If you are into Swedish vampire films (like, who isn’t?), then you may have heard the buzz surrounding a little film called Let the Right One In, directed by Swedish filmmaker Tomas Alfredson. In fact, early reviews for the film, which centers around the relationship between two children, one of whom is a vampire (it has been described as a coming-of-age Vampire movie), were so good that Matt Reeves (of Cloverfield fame) has been tapped to remake an American version of the film. And, get this, the remake was announced before the Swedish version even had its wide release in Sweden.
Understandably, Alfredson was a little miffed. He told Moviezine that “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. … I don’t like to whine, but of course – if you’d spent years on painting a picture, you’d hate to hear buzz about a copy even before your vernissage!”
It bothers me that, for some reason, studio executives don’t think that American audiences can handle subtitled (or, heaven forbid, dubbed) films. It’s not as if there is not a precedent. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was a big hit, and it was up for a best picture academy award. And what about The Passion of the Christ, or Apocalypto? Both of which also made a lot of money. Even a lot of the Jackie Chan American rereleases were dubbed. (Heck, do you remember that German song “99 Red Balloons”? It was a big hit, and then they made an English language version and nobody liked it.) American audiences don’t have a problem with subtitled and foreign language films when those movies are worth seeing and they are supported by the studios.
I’m just sick of the studios thinking that American audiences are dumb, and that we don’t want to be challenged by our entertainment. Granted, some of the biggest films lately have not exactly been intellectually challenging. On the other hand, look at the success of The Dark Knight. TDK isn’t your normal brainless action movie. It’s dark and thought provoking, challenging in ways that studios don’t normally think American audiences can handle. When you look at it, it is the movies that break convention, that defy audience’s expectations that make the most impact.
Personally, I don’t have a lot of faith in Matt Reeves because I didn’t think Cloverfield was very good. But more than that, often when a foreign film is remade for American audience’s it falls flat and lacks the originality and creativity that made the original so good—I’m thinking of all the J-horror remakes that we seem to have been bombarded with since The Ring.
If Let the Right One In is an original, thought-provoking, and genre-defying movie in its original Swedish, why change it just so American actors can speak the lines in English? There is no reason other than the fact that some studio exec thinks we are all stupid, and the remake will fail as a result.
Check out the trailer for Let the Right One In here, and let me know what you think.
Are we all stupid? Can a wide American audience not handle subtitles?
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