Earlier this week, there was a screening for "Let Me In" at a mysterious, undisclosed location in Southern California.  I did not attend, but several people I know did, and the word back from all of them was the same.

They loved it.

Color me pleasantly shocked here.  Even when I spoke to Matt Reeves about the film at SXSW this year, I wasn't sure what to expect.  I was one of the people who spent a lot of time and energy talking about "Let The Right One In" when I saw it at Fantastic Fest '08, and I love the way the film has built in reputation over time.  I figured that it was going to have a long fuse on it, and sure enough, it seems like one of those movies that home video is slowly but surely growing from an obscure foreign title to a genuine genre classic.

Even though I think it's sort of ridiculous to make a new version of the book this close to the release of the Swedish film, that seems to be the new business model.  And if they've got to do it, at least Matt Reeves seems to have a real affinity for the material.  In our conversation, it was obvious that he's as big a fan of the novel as the Swedish film, so he's drawing from both in making his version.  And until this trailer came out, how closely he might be taking cues from the film was still a question mark.

I like the look of the trailer.  I think Chloe Moretz is a very promising performer, and this is a pretty great choice as a follow-up to "Kick-Ass," where she stole the film as Hit Girl.  Knowing that she's on-set right now for Martin Scorsese's "The Invention Of Hugo Cabret," I'd say she's having a career most actors twice her age would envy, and I think it's impressive that in an age with as many young teen actresses working as there are right now thanks to the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon and the seemingly-unquenchable appetite that audience has for new material, Moretz is the one that's locking up all the most demanding and interesting roles for people that age.  It's a real testament to just how strong her work is that she's moving from interesting film to interesting film right now without any of the typical teenie stuff her peers are doing.

Check it out:

 

 

The real question now is when we're going to get a chance to see the movie, since Overture Pictures is going out of business.  Just last year, they had such a strong presence at the Toronto Film Festival, and they seemed like they had finally turned the corner and started making movies that the public actually wanted to see, and they also started to figure out how to sell them.  They've had a pretty solid little string of modest hits like "The Men Who Stared At Goats" and "The Crazies," and it seemed like they were getting a handle on their identity as a company.

Word today is that Overture is just plain finished, and that leaves at least three movies in limbo, including "Let Me In."  The original release schedule had the film set for October, but that was before this news broke.  As of now, there's no word on when or how we're going to end up seeing the film.  That's a shame.  This trailer seems to have turned the tide of acceptance in terms of people wanting to see this film, and now the film drops into a weird morass of corporate instability.

We'll keep you posted as the situation develops, but if everything works out, "Let Me In" will be in theaters October 1.

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