Can something be both great and completely unnecessary? “Let Me In” makes the case.

The remake of the exceptional 2008 Nordic import “Let the Right One In” is redundant. But it isn’t bad. Far from it. Director Matt Reeves deserves much credit. Many critics and fans of the original film expected a cataclysmic interpretation. But as far as remakes go, “Let Me In” is as good as it gets. And yet, because it adds so little and merely reflects the brilliance of the original rather than propagating its own light, we must wonder why it was made in the first place.

My original plot summary, taking into account the Americanized names, remains accurate: Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee, perfectly cast) is a strange, friendless, 12-year-old boy who is regularly picked on by schoolyard sadists. Owen finds an ally in Abby (Chloe Moretz), a girl next door who encourages him to stand up for himself.

The equally strange Abby becomes Owen’s friend, and in time, with all the halting stutter-steps of pre-pubescence, Owen comes to look upon her as his first love. But Abby is no ordinary girl. She is not, in the strictest sense, even human. Young Abby, you see, is a vampire.

“Let Me In” moves the action from Sweden to New Mexico, keeping the iconic 1980s time frame. While it blatantly duplicates, shot for shot, some of “Let the Right One In’s” moody imagery, the creative Reeves adds some nice embellishments of his own (as well as some admittedly pointless and distracting CGI). The director of the CGI-heavy monster movie “Cloverfield” doesn’t exactly square with the indie sensibilities of a story powered by subtly and nuance, but he manages to be genuinely creative.

Where Reeves improves on the original film is with a more muscular role for Abby’s “father,” played here by the great Richard Jenkins. This time around, we understand far better — and are haunted by — his and Abby’s relationship, just as we are even more acutely aware of the role Owen is fated to play once the credits begin to role.

“Let Me In” is an exercise in pointlessness. The original reinvigorated the tired horror genre with a brilliant bolt of originality. But there is nothing original here. This is an expert copy. Like those paintings of masterworks that fool all but the most trained eyes, “Let Me In” will pass as a good, perhaps even great forgery, but it is still, in the end, little more than counterfeit goods.

LET ME IN

Cast: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloe Moretz, Richard Jenkins, Elias Koteas, Dylan Minnette

Director: Matt Reeves

Rated: R (for strong bloody horror violence, language and a brief sexual situation)

Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes

Grade: B+

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