Not the right one to let in

A large-budget remake of Let the Right One In – released two years after the Swedish original was an arthouse hit and written and directed by Reeves, best known for Cloverfield – is an inauspicious premise for a film. Surprisingly, Let Me In is not bad. The story of the friendship between a bullied boy and a conflicted 12-year-old(ish) girl vampire is left almost untouched and the sombre, expressive cinematography is successfully borrowed from its predecessor. Unable to match the original in strength and poignancy, however, it’s a respectable but ultimately redundant remake.

Let Me In | Directed by Matt Reeves (USA/ UK 2010) with Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloë Grace Moretz. Starts December 15