fantastic. The mood and tone are dead on. This cannot arrive soon enough.
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More from Let Me In
- Reviews: LET ME IN: You Got THE RIGHT ONE Baby?
- Reviews: Fantastic Fest 2010: Let Me In Review
- Reviews: TIFF 2010: LET ME IN Review
- News: TIFF 2010: An Extended Clip From Matt Reeves' LET ME IN Impresses.
- News: LET ME IN Opens Fantastic Fest 2010
- News: Matt Reeves' LET ME IN Goes Red Band
- News: New US Trailer And Poster For Matt Reeves' LET ME IN
- News: Second Image From Matt Reeves' LET ME IN
- Galleries: Let Me In
- News: Matt Reeves' LET ME IN Cast Announced
Not bad, but I'm still wary.
loved the original, but hated the idea of a remake... however Chloe Moretz is a pretty amazing young talent, so I think there is a solid chance for this movie to turn out well. I'm keeping my fingers crossed (and looking forward to vampire Hit-Girl paint the screen red!)
Here's an early review of rough print that may temper the buzz.
http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/48376848.html#cutid1
Like many people have commented before about this and other remakes at least the original is out there and things like this are for the people who don't like foreign films.
And for what seems par for american remakes , if the review is correct, it seems ( surprise, surprise ) they've gotten rid of some of those pesky " rough edges ". You know, those little things that make the originals interesting in the first place. Don't want to upset or confuse the money spen....oops, sorry...movie going audience,
Near as I can tell. The morse code at the end of the trailer is 'HELP ME'
LOL, THIS gave you chills Todd? "This can't come soon enough" Really?! It gave you chills watching something you already saw before? That's rich. I didn't know the english language is THAT much more chill inducing than any other language. I've said it before and I'll say it again, remakes only make sense if it's a remake of a movie that had a potentially interesting story but failed in execution for whatever reason. This is a damn shame to see this. It gave me no chills, it gave me frustration. If you want real chills, just watch the original again and leave the remake for the misinformed.
Todd, I like you & I love this website, but I can't agree with you on this one. The music ruins the trailer for me. I'm not to excited for this remake. I got behind The Karate Kid, especially after your review, & was duped by that, so I'm going to do my best to not let it happen again. Sorry.
I loved the original. And I do mean LOVED. I came in expecting a great movie and came out with a new favorite. And that's favorite as in "favorite movie ever" favorite. What a great feeling that was. So, as you can imagine, I'm a little iffy about this, especially with the film coming out only 2 years after the original. I tried to put all of that out of my head while watching the trailer and it just isn't working. This definitely looks good. Very solid. But a remake of my favorite movie, and one that was just recently released, just isn't all that exciting for me. Like I said, it certainly looks good, but I doubt I'll ever watch it. It's just too hard to seperate the two.
The trailer is indeed brilliant, no question about it!
However, I really can't understand the logic behind statements like those above my post...
Do you people UNDERSTAND the word REMAKE?? Mmm? Bitches?
What is the frikin' point of making THE SAME exact movie in another language?
Seriously, everyone who argues over the NECESSITY of producing remakes is an accomplished ass.
If the movie ends up being good in its own right, through rehashing an already made story (which btw is from a damn book, i.e. - ain't original), and gets to be seen by more people who ENJOY it, what the fuck is the damage?
Can someone answer this?
Cause the way I see it, you behave precisely like those religious fools, who claim that you can INSULT their God through your words and actions. Well, if such a thing exists at all, how the hell can it possibly be insulted by a human being?! What will happen then? It will shit bricks from the sky or what?
Anyway, I'm sorry, but it seems to me that fans of genre cinema have grown really insecure with all the mainstream influences and their judgment can no longer be trusted. I LOVED the original movie. In fact it was my favorite movie of the whole fuckin' year back then. And if this turns out all right, I think I'll love it as well.
Meanwhile Todd, prepare to have a really hard time with these morons over here :)))
Huh. Shot for shot similarity to "Let the Right One In". If so, why?
all you remake apologists can suckle rectal abscesses. you're way worse than any "moron" who complains about shitty remakes. at least they have taste. stop being trolls. stop making excuses for crap. you're just arguing for the sake of arguing and you're dragging down the quality of film viewership in this country.
Agree this looks solid and I'm not anti-remakes in all cases by any means. As a concept, it can be fine to remake a film, of course. Some remakes are great, in my view particularly when a story is interpreted or executed in a fresh way - as Ard has said on Shakespeare. But the sad reality is that although it would be lovely if the intention of all remakes was to simply tell a great story to a broader crowd who'd otherwise miss it, most are simply cynical cash-ins, and I find it hard to blame people for getting so angsty about this. As for the motives behind this, who knows. I suspect it's a bit of both. From the trailer there's nothing to make me want to see this particular remake, but that's about context not an anti-remake stance; this soon, this way, this style etc. I'm fine with the subs on LTROI. I'm also not precious about it, I just don't have any interest in this particular interpretation. Ultimately if this turns out to be 'good' then it's the likes of Platinum Dunes that are to blame for expectations being so low amongst the dissenters here.
Looks competently made, but really unnecessary. Perhaps if they waited say, twenty years or so to remake it.
The trailer at least looks better than the original, but I was never really a big fan of that one. Doesn't say much about the final film of course, but based on what I've seen her it might even be worth revisiting.
You know what amuses me about this conversation? The VERY NEXT POST on the front page is for yet another remake of The One Armed Swordsman and aint nobody squawking about that. Know why? 'Cause it's Asian. Doesn't matter that it's every bit as profit motivated as this one, the reality is people only shit on American remakes.
Doesn't look too bad... At least it'll be in English and I don't have to read subtitles,hahahha...
The music is what kills it for me. The right soundtrack means a ton. I instantly get turned off when the music does not fit the movie. Plus, I loved the original so much. But hey I am open enough to check it out.
"It wasn't about the quality of the work at all, it was all about having something nobody else did and once other people had it they weren't interested any more."
Todd, that's not entirely true. some of us who love the original want it to be more widely seen. for me, i hate the idea of remakes simply because it's really an insult to the original's filmmakers. it's like saying "your film is only half good, so we can do better."
as for Let Me In, i'm completely turned off by the trailer. not only the music, the editing, the entire mood, the line "i need blood" also shows that this is another of those Hollywood movies that spell out everything for the audience. one of the wonderful things about the original is its minimalism. it said a million things by being silent, showed a million things by not showing. this trailer clearly shows that the American director does not understand the original at all.
you have a valid point there, Todd. remakes are not insults to the originals. but something like Carpenter's The Thing: there is a span of many years between the two films, and within those years, things change, technology is improved, and so it feels more like Carpenter is paying tribute to the original. but to remake a film (and a foreign one) so soon after its release ... i can't speak for Nakata or Shimizu, because i don't know what goes on in their heads, but just because the directors of the original don't seem to be insulted doesn't mean the practice is OK. just like how just because Mr Miyagi was played by Asian actor Pat Morita doesn't mean it's any less of a racist portrayal.
as for that line in the film, oh gosh! i seriously cannot recall hearing it in the original. and i'd just seen the film a couple months ago! apologies for that.
one more thing i must say. the original was really about the ambiguous/ambivalent nature of love. love can make good people do bad things, as it can make bad people do good things. to be fair, i would concede that we can't gauge if that idea remains in the remake just from the trailer. but it is laos what makes the original's title so full of connotations. maybe Hollywood changed the title because Let The Right One In is too much a mouthful? but then so is Pirates Of The Caribbean: Curse Of The Black Pearl!
koay.allan, completely correct about Todd missing the point and putting words in the anti-remake crowds' mouths. The pro-remake crowd is like the pro-DNR and anti-grain crowd when it comes to Blu-Ray; to hell with the sacredness of the original source and its subleties (and subtitles) and just go for what immediately strikes the eye and requires lesser imagination. It's interesting how Aard Vijn criticizes other anti-remake posts as being trolls when he says nothing of those here who call us bitches just because we don't like remakes. That's a double-standard. Again, I understand why Hollywood or other countries go ahead with remakes but I think it only makes real sense if it's a remake of a movie that had potential but wasn't fully realized for reasons not having to do with the original film's story. LOL, you got me on the The Thing, though...but as koay pointed out, the original was done long, long time ago and Carpenter wasn't doing a shot-by-shot farce of it.
It looks like a competant production but it also looks extremely uninteresting. This teaser does not create much excitement for me. Whether or not the end product turns out to be good, the two major problems I see from the teaser is the fact that they reveal most the story (nothing new there) and I see no back story of the boy (not sure what they call him in this version).
Now I hope that the American version does try to approach the book from a different angle, at the same time one of the biggest aspects of the original was that the film revolved around the boy and the dreariness of his day to day life. I don't see anything that made the boy an interesting character being portrayed here. From that teaser alone, I don't see much resemblance to the book and it does not do a great job at differentiated itself from other vampire films. We will see what the end product becomes, but I cannot agree with you here Todd. You must be seeing something I am not :(
Nicely shot, and yeah I agree with Todd, it's a pretty decent trailer aside from a possible false move with the music. But really, 43 posts for this? ;-)
Subtitles and native language are only the tip of the iceberg here.
Subtitles detract from the cinema viewing experience as you have to place your attention continually at the bottom of the screen. This can be a huge detriment to a movie with strong visuals. This can also induce the equivalent of car sickness in some.
Dubbing is the common way to overcome this setback, but dubbed movies often suffer from a disconnect between the voice actors and screen actors, often becoming comical.
I don't know that remaking the movie with new actors and a new director is the best answer to this issue, but it is an answer.
[It also doesn't hurt that vampires are hot right now. (^_-)]
I prefer to see movies in their original form, but I also enjoy sharing a film with friends, one of which is literally nauseated by subtitles.
Actually....I think a remake would be more like a Nirvana never making it big and remaining a really great unappreciated band who made timeless music but never got the true recognition that they deserved. Then, a few years later a Kanye West comes in and samples some of their music while gutting out the soul and the heart that made it great in the first place and makes millions of dollars and wins all kinds of recognition and is hailed as the next big thing. Meanwhile...the music was already there. It was just introduced in a new flashy way. Is it bad? Who the fuck knows...I'm not here to judge. I'm sure Kanye/Reeves will put his own spin on the original and try to make it something altogether new.
However, it is wrong to not acknowledge the source material and and act like your version is the only version. I absolutely loved Let The Right One In and I remain hopeful that Let Me In brings something fresh to the screen. The book has so much material that begs to be seen...so, hopefully we'll see some of that bleed into the remake.
Matt Reeves has already said that he loved Let The Right One In and he's trying to bring some of the untapped material from the book. Hopefully, he did this in the remake. I think the trailer was cut to show many elements from the original in order to rope in the faithful fans as well as introduce others who may not have been privy to the original for whatever reason. I...for one...am hoping this remake expands on the experience already made timeless by the original.
This is the "Psycho" remake. If you do something almost shot for shot, it creates a cognitive dissonance and while I want to enjoy the trailer, I can't help but think "That's not the right actor" and "They're speaking English" the entire time.
todd i agree with ALMOST all of what you have written although for me the remake issue isn't about american remake bashing. i feel the US film industry make alot of bad choices when it comes to remakes or re-vamps. it may be a case of having one of the bigger film industries means more exposure for the remakes that are US produced.
i have to say though alot of people here are missing the point, the swedish film isn't the source material, the NOVEL is!! please read the novel and you'll discover that your precious swedish "original" is far from consistant with the source material.
oh and Todd, thanks for the all the coverage of Australian cinema here on twitch we have some amazing film makers!
NEWS: "Let Me In" to be remade in Swedish, retitled "Let In" which in turn is being remade in the U.S. to be titled "Let" e.t.c...........