Chloe Grace Moretz & Kodi Smit-McPhee

I'm a big, big fan of " Let the Right One In," the chilling 2008 adaptation of John Ajvide Lindqvist's best seller about the pale female vampire who is "12 ... more or less" and whose budding friendship with a severely bullied boy living in the same apartment complex, with minimal parental supervision, leads to a gory confrontation with his tormentors.

Now we have "Let Me In," a shrewd American remake of the Swedish original.

The action has been relocated to 1983 Los Alamos, N.M. Writer-director Matt Reeves, working in a very different key than his previous, bombastically scaled but juicy "Cloverfield," has done a couple of interesting things with the story structure, creating a flashback that catches up on itself around the one-third point. In one instance he has improved on a visual shock effect from the original, involving a bed-ridden vampire victim whose hospital stay ends badly. In other instances, Reeves approximates shots, or a series of shots, or entire sequences, to fairly good effect and with just enough variation to call the results his own.

The Reagan-era setting allows Reeves to put Reagan on TV screens occasionally, talking about good and evil, while the local police officer (Elias Koteas plays an unnamed detective) wonders if the rash of bloody killings in the area has something to do with "satanists." Young Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is no satanist, but the put-upon boy -- a product of a busted marriage -- dreams of exacting violent revenge on the punks at school who bully him, psychologically and physically. It's hard to watch these scenes in "Let Me In," though of course the harder they are to watch, the easier it is for Reeves to generate audience empathy when Owen and his newfound and mysteriously gifted pal Abby (Chloe Grace Moretz) start striking back.

Abby is a vampire. Her father figure (Richard Jenkins) must keep her well fed with human blood, which means he kills with regularity. Yet clearly he is not happy about it. His life is a small, sad one, a Renfield life, if Renfield were played by Richard Jenkins. And while we're at it: Can we give it up for Richard Jenkins? He works all the time and never with any visible effort. He is one of the most valuable character actors going these days. The entire cast is strong, with Moretz and Smit-McPhee right up to the level of their Swedish counterparts.

There are moments in "Let Me In" when Reeves goes for the splatter effect in close-up. Many of the grim amazements of the original were photographed from a calm medium shot. Here, the technique's more on the nose (as is the musical score, by Michael Giacchino, a genius when he's on, but overstating the melodrama here). I wish I could better judge how well "Let Me In" will work for those who haven't seen the earlier version. I can't un-see that one. I wish I could. The original was a very good thriller. The new one is simply a good one.

 

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"Let Me In" Movie Trailer

 

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MPAA rating: R (for strong bloody horror violence, language and a brief sexual situation).

Running time: 1:55.

Cast: Chloe Grace Moretz (Abby); Kodi Smit-McPhee (Owen); Richard Jenkins (The Father); Elias Koteas (The Policeman); Dylan Minnette (Kenny).

Credits: Written and directed by Matt Reeves; based on the novel and Swedish film "Let the Right One In," by John Ajvide Lindqvist; produced by Donna Gigliotti, Alex Brunner, Simon Oakes, Tobin Armbrust, Guy East, John Nordling and Carl Molinder. An Overture Films release.