If there are two things that we can surely do without, it’s more Hollywood remakes and stories about vampires. If Twilight and True Blood are any indication, it seems that nothing entertains us more than watching some undead bloodsuckers on the make. Unless of course there’s a shoddy, superfluous remake of a classic genre film being released, and we’ve seen more than our fair share of those this year. The CGI plagued Clash of the Titans, the desperate “we’ve run out of ideas!” confession that was the remake of Nightmare on Elm Street, and the perplexing, unnecessary attempt to “reboot” The Karate Kid (which, for my money, could be re-released in all its 1984, Ralph Macchio glory, and modern kids would love it just fine, thanks very much).

So if that’s the way I feel, why am I so interested in seeing Let Me In, the Hollywood remake of the 2008 Swedish vampire gem Let The Right One In? Well for starters I’m a hopeless, self-loathing hypocrite. But aside from that, it’s because I positively adore Let The Right One In. So naturally I’m filled with an anxious anticipation, and a morbid curiosity: did Hollywood break it? Let me explain.

Based on the novel of the same name by John Ajvide Lindqvist, Let The Right One In tells the story of Oskar, a lonely, bullied child and his child-like vampire friend Eli in a perpetually snow frosted Stockholm suburb. Without giving too much away, I’ll just tell you that one of them is a vampire, and the relationship cultivated between the two is the most emotional, intelligent, haunting, heart-warming, and creepy one that I’ve seen in a film, be it horror or otherwise. It’s the kind of thing that Hollywo0d doesn’t seem to prize very much these days, and the temptation to turn this intelligent story into a gory blood-fest like a Saw film has got to be pretty strong.

That isn’t to say that the original isn’t bloody. It is. And it has it’s share of horrific, gory moments. It’s a freaky movie. But the horror is more cerebral, subdued, psychological, and just plain scarier due to the brilliantly constructed characters, another thing that Hollywood doesn’t do very well these days.

Perhaps the greatest strength of Let The Right One In is that it succeeds in making vampires scary again. Although vampires aren’t created equal, we always recognize them. Some can turn themselves into bats. Some have no reflection. Most of them can’t go out in sunlight, except for the glittery-shimmery ones that play baseball. But the common denominator, the thing that makes vampires an ever-present myth is their sexuality.

Vampires have always been about sex and the hybrid allure and fear of the foreigner. Think of Dracula, the handsome devil, charming and frightening all at once, eager to drink your blood, a sexual metaphor that old deviant John Donne would instantly spot. So I don’t object to Edward Cullen and them being all sexy, because it’s part of it. But the problem is no one is afraid of these new sexy vampires. They’ve been boiled down to just sex, defanged and domesticated. In Twilight they’re into abstinence and marriage, and in True Blood they just want to be part of society. Not exactly the threatening nightmares they once were.

The vampires in Let The Right One In retain many of the traditional aspects of the vampire myths, and the sexual stuff is there as well, albeit in a more subtle and creepy way. Remember the characters are very young, so that’s awkward right out of the gate. But the relationship between Eli and her father Hakan takes the creepiness to another level. In Lindqvist’s novel, there are details about the characters that are so unsettling and scenes so disturbing that I don’t think they could ever be put on film and released to a mass audience. Some of these things are hinted at in the Swedish film, for which Lindqvist wrote the screenplay. But I’m extremely interested to see how the Hollywood remake approaches the source material, because I believe the quality of the film will rely on how these characters are built. Let Me In will not make a good Saw film. If they reduce it to blood soaked body parts flying around, it will be tragic.

I’m going to see the film tonight. I’ll report back with a spoiler-free review in the next couple of days. Here’s to hoping that Hollywood can make a decent remake. Fingers crossed.