I’m working on my review of Let The Right One In, the Swedish vampire movie I saw at Fantastic Fest, and I’ll let you in on my first line:

Let The Right One In is a masterpiece.

Boo ya! Anyway, I fucking loved this movie and I’m going to be interviewing the director in a few days, but now there’s a question I don’t need to ask him: what he thinks of the remake. Talking to MovieZine (via Shock Til You Drop, who translated), Tomas Alfredson said:

Remakes should be made of movies that aren’t very good, that gives you the chance to fix whatever has gone wrong… I’m very proud of my movie and think it’s great, but the Americans might be of an other opinion. The saddest thing for me would be to see that beautiful story made into something mainstream.

Some commenters took me to task for my last article about this film, where I bemoaned Matt Reeves of Cloverfield directing the remake. They pointed out statements I’ve made in the past about remakes, where I said that the original still exists. Here’s the difference between a remake of an old movie and a remake of a new foreign movie, though: nobody sees the original. With an old movie, which is owned by some studio or other, there’s a push to rerelease it on DVD or otherwise tie in the remake. It’s all about the money. But for the remakes of the new foreign films, the impetus is to suppress the original so that the remake – which will not be sold as a remake – seems fresher and more original.

And here’s the other thing: Reeves cannot improve upon this film. I am depressed by the idea of Nacho Vigalondo’s Time Crimes being remade, but the fact that a genius like David Cronenberg has expressed interest make me less afraid. At least we’ll get a film with a personality. But hiring the Cloverfield guy to remake a movie about a 12 year old falling in love with his (pyhsically) 12 year old vampire neighbor – this is lose/lose. The remake will suck and the original will not get seen by the masses as it should.

Let The Right One In opens in New York and LA on October 24, followed by a multi-city rollout. I don’t know how wide this is going, but I will tell you that I believe this movie is worth a trip to see on the big screen. Do yourself – and the movies – a favor by making an effort to catch this film.

UPDATE: It’s playing tonight in LA. Go see it!