Tomas Alfredsons brilliant Let the Right One In, which made SuicideGirls distinguished Top Ten Films of 2008 list, is no less brilliant for having been remade as Let Me In, the Americanized version in theaters this week. In fact, the exquisite direction of the remake by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) has earned it surprisingly good reviews from critics still enamored with the original, and sparked a debate in some quarters about which version is the definitive one. Whichever you prefer, the very fact of this dark story now having been positively received twice in two years is proof of its poignancy and emotional heft. With the action moved from an apartment block in Sweden to the creepy suburb of Los Alamos, New Mexico, Let Me In retells the story of Oskar (now called Owen), a shy, possibly disturbed young boy who is seeking a respite from severe school bullying when a savior appears: a quiet, severe-looking girl named Eli (now called Abby), who teaches him to stand up for himself in exchange for nothing more than his companionship, at first.
Starring Kodi Smit-McPhee as Owen and young acting phenom of the moment
Chloe Moretz as his mercurial guardian, Let Me In deftly examines a bond of friendship between two damaged children, one being driven by abuse into a possible future as a psychopath, and the other an aged vampire in a childs body who has more or less come to terms with the kill-or-be-killed nature of existence, though echoes of humanity still reverberate in her eyes. Although certain elements of John Lindqvists source book have been soft-soaped for American audiences, such as Eli recruiting a middle-aged pedophile as her personal Renfield, keeping him enslaved while perpetually denying him that which he most desires, the books sensationally realized characters and bold storytelling are still there in abundance, guided by the sure hand of Reeves, a director steadily moving up the ranks of talent to watch. Matt Reeves recently called up SuicideGirls during a lunch break while out promoting the film.
Ryan Stewart: Whats the psychology of a 250 year-old vampire who is forever stuck in the body of a pre-pubescent child? Does she have a limited ability to learn? Is she wise? How did you interpret her mind?
Matt Reeves: I think shes stuck, emotionally, in terms of her development, at the age of twelve. And thats something that I actually got from the book. Theres this one scene where Lindqvist describes Oskar and Eli speaking, and Oskar is asking Eli questions because he doesnt really understand exactly what she is. Hes just been confronted with someone who iswhatever she is, and he says How old are youreally? And she says Im twelve, but in a way that I dont quite understand -- Ive been twelve for a really long time. And he says to her Well, maybe you dont understand it because youre, you know, twelve! And she takes offense at that. She says Are you saying Im stupid? And he says No, Im saying youre a kid. There was an idea there that really got to me. Its one thing to think that theres this scheming, 250 year-old woman who knows what shes doing inside of this twelve year-olds body that would be a real manifestation of evil, in a way but theres another way of thinking of it in that if you imagine a kid who is eternally trapped at that age and also has the burden of having to find some way to survive, that to me was tragic and very, very sad. And I loved that idea.
RS: Was Chloes interpretation similar, that she shouldnt try to project as being wise beyond her years?
MR: It was something we talked about. I showed Chloe some photographs of a homeless family that was documented by this photographer named Mary Ellen Mark the family was named the Damned family, ironically enough and there was a girl who was about the characters age, probably about twelve, who was the daughter. This family lived in terrible conditions they lived in their car, they squatted in an abandoned house and there was this one shot where the girl was holding her younger brothers hand in a very protective way and staring at the camera, and she had this look on her face that just said Dont mess with me. She had the look of a survivor, and yet at the same time you could see that just under it there was this tremendous vulnerability. And I showed this to Chloe and I said This is kind of like what Abby is, because shes really not someone who is older she is twelve but shes seen things that no twelve year-old should ever see. And shes been witness to things and been a part of things that no twelve year-old should ever have to be part of. That is a terrible burden, and Chloe seemed to get that, so thats how we tried to depict the character. To me thats a much more tragic, and also a more ambiguous kind of characterization.
RS: Did you see Abby as manipulative, in that shes seemingly always on the lookout for a new companion/flunky?
MR: I know that some people say Abby is grooming Owen to be the next Richard Jenkins [the actor who plays Abbys protective, human father figure] but to me, when I look at their connection, she has a genuine connection to him. She sees him as another kid her age, and shes become so isolated that she doesnt have connections like that in her life. To see someone who she can relate to and connect to is a profound thing for her. I think she truly loves him, but even that doesnt change the fact that she still has needs. Part of the reason why she needs a caretaker is that shes still a kid, shes still stuck at a certain level of development, and when she loses control she has no sense of judgment. Primal things come out of her, and I thought that was a good metaphor for adolescence, when hormones start to surge through your body and you start to change. During those moments she doesnt really think clearly, and she can potentially put herself in grave danger in addition to killing someone else. So, her survival is greatly aided by having someone around who looks out for her. I mean, obviously a vampire cant even go out in the light, plus the fact that shes still a kid. The vulnerability of that is what got to me the fact that she can be both viciously brutal, as well as vulnerable. Theres a dichotomy, a mix there that I thought was really cool.
RS: In Let the Right One In, its heavily implied that Abby/Eli may not have started her long life as a girl. Theres a famous shot of her nude with a horrifically stitched-up crotch. Did you feel the need to explore that?
MR: Well, in the book theres an actual flashback to where she becomes a vampire -- its a scene where shes attacked and in that scene Oskar literally starts feeling her feelings, and through that he discovers that Eli was actually born Elias, and was a boy at that age, and was castrated. Its a horrific, orgiastic scene where this vampire attacks Elias and takes away his sex organs, and its a very, very haunting and disturbing scene. As for me, I related to this story as a coming of age story and what I wanted was to do a version of the story that would play with all of those things and I kept all of those lines but in that scene where Owen is watching her dress we just hold the camera on him and we dont see what hes seeing. So, for people whove read the book that interpretation still stands, but I felt that since were not going into the full back story and seeing all of that, it would throw off the balance.
RS: Ive heard that the book is sprawling, like a miniseries.
MR: There is a lot of stuff in the book, especially about the Richard Jenkins character. His character is actually a pedophile, and he becomes this really horrific zombie in the last third of the book these are all things that I didnt end up using or bringing in, because the thing I really wanted to focus on and keep the balance on was Abby and Owens relationship and the coming of age aspect of the story. I always feel that without being able to give full weight to everything you can end up throwing a curveball that distances the audience, emotionally. I wanted you to relate to those characters without thinking aboutI mean, you already have the obstacle of getting over the fact of her being what she is, and that she does these horrible things. The first time I watched the Swedish film, I actually didnt understand what that moment where you see her genitals was about. I thought it was about his coming of age, him watching her and being fascinated by someone of the opposite sex. At that age, thats fascinating. And then when I read the book I discovered the back story and I decided to have it there in a way so that its not a distraction for people who dont know of it.
RS: Did you approach working with Chloe any differently than you would a twenty-something actress?
MR: You know, its interesting, when we started I was fortunate enough to get some advice from Steven Spielberg on that. J.J. Abrams has a relationship with him and he had shown him Cloverfield, and Spielberg loved Cloverfield, and I met him. And then when I was doing this I asked J.J. if he would ask Steven if he wouldnt mind speaking to me about directing children, which is something I hadnt really had that much experience with. And he did, he gave me wonderful advice. He was very generous, and he told me to have them keep journals, which I did. They kept these very detailed journals, and the only caveat I gave was that they had to share their journals with me. I said to them You can write anything you want in character, but I have to be able to read it with you so that I can maybe draw on that stuff. The idea was to find a way for them to be able to express themselves and connect to their character, and the journal was part of that. Also, just having the two of them spend time together was part of it, because their relationship was so important. So, we went bowling and stuff.
RS: What tricks did you learn for getting the best performances out of them?
MR: Well, I shot the first three weeks of their relationship -- where they meet at the jungle gym -- I shot all of those jungle gym scenes in order, in the first few weeks. By doing it chronologically we captured the arc of their relationship, for the most part. We started with them not really knowing each other, and then growing closer and closer, and by shooting that as they were actually becoming friends, I hoped that it would come across. Part of directing them was also letting them guide me, you know? Spielberg told me Remember that youre trying to recapture what its like to be twelve, but they are twelve. So, if Chloe had an idea or if Kodi had one, Id always want to entertain it since it was a window into their point of view. I always like to do that with actors anyway. I have in my mind a very specific plan for the way I think something should be, but Ill jettison it at the beginning of what were doing, because there might be a much better idea somewhere and its the happy accidents, the discovery moments that bring the movie to life. So, directing Chloe was in a way like directing an adult in that I could explore with her, and the way you explore with adult actors is to play with them, so this was very close to that experience. I tried to have a set where they could play in between takes too, because it was important for them to be able to remain kids.
RS: Its funny that you mentioned Spielberg, since this film is very reminiscent of E.T., with its 1983 suburbia setting, and this introverted kid suddenly getting an odd companion. Did you see it that way?
MR: I sure did. I was thinking about the 80s when I was reading the book, and I was thinking about Spielbergia. I was thinking about E.T. That was a movie that profoundly affected me when I was growing up. This story is obviously incredibly different in that it explores the very, very dark nature of this creature, but it also concerns the dark nature of the boy. There are definite parallels, with a kid growing up in a suburb, and him being lonely and isolated, and being a bit of an outsider. In a way, its a kind of fantasy. Its as if your imaginary friend showed up, and she had this darkness to her. Shes a dark figure, and thats part of the tragedy of it. Their relationship is tender, and also drenched in blood, and thats powerful combination. Its also straight out of Lindqvist, and I liked the idea of getting to this Spielbergian world through the Lindqvist sensibility, I really related to that. So, yeah, I definitely thought of E.T., thats exactly how I viewed it. I really related to Elliott when I was growing up, because his parents were going through a rough time with a divorce, and that was affecting him and all of those things that I related to are also in Lindqvists story.
RS: Would it be fair to say this film calls into question the notion that children are invariably innocent?
MR: I think it does, yes. Its actually exploring fantasies of rage and revenge and thats the power of the story. On the one hand Owen is kind of an innocent, because he still is a kid and he doesnt really understand how things work and he has that emotional purity, but theres also an element of myth to childlike innocence. Even babies have fits of rage, and I do think that its a myth that children are just pure in that way. What children are is very pure in their expressions of things, including their dark sides. I definitely think that was something that Lindqvist was exploring, and its a fascinating part of what he was trying to do.
RS: Can we expect some flying monsters next time in Cloverfield 2?
MR: [laughs] God, I wish I could tell you! Ive been through some ideas, but frankly we just dont know yet. Ive been working on Let Me In for the past two years, and J.J. Abrams just started shooting Super 8, which is his passion project at the moment, and the writer of Cloverfield, Drew Goddard, just directed his first movie which also has Richard Jenkins in it and thats a movie he wrote with Joss Whedon called Cabin in the Woods, and its supposed to be great. So, we just havent had time to work on it! We are working on it as fast as we can, and I have no other news to report. But now, based on this conversation, I think that we should definitely consider some flying monsters.
Let Me In is now playing in theaters everywhere.
Starring Kodi Smit-McPhee as Owen and young acting phenom of the moment
Chloe Moretz as his mercurial guardian, Let Me In deftly examines a bond of friendship between two damaged children, one being driven by abuse into a possible future as a psychopath, and the other an aged vampire in a childs body who has more or less come to terms with the kill-or-be-killed nature of existence, though echoes of humanity still reverberate in her eyes. Although certain elements of John Lindqvists source book have been soft-soaped for American audiences, such as Eli recruiting a middle-aged pedophile as her personal Renfield, keeping him enslaved while perpetually denying him that which he most desires, the books sensationally realized characters and bold storytelling are still there in abundance, guided by the sure hand of Reeves, a director steadily moving up the ranks of talent to watch. Matt Reeves recently called up SuicideGirls during a lunch break while out promoting the film.
Ryan Stewart: Whats the psychology of a 250 year-old vampire who is forever stuck in the body of a pre-pubescent child? Does she have a limited ability to learn? Is she wise? How did you interpret her mind?
Matt Reeves: I think shes stuck, emotionally, in terms of her development, at the age of twelve. And thats something that I actually got from the book. Theres this one scene where Lindqvist describes Oskar and Eli speaking, and Oskar is asking Eli questions because he doesnt really understand exactly what she is. Hes just been confronted with someone who iswhatever she is, and he says How old are youreally? And she says Im twelve, but in a way that I dont quite understand -- Ive been twelve for a really long time. And he says to her Well, maybe you dont understand it because youre, you know, twelve! And she takes offense at that. She says Are you saying Im stupid? And he says No, Im saying youre a kid. There was an idea there that really got to me. Its one thing to think that theres this scheming, 250 year-old woman who knows what shes doing inside of this twelve year-olds body that would be a real manifestation of evil, in a way but theres another way of thinking of it in that if you imagine a kid who is eternally trapped at that age and also has the burden of having to find some way to survive, that to me was tragic and very, very sad. And I loved that idea.
RS: Was Chloes interpretation similar, that she shouldnt try to project as being wise beyond her years?
MR: It was something we talked about. I showed Chloe some photographs of a homeless family that was documented by this photographer named Mary Ellen Mark the family was named the Damned family, ironically enough and there was a girl who was about the characters age, probably about twelve, who was the daughter. This family lived in terrible conditions they lived in their car, they squatted in an abandoned house and there was this one shot where the girl was holding her younger brothers hand in a very protective way and staring at the camera, and she had this look on her face that just said Dont mess with me. She had the look of a survivor, and yet at the same time you could see that just under it there was this tremendous vulnerability. And I showed this to Chloe and I said This is kind of like what Abby is, because shes really not someone who is older she is twelve but shes seen things that no twelve year-old should ever see. And shes been witness to things and been a part of things that no twelve year-old should ever have to be part of. That is a terrible burden, and Chloe seemed to get that, so thats how we tried to depict the character. To me thats a much more tragic, and also a more ambiguous kind of characterization.
RS: Did you see Abby as manipulative, in that shes seemingly always on the lookout for a new companion/flunky?
MR: I know that some people say Abby is grooming Owen to be the next Richard Jenkins [the actor who plays Abbys protective, human father figure] but to me, when I look at their connection, she has a genuine connection to him. She sees him as another kid her age, and shes become so isolated that she doesnt have connections like that in her life. To see someone who she can relate to and connect to is a profound thing for her. I think she truly loves him, but even that doesnt change the fact that she still has needs. Part of the reason why she needs a caretaker is that shes still a kid, shes still stuck at a certain level of development, and when she loses control she has no sense of judgment. Primal things come out of her, and I thought that was a good metaphor for adolescence, when hormones start to surge through your body and you start to change. During those moments she doesnt really think clearly, and she can potentially put herself in grave danger in addition to killing someone else. So, her survival is greatly aided by having someone around who looks out for her. I mean, obviously a vampire cant even go out in the light, plus the fact that shes still a kid. The vulnerability of that is what got to me the fact that she can be both viciously brutal, as well as vulnerable. Theres a dichotomy, a mix there that I thought was really cool.
RS: In Let the Right One In, its heavily implied that Abby/Eli may not have started her long life as a girl. Theres a famous shot of her nude with a horrifically stitched-up crotch. Did you feel the need to explore that?
MR: Well, in the book theres an actual flashback to where she becomes a vampire -- its a scene where shes attacked and in that scene Oskar literally starts feeling her feelings, and through that he discovers that Eli was actually born Elias, and was a boy at that age, and was castrated. Its a horrific, orgiastic scene where this vampire attacks Elias and takes away his sex organs, and its a very, very haunting and disturbing scene. As for me, I related to this story as a coming of age story and what I wanted was to do a version of the story that would play with all of those things and I kept all of those lines but in that scene where Owen is watching her dress we just hold the camera on him and we dont see what hes seeing. So, for people whove read the book that interpretation still stands, but I felt that since were not going into the full back story and seeing all of that, it would throw off the balance.
RS: Ive heard that the book is sprawling, like a miniseries.
MR: There is a lot of stuff in the book, especially about the Richard Jenkins character. His character is actually a pedophile, and he becomes this really horrific zombie in the last third of the book these are all things that I didnt end up using or bringing in, because the thing I really wanted to focus on and keep the balance on was Abby and Owens relationship and the coming of age aspect of the story. I always feel that without being able to give full weight to everything you can end up throwing a curveball that distances the audience, emotionally. I wanted you to relate to those characters without thinking aboutI mean, you already have the obstacle of getting over the fact of her being what she is, and that she does these horrible things. The first time I watched the Swedish film, I actually didnt understand what that moment where you see her genitals was about. I thought it was about his coming of age, him watching her and being fascinated by someone of the opposite sex. At that age, thats fascinating. And then when I read the book I discovered the back story and I decided to have it there in a way so that its not a distraction for people who dont know of it.
RS: Did you approach working with Chloe any differently than you would a twenty-something actress?
MR: You know, its interesting, when we started I was fortunate enough to get some advice from Steven Spielberg on that. J.J. Abrams has a relationship with him and he had shown him Cloverfield, and Spielberg loved Cloverfield, and I met him. And then when I was doing this I asked J.J. if he would ask Steven if he wouldnt mind speaking to me about directing children, which is something I hadnt really had that much experience with. And he did, he gave me wonderful advice. He was very generous, and he told me to have them keep journals, which I did. They kept these very detailed journals, and the only caveat I gave was that they had to share their journals with me. I said to them You can write anything you want in character, but I have to be able to read it with you so that I can maybe draw on that stuff. The idea was to find a way for them to be able to express themselves and connect to their character, and the journal was part of that. Also, just having the two of them spend time together was part of it, because their relationship was so important. So, we went bowling and stuff.
RS: What tricks did you learn for getting the best performances out of them?
MR: Well, I shot the first three weeks of their relationship -- where they meet at the jungle gym -- I shot all of those jungle gym scenes in order, in the first few weeks. By doing it chronologically we captured the arc of their relationship, for the most part. We started with them not really knowing each other, and then growing closer and closer, and by shooting that as they were actually becoming friends, I hoped that it would come across. Part of directing them was also letting them guide me, you know? Spielberg told me Remember that youre trying to recapture what its like to be twelve, but they are twelve. So, if Chloe had an idea or if Kodi had one, Id always want to entertain it since it was a window into their point of view. I always like to do that with actors anyway. I have in my mind a very specific plan for the way I think something should be, but Ill jettison it at the beginning of what were doing, because there might be a much better idea somewhere and its the happy accidents, the discovery moments that bring the movie to life. So, directing Chloe was in a way like directing an adult in that I could explore with her, and the way you explore with adult actors is to play with them, so this was very close to that experience. I tried to have a set where they could play in between takes too, because it was important for them to be able to remain kids.
RS: Its funny that you mentioned Spielberg, since this film is very reminiscent of E.T., with its 1983 suburbia setting, and this introverted kid suddenly getting an odd companion. Did you see it that way?
MR: I sure did. I was thinking about the 80s when I was reading the book, and I was thinking about Spielbergia. I was thinking about E.T. That was a movie that profoundly affected me when I was growing up. This story is obviously incredibly different in that it explores the very, very dark nature of this creature, but it also concerns the dark nature of the boy. There are definite parallels, with a kid growing up in a suburb, and him being lonely and isolated, and being a bit of an outsider. In a way, its a kind of fantasy. Its as if your imaginary friend showed up, and she had this darkness to her. Shes a dark figure, and thats part of the tragedy of it. Their relationship is tender, and also drenched in blood, and thats powerful combination. Its also straight out of Lindqvist, and I liked the idea of getting to this Spielbergian world through the Lindqvist sensibility, I really related to that. So, yeah, I definitely thought of E.T., thats exactly how I viewed it. I really related to Elliott when I was growing up, because his parents were going through a rough time with a divorce, and that was affecting him and all of those things that I related to are also in Lindqvists story.
RS: Would it be fair to say this film calls into question the notion that children are invariably innocent?
MR: I think it does, yes. Its actually exploring fantasies of rage and revenge and thats the power of the story. On the one hand Owen is kind of an innocent, because he still is a kid and he doesnt really understand how things work and he has that emotional purity, but theres also an element of myth to childlike innocence. Even babies have fits of rage, and I do think that its a myth that children are just pure in that way. What children are is very pure in their expressions of things, including their dark sides. I definitely think that was something that Lindqvist was exploring, and its a fascinating part of what he was trying to do.
RS: Can we expect some flying monsters next time in Cloverfield 2?
MR: [laughs] God, I wish I could tell you! Ive been through some ideas, but frankly we just dont know yet. Ive been working on Let Me In for the past two years, and J.J. Abrams just started shooting Super 8, which is his passion project at the moment, and the writer of Cloverfield, Drew Goddard, just directed his first movie which also has Richard Jenkins in it and thats a movie he wrote with Joss Whedon called Cabin in the Woods, and its supposed to be great. So, we just havent had time to work on it! We are working on it as fast as we can, and I have no other news to report. But now, based on this conversation, I think that we should definitely consider some flying monsters.
Let Me In is now playing in theaters everywhere.