Today in Hall H of Comic-Con I was fortunate enough to view two scenes from Hammer's upcoming Let Me In. And I must admit that, after viewing the footage, any concerns I had about Hammer and director Matt Reeves remaking the acclaimed Let the Right One In were tossed by the wayside. Put simply, it seems Cloverfield was no fluke. Reeves has the goods. More after the jump.

For starters, even the title, Let Me In, makes more sense after what I saw today. Some might wonder why this title is different than the original film's. It's a more personal title, and, fittingly, Reeves' film feels and looks like a more personal film. He puts us in the shoes of his characters the way a great novelist does, with just the right amount of detail and through a variety of techniques, each perfectly suited to the scene.

In the first of these scenes, vampire girl Abby (Chloe Moretz) and her human friend Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) go on a "date" to the local arcade. The scene is wonderfully underplayed by both actors. As Culture Club's "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?" plays (the film's set in the ‘80s, in the high desert region of New Mexico), the kids play Pac-Man. "You can eat them," notes a smiling Abby of the ghosts in the classic video game. The two then head out to a store. Owen gets some Now and Later candy, and offers some to Abby. At first she sadly declines, but then says, "I guess I could have one." A moment later, however, she's throwing it up in the parking lot outside the store. The two then have a brief, bittersweet exchange that ends in an embrace, as a soft piano theme plays over the silently falling snow.

In the second scene, Abby's "Father" (Richard Jenkins) is about to go out on his regular hunt for fresh human blood to feed Abby. But his plans to snatch a teenage boy go terribly awry. This scene's handled phenomenally well. We see Jenkins hiding on the back floor of the boy's car, as the boy drives off with a friend. We then see, from Jenkins' point of view, the lights pass overhead on the street. The car pulls up to a convenience store, and the boy gets out, leaving his friend in the passenger seat. The friend turns on the radio. It's "Heat of the Moment". As the song builds to a crescendo, Jenkins leaps out from behind the seat grabs the kid by the throat and renders him unconscious. We see their struggle for a moment through the glass door of the convenience store. Then we see, from the POV of sitting in the back seat of the car, Jenkins take the wheel, and back out of the convenience store lot as the boy who had left comes running out and throws a soda at the windshield. What happens next occurs in one continuous shot. Jenkins reverses into the street as far as he can. And his car is struck. It rolls upside down, then over and over. After it stops, the scene cuts to a wide shot of the car upside down at the bottom of a ditch. The boy and some other kids come running down after it. Jenkins opens up a container of what appears to be acid, pours it over himself, and screams horribly.

What struck me about these scenes is, as different as they are, Reeves directs each exactly as it should be directed – the first with keenly observed tenderness, the second, with suspense-soaked finesse. Again, he tackles each moment from a highly personal perspective, showcasing the inner turmoil that we all know a vampire must endure every day, whether it takes the form of an old man or a little girl.

After what I saw today, I honestly can't wait to see Let Me In when it opens in October.