In the original the relationship between Hakan and Eli is never spelled out. You never know if Oskar is bound to end up as helpless as him, or if the nature of their relationship is different. Let Me In basically spells this out when Owen finds the photo-booth strip of Abby and a young Richard Jenkins. In Let the Right One In the whole thing is more open ended. If you\’re an optimist, there might still be hope for Oskar yet.

There\’s also the whole thing about Oskar\’s visit to his father, and how uncomfortable the whole things gets when his father\’s friend arrives. Is he his lover? How does this reflect on Oskar? Does this play on Oskar acceptance that Eli \”is not a girl\”? (an issue Let Me In totally shies away from)

Don\’t get me wrong, I didn\’t hate the remake as I expected. I liked a bunch of stuff in it. Specially Kodi Smit-McPhee, who really does a better job than his Swedish counterpart. And the rest of the cast does really good to. But most of the best stuff is copied straight out of the original. Like the great in-the-pool climax. It\’s sad that subtitle fearing Americans will think that Reeves came up with that.

Overall I find Let Me In a competent but truly unnecessary film.

There\’s nothing ambiguous about the original. Nothing at all.

Let Me In is certainly superior

I was planning on skipping it altogether and I just saw it because of your love for the film. I was really disappointed.

It a a competent, interesting, tame, and extremely unnecessary version of the original. It shies away from some of it\’s most interesting ideas and it spells out all the great ambiguities.

Yes, the acting and music are great. But I don\’t think those are reasons enough to justify it\’s existence.