Let The Right One In - Revisited?

A while ago I got a bit excited about the prospective belter that was Let The Right One In ('Låt den rätte komma in' in its native Swedish tongue) directed by Tomas Alfredson. The film has done the rounds in the art-house film industry and has been met with a high degree of admiration and a smattering of praise from the vamp genre's staunch critics.

Personally I felt that my excitement for it was highly justified for many reasons; the cinematography was truly breathtaking at times, in its visual exploitation of the small Swedish town in which it was based. Secondly, the performances from the two leading young actors were fiercely impressive. Thirdly, the film operates on several levels (no doubt a principal point of its success) in that the story delivers with a coming-of-age narrative, as well as a well executed vampire one. Lastly, I found Let The Right One In to flow exceedingly with moodiness and impending doom omnipresent. Pretty much ticked most of the boxes for me anyway.

So its a fantastic film - as a result you might be as surprised as me to learn that they will be remaking it. In England. At Hammer studios. This is puzzling to me given that Hammer's recent history since its 'rise from the grave' (you see what they did there sort of?) has been remarkably shit. The betting man would probably wager that Hammer have decided to remake it to cash in on some top wonga, a concept not exactly alien to the film industry. But the worrying thing is, its potentially going to be absolutely shit. I mean the problem being; it would be nigh on impossible for the great God Almighty himself to encapsulate the beautiful transience of Alfredson's original, not least because they want to set it in England.

I know virtually nothing of Hammer, I leave that to moggles. But from what I've seen of their recent forays into the bloodthirsting genre, a remake of a very recent and important Swedish film would be nothing short of sacrilage. But then I don't pay their bills.