INTERVIEW:Nothing upsets film fans more than an unnecessary remake but director Matt Reeves is confident that his new vampire film will work. But then, this is the man who managed to scare the pants off Steven Spielberg, he tells DONALD CLARKE
A LOT OF PEOPLE have it in for Matt Reeves. Nothing more vigorously stirs the ire of a movie fan than an unnecessary remake. When it was announced that Let the Right One In, Tomas Alfredson's extraordinary 2008 Swedish vampire drama, was to get an American makeover, the internet immediately caught a case of violent dyspepsia.
Based on a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, that film – after a slow start – eventually emerged as one of the most acclaimed of the past decade.
We all knew what was about to happen. This eerie, restrained film, in which a bullied boy develops an affection for an undead neighbour, would be transformed into a clumsy, noisy, flashy shock-fest. Reeves, eventual director of the new project, understands the cyber-suspicion.
“Oh, when I was shown the film I told them they shouldn’t remake it,” he laughs. “On the other hand, it reminded me of a TV pilot I had written some time before. And this was my life. Like the kid in the film, I was bullied and I was often mistaken for a girl when I was a child.
“It was a piece of genius: a coming-of-age story hidden in a vampire tale. I immediately wondered if we could turn it into an American story without stepping on the original’s toes.”
To most everyone's surprise and delight, the eventual film, retitled Let Me In, turned out to be an impressively nuanced and thoughtful piece of work. Set in Los Alamos, New Mexico (in winter, as snowy as Sweden, apparently), Reeves' picture retains much of the original's frayed atmosphere but, taking place in the early 1980s, it also insinuates subtle musings on America's post-Watergate neuroses.
So, how did he manage it? Let Me Inwas not produced on an enormous budget but the independent studio was still risking several million dollars on a comparatively recherché project. There must have been pressure to soften the material. Few recent American films have been quite so nihilistic.
"There wasn't really much pressure," he says. "There was briefly a question as to whether we would age them up. I was dead set against it. It is a film about that particular time in life. Strangely, the success of Twilightactually helped us. Suddenly they wanted to differentiate themselves from that – make it different. The kids being younger actually helped in that way."
Reeves may not be a household name but he is already an experienced director. A close colleague and friend of JJ Abrams (he of Lostand the recent Star Trekfilm), Reeves helped develop the series Felicityand has directed numerous episodes of other popular shows.
His break into movies came with an impressive, faux-handycam, giant-lizard thriller named Cloverfield. You remember. That was the film with the extraordinarily effective teaser trailer during which the Statue of Liberty's head bounced across Manhattan.
“That was a new way of promoting movies,” he says. “I shot the trailer, which is unusual for a director. The marketing became a cultural experience in itself. It created this environment that made the film a hit. But it also created false expectations about the movie. It was always supposed to show you the story from the character’s perspective – with all those limitations. People wanted all these answers and some were disappointed when they didn’t come.”
As well as breaking new ground in marketing, Cloverfield, in which some huge beastie chews up most of New York, also helped formalise the first-person video as a mainstream genre. Whereas Blair Witch was shot with a tiny crew, Reeves' film, despite being largely made on humble consumer equipment, was a huge Paramount production.
“We were making a garage-band version of a big movie. I kept expecting Paramount to arrive and say: ‘What are you doing? Make a proper film.’ What I was doing was closer to the old Super-8 films I did as a kid.”
Yes, Matt Reeves, a polite guy with a sober manner, was one of those kids who lived life through a viewfinder.
Born on Long Island, he acquired an old wind-up Super 8 camera and began pointing it at anything that moved. When still a teenager, he met JJ Abrams – also a keen amateur auteur – and they embarked on a partnership that has endured. It’s hard to imagine either of them living any other sort of life.
“To make it you have to be just a little insane,” he says. “You have to want it too much. I can remember my father saying: ‘What if you don’t make it?’ And I would say: ‘I’ll keep at it until I do.’ ‘But what if you don’t make it?’ ‘I’ll keep at it until I do.’ ”
Reeves does seem to have made it. Cloverfieldwas a huge smash and Let Me In– though it performed disappointingly at the US box-office – is one of the most positively reviewed films of 2010. One imagines that the young Reeves would be pleased with how things have worked out.
He remembers sitting in the cinema when ETcame out and wishing that he could become friends with the director. Sure enough, following the release of Cloverfield, Steven Spielberg sought him out.
"He was on the set of Star Trekand asked if the guy who directed Cloverfieldwas about," he says. "So I had to shuffle on over and get myself introduced. 'Congratulations,' he said. 'You scared the hell out of me.' "
Some critics have seen parallels between Let Me In(not to mention Let the Right One In) and Spielberg's ET. " ETwith teeth," one writer ventured. The tones could not be more different but both films deal with children from broken families discovering very weird friends.
Both feature hugely impressive juvenile performances. (Chloë Moretz from Kick-Assplays the vampire. Kodi Smit-McPhee is the bullied boy.)
“Steven said: ‘It’s important for you to remember what life was like when you were 12. But remember these kids actually are that age. Use that. They have gold for you that you could never discover on your own.’ ”
Dark gold. Very dark gold indeed.
Let Me Inis on general release
