COMIC CON: Let Me In

COMIC CON: LET ME IN

There are many people out there that have immediately written off Matt Reeves North American remake of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN if only because the original can easily be argued as a masterpiece of modern cinema. Reeves was on stage today to present (defend) his film to the best of his ability and he brought along the main cast. Chloe Moretz, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Richard Jenkins were all in attendance. Here’s how it all went down.

-Panel host, Drew McWeeny opened up the festivities by telling the audience he’s seen the film. And that it’s awesome. He says no fan of film should pass this up simply because they deem it unnecessary.

-The first clip we see features Chloe and Kodi getting to know each other in an arcade. It’s a very quiet and dramatic scene that kind of shows the difference within the kid’s personalities. Kodi plays Ms. Pac-Man and eats candy while Chloe seems fascinated with Kodi and constantly stares at him. She takes some candy so she doesn’t hurt his feelings and it makes her run to the parking lot and puke. Kodi hugs her and Chloe asks if he’d like her if she wasn’t a girl.

-Reeves tried to capture the atmosphere of ROSEMARY’S BABY for the character of Owen (McPhee). It’s a coming of age story that throws Owen into a world he can’t quite comprehend.

-Jenkins role has very few lines but it extremely critical to the story. He hadn’t seen the original until a couple of days ago and was completely blown away by it.

-The film was filmed in Los Alamos, New Mexico, the childhood twon of Drew Goddard, the writer of Reeves’ CLOVERFIELD.

-Chloes mom reads all her scripts before her while her brother helps to shape the characters once she takes a role. Her mom hasn’t let her watch LET ME IN yet but she’s seen bits and pieces and loved it.

-The original concept for the remake was to make the kids older. Reeves, before even taking on the director’s job, told the studio not to. He says it would ruin the innocence that makes the kids relationship so special.

-John Ajvide Lindqvist, author of the novel was a big fan of CLOVERFIELD and was honored to have Reeves give his interpretation of the story.

-Most of the cast and crew waited until after filming was complete to watch the original.

-The second clip takes place as Jenkins is preparing to go out for the night and get Chloe some blood. There’s an intimate moment between the two and then we cut to Jenkins scoping out a car in a parking lot. Cut to a collage student getting into car while Jenkins hides in the back seat, wearing a garbage bag of his face. The kid picks up a friend on the street and they pull into get gas. As the driver goes in to pay, the passenger notices Jenkins and tries to call out as Jenkins grabs him from behind. Jenkins knocks him out and steals the car as the driver, and a couple more friends he meets in the store, chase after him. The car spins out of control and rolls down the side of the highway. As The kids get closer to the car, Jenkins takes out some sort of acid and pours it on his face. He howls in pain as we fade to black.

-Steven Spielberg gave Reeves advice on how to work with children. Reeves had them keep journals while in character in order to give them a back-story to work with.

-Reeves is using a lot of details from the book that were left out of the original. He’s included the scene with Virginia (Sasha Barrese) sucking her own blood, a storyline involving a cop (Elias Koteas), and Owen’s candy obsession.

Overall I think the film looks pretty dark. And I’m down with that. The second clip, for instance, came of very intense – but for the wrong reasons. You’re instantly rooting for Jenkins to kill this kid and forget that he’s basically just a serial killer. From what I saw, it looks like Jenkins is going to carry this film as a lovable loser who happens to hang people upside down in trees in order to drain their blood into a jug. I’m in.

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