The horror movie Stephen King called the best of the decade: “Moving and bloodthirsty”
Having seen so much of his back catalogue cannibalised by producers and reduced to a mediocre shell of its literary self in the process, Stephen King knows better than most that taking an effective horror story that works on the page and transforming it into a worthwhile feature film is a lot easier said than done.
Hollywood’s obsession with the author has reached such a point that attention has now turned to remakes and reboots after all of the highest-profile tomes were quickly snapped up and spat out, which makes King’s choice for the best cinematic tale of terror to be released between 2000 and 2010 even more fascinating.
It’s a lofty claim, considering the first ten years of the 21st century threw up countless gems like Neil Marshall’s The Descent, Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Pulse, and Guillermo del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone to name a very small few, but King was adamant that one atmospheric chiller was the undoubted high point of the entire genre’s output from that time.
What makes it interesting is that even if it wasn’t for his appreciation for the movie, the title in question has plenty in common with King’s position in Hollywood. Obviously, it’s a horror flick, but it’s also a literary adaptation that was rapidly brought to the screen and then quickly singled out by America as a picture that demanded to be remade as quickly as possible.
The source material’s John Ajvide Lindqvist wrote the screenplay for the original Swedish version of Let the Right One In, which was released to widespread acclaim in October 2008. Before it even had the chance to reach cinemas, British staple Hammer Films had already swooped in to secure the rights to an English-language do-over.
The second stab at the twisted love story between a young boy and the ageless vampire he befriends wasn’t quite as refreshing the second time around, although King evidently disagreed. After all, he named Let Me In the best horror of the early 2000s, so he clearly prefers Matt Reeves’ spin on the story to the one so masterfully executed by Thomas Alfredson a mere two years previously.
“Moving and bloodthirsty, tender and horrifying, sweet and gruesome,” King wrote in Entertainment Weekly. “These beautifully drawn contrasts – plus the bleak snowscape of Los Alamos, New Mexico – make Let Me In the best remake of the year and the best horror film of the decade. It’s a story of teenage love and loss that makes the Twilight films look pallid by comparison.”
King has become such a fixture of Hollywood circles that even if he hadn’t been so lavish in his praise for Let Me In, it became woven into the fabric of his ties to film and television. The movie starred Chloë Grace Moretz in the lead as the vampiric Abby and the actor would go on to headline the remake of Carrie, which itself is being remade again as a TV series with Mike Flanagan at the helm, who’s also been tasked with rebooting King’s The Dark Tower after the dismal first attempt fell flat on its face.
