A shy girl, outcasted by her peers and sheltered by her religious mother, unleashes telekinetic terror on her small town after being pushed too far at her senior prom.
Horror anthology about a psychiatrist who uses virtual reality to probe the minds of three unsuspecting patients, a paranoid woman home alone, a meek man with a roommate from hell (Paxton) and a man obsessed with his own death.
A loan officer who evicts an old woman from her home finds herself the recipient of a supernatural curse. Desperate, she turns to a seer to try and save her soul, while evil forces work to push her to a breaking point.
A woman brings her family back to her childhood home, which used to be an orphanage for handicapped children. Before long, her son starts to communicate with an invisible new friend.
In Los Alamos, New Mexico, the twelve year-old Owen is a lonely and outcast boy bullied in school by Kenny and two other classmates; at home, Owen dreams of avenging himself against the trio of bullies. He befriends his twelve-year-old next door neighbor, Abby, who only appears during the night in the playground of their building. Meanwhile, Abby's father is a wanted serial-killer who drains the blood of his victims to supply Abby, who is actually an ancient vampire. Abby advises Owen to fight Kenny; however, soon he discovers that she is a vampire, and he feels fear and love for the girl. Meanwhile a police officer is investigating the murder cases, believing that it is a satanic cult.Written by
Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
(at around 1h 21 mins) The word "vampire" is only said once in the film. See more »
Goofs
According to the canon of modern vampire stories, the scene where Abby comes in uninvited and begins to bleed to death shouldn't have happened: Owen had already invited her into the apartment in a previous scene, and if a vampire is invited in once they never have to be invited again. But this detail is a relatively new addition to vampire lore, and only applies to specific depictions. Historical mythologies have stated that all supernatural beings are unable to enter a house unless they are invited, but the first novel about vampires ('The Vampyre', John William Polidori, 1819) did not mention this requirement, which was first applied to vampires in 'Dracula' (Bram Stoker, 1897) - but permission was required each time the vampire entered the house. Modern vampire stories in television and film (True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) changed this requirement, such that permission to enter need only be granted once. In 'Let Me In' (and in the source novel and film), permission must be granted every time. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Paramedic #1:
One-three-one to dispatch, come in.
Radio Dispatcher:
[after delay]
One-three-one, this is dispatch, go ahead.
Paramedic #1:
This is one-three-one. We have a male, mid 50s, with burns over nine to nine and a half percent of his body. Prior to our arrival on scene, the patient apparently doused his head, neck and face with some sort of highly concentrated acid. patient's airway is severely compromised due to fume inhalation. Vital signs unstable. Please advise, patient is a federal suspect. We're coming in with a ...
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Crazy Credits
The movie's end credits are in the form of black text on a white background, which is the opposite of most movie credits, which are usually white text on a black background. See more »
Breakup Song
Written by Greg Kihn, Stephen Wright & Gary Phillips (as Gary Phillipet)
Performed by the Greg Kihn Band
Licensed by Arrangement with Rye Boy Music administered by Joel S. Turtle
Courtesy of Sanctuary Records Group Limited
Under license from Universal Music Operations Ltd See more »
I believe that many viewers of this movie are fans of the original Swedish movie LTROI, so I won't be emphasizing on how much I am fond of the original one – and here we are for the American remake.
That being said, I just watched the remake. In general, I am not disappointed (if not a little pleasantly surprised) by this remake, though it still cannot catch up with the original one as a whole.
Honestly, I was a little worried when I went to the cinema, being afraid that the story would be degraded into a superficial Hollywoodian fest of clichés and pure visual stimulations. Thankfully, that didn't happen.
In general, this remake is in line with the original book (and the original movie). Many settings are almost identical with the Swedish one, so are quite a number of actors' lines (well of course they spoke English in this one, no Svenska LOL). More importantly, the tranquillity resembles a lot to the Swedish one. We can tell see that the filmmaker had no intention to challenge the basic tone of the story, a beautiful love tale under vampire's cover. This, on the other hand though, might disappoint some fans who watch the remake in search for a revolutionary interpretation of the old story, YMMV.
Sure, there are still many differences. The first one is the ambiance colour tone of many scenes where Owen and Abby meet. The director has obviously chosen a warmer tone (under orange-yellowish street lamp) in which our two protagonists interact, as compared to the sharp contrast of white snow vs dark sky in the original one. Personally I give credits to that change, as it better alludes to the tenderness of Owen and Abby's friendship / love.
The real gender of Abby is one of the hottest topics amongst fans. Here, instead of giving a direct shot to Abby's under (which I find totally unnecessary in LTROI), the director chose to interpret Abby's gender in a very ambiguous way, leaving much room for interpretation.
Also, I feel that the American remake is more "focused" on the two protagonists than the Swedish one. "More focused" has two senses: in one hand, filmmakers tend to let Owen and Abby physically occupy a bigger part of the screen, instead of the wide-angle lens in LTROI; in the other hand, the director cut many "peripheral" scenes (scenes where actors other than Owen and Abby interact). I am personally neutral to that change, though I believe that we need not give further emphasize to Owen and Abby for a better character depiction.
OK, now time for some negative comments. As a whole, I find the remake's interpretation of the gory scenes as a failure. They are too violent, bloody, and explicit, which, I think, largely spoils the basal tone of the movie, inserting some cheap and inconsistent horror elements in this supposedly beautiful, ambivalent movie.
Last, the music. Here I have to say LTROI's soundtrack totally outworks that of the remake. LMI's OST is, to its most, up to a "hardcore" horror film's suspense scenes, whereas LTROI's music is as beautiful, as poignant as the movie.
In conclusion, a good remake, loyal to the original story. One can tell the director's effort to re-interpret some minor details without changing the story's basal line/tune, though many of the modifications aren't as successful as they expect.
Basic story line: LTROI = LMI: 8.5 (basically the same) Settings: LTROI = 8.5, LMI = 9 (I am esp fond of the colour tone ) Scene interpretations: LTROI = 9, LMI = 6.5 (not so implicit...) Actors: Eli = 10, Abby = 9.5, Oskar = 8.5, Owen = 8.5 (those young actors are just gorgeous – both in Swedish and in American versions, Owen may not be as good looking as Oskar, but his acting is as excellent) Music: LTROI = 10, LMI = 5 (I bought the Swedish OST to fill my iPod. The American one? no thanks) Originality: LTROI = 10, LMI = 6 (afterall, LMI is a remake that has borrowed a lot from LTROI)
OVERALL: LTROI = 9, LMI = 7.5 congrats to both, good job done!
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I believe that many viewers of this movie are fans of the original Swedish movie LTROI, so I won't be emphasizing on how much I am fond of the original one – and here we are for the American remake.
That being said, I just watched the remake. In general, I am not disappointed (if not a little pleasantly surprised) by this remake, though it still cannot catch up with the original one as a whole.
Honestly, I was a little worried when I went to the cinema, being afraid that the story would be degraded into a superficial Hollywoodian fest of clichés and pure visual stimulations. Thankfully, that didn't happen.
In general, this remake is in line with the original book (and the original movie). Many settings are almost identical with the Swedish one, so are quite a number of actors' lines (well of course they spoke English in this one, no Svenska LOL). More importantly, the tranquillity resembles a lot to the Swedish one. We can tell see that the filmmaker had no intention to challenge the basic tone of the story, a beautiful love tale under vampire's cover. This, on the other hand though, might disappoint some fans who watch the remake in search for a revolutionary interpretation of the old story, YMMV.
Sure, there are still many differences. The first one is the ambiance colour tone of many scenes where Owen and Abby meet. The director has obviously chosen a warmer tone (under orange-yellowish street lamp) in which our two protagonists interact, as compared to the sharp contrast of white snow vs dark sky in the original one. Personally I give credits to that change, as it better alludes to the tenderness of Owen and Abby's friendship / love.
The real gender of Abby is one of the hottest topics amongst fans. Here, instead of giving a direct shot to Abby's under (which I find totally unnecessary in LTROI), the director chose to interpret Abby's gender in a very ambiguous way, leaving much room for interpretation.
Also, I feel that the American remake is more "focused" on the two protagonists than the Swedish one. "More focused" has two senses: in one hand, filmmakers tend to let Owen and Abby physically occupy a bigger part of the screen, instead of the wide-angle lens in LTROI; in the other hand, the director cut many "peripheral" scenes (scenes where actors other than Owen and Abby interact). I am personally neutral to that change, though I believe that we need not give further emphasize to Owen and Abby for a better character depiction.
OK, now time for some negative comments. As a whole, I find the remake's interpretation of the gory scenes as a failure. They are too violent, bloody, and explicit, which, I think, largely spoils the basal tone of the movie, inserting some cheap and inconsistent horror elements in this supposedly beautiful, ambivalent movie.
Last, the music. Here I have to say LTROI's soundtrack totally outworks that of the remake. LMI's OST is, to its most, up to a "hardcore" horror film's suspense scenes, whereas LTROI's music is as beautiful, as poignant as the movie.
In conclusion, a good remake, loyal to the original story. One can tell the director's effort to re-interpret some minor details without changing the story's basal line/tune, though many of the modifications aren't as successful as they expect.
Basic story line: LTROI = LMI: 8.5 (basically the same) Settings: LTROI = 8.5, LMI = 9 (I am esp fond of the colour tone ) Scene interpretations: LTROI = 9, LMI = 6.5 (not so implicit...) Actors: Eli = 10, Abby = 9.5, Oskar = 8.5, Owen = 8.5 (those young actors are just gorgeous – both in Swedish and in American versions, Owen may not be as good looking as Oskar, but his acting is as excellent) Music: LTROI = 10, LMI = 5 (I bought the Swedish OST to fill my iPod. The American one? no thanks) Originality: LTROI = 10, LMI = 6 (afterall, LMI is a remake that has borrowed a lot from LTROI)
OVERALL: LTROI = 9, LMI = 7.5 congrats to both, good job done!