Deleted scene from LMI with very interesting continuation!

[PLrc]

I've just finished analizing Let Me In screenplay - it's very interesting. Reading it reminded me that there is yet another deleted scene shown in the trailer that didn't make it on the DVD. The scene potrays Owen lying on his bed and listening to eery sounds coming from Abby's apartment. He hears kind of growling and scratching. From the script we know this scene happens right after Abby moving in. At some point we hear a loud knock into the wall and the scene is cut.

From we screenplay we learn that the scene was supposed to have a very interesting continuation. Owen was supposed to have a terrifing, bloody vision. Here's a quote from the screenplay:

A MURKY BLUE FIELD -- VERY SHALLOW FOCUS
CRIMSON-COLORED CLOUDS BILLOW and GROW disturbingly -- it looks like BLOOD POURING into DIM BLUE WATER...
We HOLD -- THEN SEE THREE LIGHTENING FAST CUTS OF TIGHT SHOTS:

-- FLESH TEARS -- !
-- VICIOUS DEMONIC EYES STARE -- !
-- BLOOD SPRAYS -- !

Then the vision ends, Owen wakes up. It turns out he had a nightmare.

But it's not all. This plot continues throught the script. Later on Owen has another, similar vision. Finally, during the pool massacre, he realises everything looks exactly like in his nightmares.

Very interesing subplot and, as a huge fan of horror movies, I wish they kept it. But I can see why Reeves removed this plot and the shot scene. The shot scene portrayed Abby kind of as a monster, whereas in general the overtones of the film are rather that Abby, apart from her vampirism, was quite a normal adolescent.

You can learn more details, including quotes from the screenplay from this article I wrote: https://let-me-in.fandom.com/wiki/Let_Me_In_screenplay

What do you think about the scene and plot? Would you like them to keep it?

[gkmoberg1]

It is interesting to see these variants. I'm then curious to learn why they were omitted.

I've worked on many products during my lifetime. Creating a film is similar in that it is the creation of a product. In the products I have worked on, I'm sure there have been hundreds of decisions made on what to include or exclude. I recall items that were included at the last moment, and so were rushed through production. And I recall items that were ultimately left out, even though countless hours had been spent designing, implementing, and testing them.

Creating a film must be enormously challenging. Creating a scene involves location, set, designs, bringing together the crew and actors, the likely many run-through and shoots, and then rounds of editing. To go far into this process and then end up throwing away a scene is expensive. Creating a screenplay that works and is largely on-target is key but I am sure it is impossible. Flaws exist in all things. Sometimes serendipity, accidents, and other interventions cause changes to an initial course.

For some of this, I can see an argument on why they were left out. You could argue that Owen doesn't need to have the character addition of having haunting visions. Having him be a normy, and a weak child, makes him and his plight all that more compelling. Sure, you could add these visions... but I'm sure it was weighed as to whether they truly added to film and added to what the story is meant to tell. Horrible images add goosebumps to the viewer's experience, but for the context of this story, do they help? I'll argue that they didn't. Of course I have absolutely no idea why these were left out. Perhaps it was for lack of a final part of that series for which there was no more time or budget ... as in perhaps the visions led to some revelation.

In the end Reeves and his team chose a path for what would be in the final edit. They chose well. The film holds together as a well-told tale, one that is rather dark, brooding, and cautionary. Yet also open in its ending with hope for a better future ... altho this too seems grim when one contemplates what awaits Owen in the days, weeks, or years to come. The "have some now, save some for later" repeated theme has always given me chills and I am not sure what Reeves & team may have intended for that and whether it is fully integrated in the final edit's progression.

[PLrc]

Thanks for comment! Yes, you're right that the scene and the plot were deleted because, probably, were just unnecesarry.

During watching the film I didn't notice huming the song, but when I read it, it gave me goosebumps Because it clearly pertains to Owen and the Father:
eat some now = the Father
save some for later = Owen

whether it is fully integrated in the final edit's progression.

What do you mean by that?

[gkmoberg1]

What I meant is the choice to include the little musical tune and words, having Owen come back to it, especially in the final scene ... all was done for a reason. Okay, so what was it? We have young naive Owen distractedly humming or singing a little commercial tag line that, hmmmm, applies to his situation along with Abbie's and "The Father"'s. Yet he's completely blind to this. I gather, then, this is a message for us (the audience) ... and I take it to suggest we remember to consider Abbie in a manipulative light. Just as you put it .. Richard's character is the "have one now" and Own is the "save one for later", where the implicit idea is consumption .. consuming these things. ... so, what's Abbie's true intention >>ominous-music-sfx<< Yet I wonder whether this is correctly what they were intending or whether it was for another affect, perhaps one that silly me doesn't grasp or perhaps one that part of ended up on the editing room floor and so we don't get to see the full chain play out. ... Dunno. Just curious.