SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- Most directors don't have to defend their films until after they're released. Matt Reeves, though, has been facing a firestorm of criticism ever since his remake of the Scandinavian vampire chiller Let the Right One In was announced.
Not that Reeves, who last directed the 2008 creature feature Cloverfield, couldn't have anticipated the online outrage. In fact, he's been telling fans and journalists for months that he understands their concerns -- and feels similarly protective of one of the most acclaimed horror films of the decade.
"If I was on the outside, I'd have the same point of view. There's a very cynical point of view about how it's going to be and how we'll bastardize it and destroy it," he says after previewing footage for crowds at this summer's Comic-Con International. "People may not like the film but at the end of the day when they see the film, I hope they'll be able to see what a labour of love it was for us."
Based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist and released in 2008, Let the Right One In centered on a bullied 12-year-old boy in 1980s Stockholm whose only friend -- the quiet girl next door -- is a vampire who requires blood to survive. As silly and superfluous as Twilight is, it was intelligent, harrowing and haunting.
So predictably its fans are extremely skeptical of the Americanized remake, which is entitled Let Me In and stars Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass) as the undead girl, Richard Jenkins as her protective guardian and Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road) as the boy who befriends her. Questions and concerns about the remake have abounded. Would it be relocated to the U.S.? Would the Reagan era period setting be moved to present-day? Would it make the main characters older? Would it jettison quiet character development for effects and action?
So far, the answers to those questions are 1) yes 2) no 3) no and 4) you'll have to see for yourself, but so far things look promising.
Then again, maybe this shouldn't be surprising, considering Reeves was "blown away" by the original film. Moreover, before he signed on to the project, he read the novel and then contacted the author himself.
"I wrote to him to tell him how much I was drawn to this and not just because it was a brilliant genre story, which it is, but really because of the coming-of-age story and how it resonated with me personally. I grew up in the 1980s and he wrote back to me and was very kind.
"He said, 'I am really excited to hear you might get involved in some kind of version of this because I really like Cloverfield because it was a new spin on a totally old tale' and he said that's what he tried to do with Let the Right One In. He said he was more excited to hear the personal aspect spoke to me because it's about his childhood. It's his semi-autobiography -- semi because I don't think there were any vampires."
As for the influence of the Twilight franchise, Reeves says that, ironically, its phenomenal success actually helped to keep Let Me In faithful to the source material.
He acknowledges early on, the studio was considering making the protagonists older.
"There was talk about it. At that point, my two comments were 1) 'I don't know if you should remake this movie' and 2) 'If you do remake this movie and you make those kids older, from my point of view, you destroy what's so beautiful about Lindquist's story because it's about being at that age.'
"And they did embrace that, but there were still some people who were like, 'Are you sure?' And one of the wonderful things for us is that Twilight was so huge, at that point it made them go, 'Oh, we do have to differentiate it, don't we?' "
kevin.williamson@sunmedia.ca
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