Let me in

Re-makes of successful films rarely recreate the originals' freshness, distinctive mood and cinematic quality - three key factors accounting for its original success. One recent attempt was Let Me In, the 2010 English-language version of the acclaimed 2008 Swedish vampire movie, Let the Right One In.

The haste with which it was re-made by Matt Cloverfield Reeves suggests that Swedish film industry insiders knew that the original story could play well in the USA if it wasn't screened with subtitles. Fortunately, they decided not to tout a dubbed version.

The Swedish movie was based on a novel and screenplay by John Ajvide Lindqvist, who worked with Reeves on the American adaptation (to which two other Americans contributed). The original movie was directed by Tomas Alfredson, who won several awards for it; he was not involved with or happy about the US re-make. It was co-produced by long-established British horror production company, Hammer Films (now Dutch-owned and back in business after a two-decade hiatus).

The new version kept the basic story, set in the 1980s in a snowy environment: a bullied 12-year-old boy forms a close friendship with a new neighbour of the same age. She feels no cold, lives with an older guardian, turns out to be a truly bloodthirsty killing machine, helps the boy annihilate his school tormentors, and rides off with him in a train into a vampire's world of essential sunsets.

In America, a completely new character is introduced, a detective (Elias Koteas) investigating a supposed Satanic cult. Possibly seeking to add another known face to the US film's marketing strength, the role of the girl's "guardian" is expanded to show more of Richard Jenkins. To accommodate them, details of the original film's neighbouring victims were trimmed, while a scary scene with cats was completely cut out.

Other differences in the US version are matters of style: the Swedish movie had a slower pace, an eerie quality, and its young actors seemed more spectral, their snow-clad setting more sombre and alarming. The English-speaking pre-teens are presented less ominously, most effectively by Kodi Smit-McPhee, an Australian boy who'd shone in The Road.

The evil side of the girl's character is depicted by some strikingly horrific special effects, but Chloe (a tomboy delight in Kick-Ass) Moretz has a tougher acting challenge. She is possibly too pretty to be seen as a credible Lolita and lifetime physical partner for an older man, even when the screenplay shows us that she had never aged.

This above-average (for the USA) vampire/horror movie doesn't match the cinematic qualities of the Swedish original.