An HE reader from Portland who saw a rough cut of Matt Reeves‘ Let Me In last June says that the murder-and-chase sequence (which I posted here yesterday) goes on a bit longer without cuts, and actually warrants comparison to the extended sequence in Alfonso Cuaron‘s Children of Men that begins with the van ambush and the shooting of Julianne Moore‘s character.

Reeves’ camera “is in the locked-down position, and it remains there for another minute or so as the car gets hit and then rolls off the road to the bottom of a ditch,” he reports. “We see the destruction of the vehicle internally before cutting away to [turmoil involving Richard Jenkins’ character].”

In the clip “there are shots from inside the convenience store, while in the background of the shot we can observe the violence occurring. There are a few other scenes like this — a scene unfolds in the foreground with two characters conversing, and at the same time there is some very important visual information occurring in the background of the frame. It’s not blurry, but slightly visible while not being so flashy.”

Let Me In “is a fine remake in maintaining the tone and visual look of Tomas Alfredson‘s original, and that specific era of the early to mid 80s, but moving the setting to another geographical location.”

“The visual and tonal approach of the film, which is much different than Alfredson’s. It felt more subdued in places and in the way the action unfolds. At times the camera will maintain a lower visual perspective, trying to convey that of the main character, but not so obvious in a brow beating fashion that makes you think, ‘oh, it’s from his perspective.'”