Twilight vs. Let Me In
The other day I sat down and watched some horror movies that I had been meaning to see for quite some time. One of them was the critical darling, “Let Me In.” I couldn’t help but notice the parallels between it and another horror movie franchise which has sort of dominated the genre for the past few years. The basic plots are quite similar and so I think these will actually make for a great mash-up.
Story
The stories in both these movies are ostensibly similar - a loner falls in love with a vampire in a dreary town. In “Twilight” the loner is of course Bella, one of the most consistently unlikeable characters in recent cinema history. Her status as a loner is both perplexing and annoying. She is not a social outcast but rather a girl who is literally surrounded by people who love her like her father and friends, but she chooses to shun and mistreat them. The main character in “Let Me In” is an actual outcast named Owen. He has no friends and is perpetually bullied by a group of sadists in his class who are actually dead set on killing or seriously maiming the boy. Much like Bella, Owen’s parents are divorced but his home life is considerably more tragic. He lives with his highly religious, alcoholic mother who is almost a non-character in the story. Unlike Bella’s father who makes an effort with his daughter, Owen’s parents are merely broken people using their child as a weapon in their divorce.
With both of them they meet and become infatuated with these vampires. Bella of course meets Edward at school - because vampires go to High School now - whereas Owen meets Abby in his apartment complex. Infatuation is soon followed by mutual adoration but the form it takes in both movies is completely different. Bella and Edward are these two people from different worlds who have no business being together but choose to be out of…I don’t know. She smells good? She likes how dangerous he is? I’ve never really understood the characters. Owen and Abby on the other hand both live these lives of quiet desperation and find that they need each other because of that. Their relationship isn’t loving, it’s heartbreaking. In both movies the human/vampire relationship leads to complications. In “Twilight” the complications are ridiculous and horribly stupid whereas “Let Me In” portrays some very real problems that a vampire would come across trying to live in the real world.
Point goes to “Let Me In”
Characters
The “Twilight” movies are absolutely filled to the brim with characters and I can’t help but feel that most of them are superfluous. Vampires, Werewolves, Italian Vampires, Native Americans, Seattle Vampires, Fork’s townspeople, Black Eyed Peas Vampires. We have all these people and the movies fail at making us care about any of them. I can’t help but feel that this is because the movies are really told from Bella’s perspective. Bella doesn’t care about these people. It seems she almost openly dislikes the people in her world except for Edward and Jacob, so we in turn end up feeling the same way.
“Let Me In” takes a completely different route and limits their cast severely. They even go one step further and create a smaller world of characters within the larger one. The movie is a lot like the various Snoopy movies because adults are these curious non-entities. We have scenes with Owen’s parents and teachers but we never actually see them. Their faces are always obscured by shadows or not shown on frame. This creates a world devoid of adults where children like Owen are sort of left out in the cold to fend for themselves. The bullying Owen experiences is so much more real because there almost literally is no one to turn to and no one to help him. The only three adults of consequence that we actually see are the detective investigating the local murders, the local YMCA coach and Abby’s “father.” This simultaneously creates this horribly bleak world and makes us care for these lost children so much more.
Point goes to “Let Me In”
Directing
I’m not going to be able to really compare these movies all that well because of the differences in the budget, the audiences they were aimed at and the fact that “Let Me In” was actually a remake of a Swedish film I’ve never seen. All I’ll say is that the CG used in “Twilight” is more expensive and obviously superior. “Let Me In” mostly uses traditional effects but every now and then they throw in some CG. Ironically it is the traditional effects which were more resonant. We don’t need to see Abby crawl up the side of a building. Having her on the floor one second and suddenly holding on to a tenth story ledge seamlessly brings us into the world without any cheesy computer generated images involved.
Point goes to “Let Me In” but they could have done without the CG
Popularity and Mass Appeal
“Let Me In” was loved by critics but barely broke even at the Box Office. “Twilight” is reviled by serious movie lovers everywhere but is a pop culture phenomenon and has made more money in the past few years than some countries. “Let Me In” is just an art house, genre bending horror movie and because of that it will never have the kind of mass appeal that Twilight has. If they had strayed from the original story and aged the characters, making them teenagers, they might have garnered a few more fans, but the story would lack the poignancy it has now.
Point begrudgingly goes to “Twilight”
Conclusion
If you’re a “Twilight” fan and into the whole vampire thing, go watch “Let Me In.” The movie is slow, it has a rational plot, great character development and in a strange, disturbing way it’s almost heartwarming. It’s not an action fest and the black levels will really test your TV, but I really think it’s worth a gander to see the other side of the movie fence. If you’re worried that it will be too scary, there is actually very little gore and most of the killings are obscured with camera tricks.