LET ME IN

Photos courtesy of Hammer Film Productions

A dangerous young girl befriends her neighbor, an outcast boy in the horror film LET ME IN.

The film is the American remake of the well-received Swedish horror film LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. Oskar and Eli are now Owen and Abbey, two kids who meet on the playground outside their apartment complex. Abbey warns Owen that they shouldn’t become friends, but the two’s exclusion from other children leads to a bond and friendship between the two.

Owen is bullied at school by his classmates which leads to his torment, but Abbey has a unique problem, she’s a vampire. Abbey’s father does her dirty work for her, sneaking out at night to provide Abbey with the necessary life blood.
This vampire remake retains many of the chills as the original, but instead of an overtly cautionary tale about teen angst, anger and cruelty, it is more of a straightforward thriller with a rich subtext.

The revamped script, written by Mark Reeves, who also directs, stays true to the Swedish film, with very few differences. The one change, and a welcomed one, is the torment felt by Abbey’s father played by character actor Richard Jenkins.

Jenkins has made a name for himself playing honorable dads, and in LET ME IN, this portrayal is even more challenging. In spite of Abbey’s father’s actions, there’s a certain nobility, and dare I say obligation, in dad’s gruesome work. It’s a credit to Jenkins that we emphasize with him.

Like the original, LET ME IN benefits from two terrific child performances. Chloe Moretz, of KICK ASS fame, plays Abbey straight, as a repressed, but loving girl. The fact that Abbey is a vampire burdens her, but Moretz doesn’t play it to superficial effect, treating it more like a form of supernatural abuse that plagues her.

Equally impressive is Kodi Smit-McPhee as Owen. Smit-McPhee follows up his performance in THE ROAD with another angst-ridden role. Smit-McPhee physically embodies the schoolyard victim, but also conveys his outward trepidation and inward anger terrifically.

As mentioned before LET ME IN is more of a horror-thriller than the original, and although there are some frightening moments, the horror is also where the film’s biggest misstep occurs. An over reliance by Reeves utilizing CGI drains some of the drama out of this fearful tale.

Although not quite up to the standards of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, LET ME IN is still a cut above films in its genre.

Grade: B-