My take on: Let The Right One In vs Let Me In
Let The Right One In (2008)
Oskar: Are you a vampire?
Eli: I live off blood… Yes.
Oskar: Are you… dead?
Eli: No. Can’t you tell?
Oskar: But… Are you old?
Eli: I’m twelve. But I’ve been twelve for a long time.
Let Me In (2010)
Owen: Are you a vampire?
Abby: I need blood to live.
Owen: But how old are you, really?
Abby: Twelve. But… I’ve been twelve for a very long time.
— My take on the movies: In “Let The Right One In,” Lina Leandersson does an incredible job conveying Eli’s remorse for having to kill to survive. As Eli, she brings maturity to a character who has lived a long and lonely life.
Eli’s guilt is juxtaposed to Oskar’s willingness to exact revenge on his tormentors. Kare Hedebrant brings out Oskar’s dark side. He makes you believe the 12-year-old would do anything to protect Eli, even kill.
In “Let Me In,” Chloe Moretz/Abby and Kodi Smit-McPhee/Owen recreate many of the scenes seen in its foreign cousin, while making the characters their own.
However, one of the best scene of the movie includes neither. The car accident involving “The Father” character was visually stunning and more than a little creepy.
Each film succeeds for different reasons, with enough differences and similarities to its source material to make each unique and equally brilliant.
