Let Me In

Disclaimer:

The movie I’m reviewing today is rated: R

Lots and lots of blood and gore in this one, kiddies.

Best sit this one out.

(Also, I’m not specifically calling you a kid, I just mean in case any kids happen to be reading this.)

Welcome to Spooky Month! We did it, everybody, it’s finally here. In honor of this sacred time of year I’ve decided to do only scary movies for the entirety of this month. I hope y’all are okay with that, I just love Halloween so much. Hopefully it’ll be a lot of fun, and I thought I’d start off with one that I don’t think gets talked about that much.

Let Me In: a remake of a movie called Let the Right One In which was based on the novel of the same name. Makes sense, right? In my brief excerpt for this post I described this movie as “gender swapped Twilight” which is kinda true, but mostly a joke. Sure the genders of our two leads are swapped, but instead of the film being about a forbidden love, it’s more about a forbidden friendship. It also has more melancholic beats than you’d expect for a story on this subject.

If I’m remembering correctly it follows a young boy and a “young” girl. One day the girl moves into the same apartment complex as the boy with her “father” and eventually the boy finds out that she’s a vampire. The boy and the girl end up befriending each other while the boy does his best to grapple with the girl’s true identity and what it truly means to be associated with her (like the girl’s “father” before him).

I don’t remember too much from my first viewing of this film despite the fact that I had some very complicated feelings. There are definitely still scenes that stand out to me, and I don’t think I really saw the movie as bad, but I think I was more caught up on what I thought I was supposed to feel as the credits rolled.

So, what does that mean for this review? Well, let’s find out together. Get your trash-bag masks and giant blood containers ‘cause we’re going hunting in Let Me In.

I’m definitely in the mood now. I don’t know, something about creepy text on screen puts me in a spooky mood. Either way, we begin this film right in the middle of the action where we see someone being taken to the hospital in an ambulance due to self-inflicted acid burns. Nice. We don’t know a whole lot about what’s happening right now, but it will become clearer later.

When it comes to horror, suspense, or mystery films I typically like this kind of opening a bit more. By dropping us straight into the action we get a clearer sense of what the threat of the movie is, what it can do, and how scary it is. In this case the opening doesn’t have much to do with the monster, but it is still attention getting.

Instead this man gets taken to the hospital under police escort on account of him being a suspect for many killings that have been happening in the area lately. However, after the detective (played by Elias Koteas) walks out of the room for just a moment he loses his chance to get any information out of the man.

*Jesus, Mary, and Joseph...*
That's a bit of an under reaction on his part, but he probably sees this kind of stuff all the time.
I'll give him a pass.

Essentially the next hour of the film is spent giving us a clearer picture of what led up to all this and I kinda like it for that. Sure it is back-tracking which some people can see as slowing the narrative down, but in this particular genre I think it makes it more intriguing. I might be a bit of a sucker for this kind of thing though since I had similar feelings about 12 Monkeys when things started falling into place, so maybe it’s just me.

There are a few clues we get in the intro that help add to the intrigue of this mystery. The detective asks the suspect if he’s in a cult, the detective gets a call from the receptionist telling him the suspect’s daughter was there, of course the suspect presumably commits suicide by jumping out the window, and his parting words were: “I’m sory Abby.” (One “R”, that’s very important)

He was suffering from severe acid burns, we can cut him a little slack.

We then, naturally, fade into 2 weeks earlier where we’re introduced to our protagonist Owen (played by Kodi Smit-McPhee). Being a relatively unknown actor at the time this came out, I can see why this role would’ve put him on the map, since Smit-McPhee acts really well in this role. At the same time, I can’t say the character of Owen is that well-defined.

I suppose there are some layers to his character but he’s primarily just the same outcast kid you’ve seen in everything else. He’s bullied at school, he’s the product of a divorced household, his mother is overly religious, and he’s…weirdly horny.

In the end I know what the movie’s going for though. Obviously they want to paint Owen as the type of kid that would be attracted to a blood-thirsty vampire. Some things about him I understand feeding into that, such as his need for security being fed by his constant bullying and his want to escape fed by his broken home-life. However, one thing I never got was the “Religious Mom” thing.

Does it really add anything? I don’t think it does. If it’s supposed to get across how Owen is being “oppressed” by his superiors then it isn’t coming across very well. Also, it feels kinda muddled when Owen calls his dad later and he mocks his ex-wife’s religiosity. What are they trying to get across with religion here? At least Salem’s Lot made it clear that vampires have an aversion to religion, so if that’s what Let Me In is trying to do then this is pretty weak.

Unfortunately it isn’t until our resident vampire makes her appearance that Owen starts to become a bit more interesting. The driving force behind this movie is the vampire and the people she associates with, so luckily we don’t have to wait too long for her to enter the picture. The same night Owen is perving on his neighbors, he notices a peculiar family moving into his building.

As soon as I see anyone carrying a giant crate, box, or basket in a movie I'm immediately suspicious.

Eventually we’ll learn that the girl’s name is Abby (played by Chloë Grace Moretz) and she’s moving in with her “father” (played by Richard Jenkins). Owen immediately takes an interest in them and I don’t blame him. We all saw that crate. That crate was up to something. Also, Abby was walking in the snow with no shoes.

Of course after watching this once it’s pretty clear what the movie’s trying to get across in these scenes. Although, part of what I think makes this movie memorable is how it’s not immediately obvious that Abby is a vampire. The movie doesn’t reveal this fact until 31 minutes in, so at first she and her “father” just seem to be a strange family.

Not only does it make the movie more memorable, but it weirdly also makes the fact that vampires exist in this world seem more believable. Like in movies such as Pan’s Labyrinth, taking the time to reveal the fantasy world while also off-setting it with scenes of harsh reality makes the fictional seem more real to me. Glad I got that off my chest, what’s next?

*Hey, little girl.*
Oh, is it "Stock Bully" time already?

So this is Kenny (played by Dylan Minnette), and I will give credit that he’s slightly more developed than most other stock bullies like him. Eventually we’ll learn why he’s so mean to Owen, but outside of that he doesn’t get a whole lot of time to be a fleshed out character. That and his reasoning for bullying Owen seems a bit simplistic for a movie intended for an adult audience.

We’ll get to it eventually, but for now Kenny wedgies Owen. Yes, this horror film just had a character give another character a wedgie. Terrifying. Kenny apparently wedgies Owen so hard he pees his pants. I won’t show you that because I’m sure you’d like to keep your stomach contents in your body. Also, I know I said this already, but scenes like this just don’t do it for me.

Like I said before, it’s obvious the filmmakers want us to feel sympathetic towards Owen by making him this outcast kid, but couldn’t they have done that in a more creative way? What if they did expand more on Kenny’s backstory? What if they gave Owen more character and made us question if we could truly like him or not? Either of those would’ve been more interesting than this.

Owen lets off some steam by getting a pocket knife and pretending to stab Kenny by stabbing a tree. This is also where we see Owen and Abby together for the first time.

*Just so you know, I can't be your friend.*
Well who said he wanted to be your friend anyway? Bitch!

*Well who said I wanted to be your friend?* *Idiot*...
Hey, that's what I said!
I mean, I threw the "bitch" in there.
He said "idiot," so it's kinda different, but...
You get it.

After this we get our first glimpse of the killer from earlier as well. Surprise, it’s the “father.” You probably knew that by now. I also like how it’s not entirely clear why he’s doing this at first either. All we see is him break into a guy’s car, presumably choke him to death, and take him to the forest to drain his blood into a big jug.

Unfortunately for him, he fumbles the jug after slipping on some ice which causes all the blood to spill out. When he gets back home, a certain someone doesn’t seem to be very happy with him.

*WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?! AM I SUPPOSED TO GO OUT THERE AND DO IT MYSELF?!*

This is one of my favorite things about this movie: you never really know how sympathetic you can be towards Abby. On the surface she seems very nice and even well-intentioned, although she’s still a blood-sucking monster underneath. This also makes me think about how she even became a vampire in the first place. Was she born a vampire, or did she become a vampire somewhere down the road?

Even if she was born a vampire she seems to have a kind enough personality to offset that, and if she wasn’t it’s possible that she became a vampire by accident. Later in the movie Abby feasts on a random passerby out of desperation, but doesn’t kill her. Because she didn’t die, the passerby ends up becoming a vampire herself so it’s safe to assume something similar could’ve happened to Abby.

That and it would’ve been super easy to portray hers and Owen’s relationship as manipulative, but that’s not what it is. It’s through Abby’s natural charisma and loving nature that endears both Owen and her “father” to her. It’s only the two of them that end up questioning whether this sort of thing is worth it in the end due to how much death and destruction Abby leaves in her wake.

Speaking of which -

*Maybe I'm getting sloppy. Maybe I wanna get caught. Maybe I'm just tired of this.*
It's because of this that Abby's "father" is my favorite character.

While he doesn’t get a bunch of screen time, Abby’s “father” represents the core of the film. He still loves Abby, but he just doesn’t want to kill people anymore. Over time, maybe even since the beginning, he’s starting to question if any of this is worth it in the end which is the most complex emotion this movie explores and I love it.

Once the movie ends we’ll get a clearer sense of how deep this goes, but even now it’s really engaging. So the police start searching for the killer, Abby and Owen hit it off (Owen gives her a Rubik’s Cube to solve), and Abby takes matters into her own hands. She’s starving, so what else is she gonna do?

Admittedly these effects aren’t very good, but that’s probably why they shot this in the shadows and a bit farther away from the subjects. It’s still pretty gruesome with the music and especially when we see Abby’s “Gollum” face.

This is where I’d also like to mention Matt Reeves’ casting. What I like about his casting is how he takes commonly typecast actors and puts them in roles audiences wouldn’t expect them to play. At the time this movie came out, Chloë Grace Moretz was commonly known for being the generic cutesy girl you’d usually cast in a coming-of-age comedy or something. To put it in perspective: Diary of a Wimpy Kid came out the exact same year.

She goes back home to “daddy,” but he’s not happy with her for killing someone without his say-so. Now he has to go out and find the body before someone else does and dispose of it, which he does by tossing it in a lake.

For now though, Owen finds the Rubik’s Cube he gave Abby completely solved when he wakes up the next morning. When he sees her later that night they start to connect a bit more and Abby looks better after getting a…“snack.” Since Owen often hears Abby and her “father” through the walls of his room, he comes up with the idea to learn Morse Code and talk to Abby through it.

The next day he’s writing himself a Morse Code cheat sheet when -

Not only does Kenny once again do “Standard Movie Bully” things, but his reasoning is very weak. He saw Owen writing the Morse Code cheat sheet in class and demands Owen to show it to him. Why do you care? It’s embarrassing how desperate you are to be a character right now.

I will give props to the dynamic between Kenny and his bully henchmen, though. Why, because all of them have an equal say. The only reason Kenny stops attacking Owen is because his henchmen talk him down. Apparently they believe they’re all equal to each other, but Owen is still beneath them somehow. Logic is not their strong suit.

After school, Owen meets with Abby again and Abby notices the injury he got from Kenny earlier. She tells him to fight back (which is a moot point because it’s Abby that saves him by the end) and they start wall-chatting. It’s at this point that the movie primarily focuses on the development of Owen and Abby’s relationship and it’s done relatively well.

Both Owen and Abby have some likable chemistry on screen so it is fun and cute to see them together (oddly enough). Ultimately we don’t get a whole lot of time to know them as people, but I think that may not have been the movie’s intention. What intrigues me more isn’t so much the possibility they’ll end up loving each other, but the ramifications of Owen being attached to Abby.

One thing I’m not really sure about is the frequent appearance of the “Now and Later” candies. They’re Owen’s favorite treat, but I’ve never been able to tell if that was supposed to mean something despite watching this movie several times now. All I can think of when I see them is Abby eating some of her “meals” now and saving some for later which is both nasty and kinda funny.

While Owen and Abby get closer and closer, eventually Abby’s “father” goes out on a hunt which goes horribly wrong. Of course this is what we saw in the opening as he doused himself in a strong acid to prevent the police from identifying him. Abby hears the news and goes up to the hospital to see him one last time.

To be honest, the combination of Michael Giacchino’s score, Moretz’s and Jenkins’ acting, and our prior knowledge of Abby and her “father’s” relationship almost moves me to tears every time I watch this scene. It doesn’t quite get there since my feelings are still complicated on the whole “killing innocent people” thing, but it’s obvious these two have been through a lot together.

Abby’s “father” ends up sacrificing himself to her by allowing her to suck his blood which results in him falling out the window like we saw earlier. This solemn moment immediately turns around when Abby knocks on Owen’s window. Owen lets her come in but apparently she’s naked (they don’t show that). Owen reacts like anyone would.

*Will you go steady with me?*
**Wow**, kid, you really don't get out much, do you?

Now that Abby’s “father” is out of the picture as well, it allows the movie to dedicate more time to Owen and Abby’s blossoming friendship. I feel like I can’t represent the in's and out’s of a relationship in a review format though. One thing I feel like I should say is that the relationship can kinda slow things down sometimes.

I know the movie wants to focus on the relationship, but honestly I wish there was a bit more gore. Sorry, I’m very picky when it comes to my gore. Mostly when this movie has blood and guts it’s pretty well done, but I kinda just want more of it. Of course it’ll get crazier in the climax, but I don’t wanna wait that long.

In the midst of all the friendship stuff we get a few pieces of backstory, buildup, and even spooks. The thing that stands out to me the most is when Owen finds an old photo in Abby’s apartment of her and her “father” which also proves why he’s not her father. The picture shows Abby and the man with Abby the same age and the man not a man at all, but just a boy. That’s the scariest thing in the movie.

We also see Kenny get smacked in the ear with a rod courtesy of Owen. Yeah, I needed that. However, we also see why Kenny acts the way he does. His brother is mean to him, so he takes it out on Owen. That’s pretty much it.

I understand what the movie’s going for and I agree with the message. You never know what someone else is going through. It’s just that this movie is rated “R,” so the people watching probably already know that, and it’s the only bit of Kenny backstory we get. Yeah, I’m really gonna remember this in a movie about a vampire.

Owen eventually finds out that Abby’s a vampire when he takes her to a secret hideout and tries to make a blood pact with her. You can see where this is going. Because of this, Abby gets a sudden blood lust which culminates in her attacking that passerby like I mentioned earlier. Eventually that same passerby will become a vampire in the hospital, but since the nurse didn’t get the memo she doesn’t last very long and gets a pretty dope exit.

I forgot, Owen also has a religious crisis after finding out Abby’s a vampire.

*Do you think...there's such a thing as evil?*

Again, this is the only time the religious angle comes back into play. Why was that needed? I forget this scene is in the movie every time I watch it because it’s so pointless. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing to represent a religious crisis in film, not at all, they just definitely could’ve handled it better. Or at least handle it at all.

I have to apologize because I know I’m jumping around a lot from moment to moment, but that is one of the film’s weaknesses. Since there’s so much focus on Owen and Abby practically nothing else notable happens. Most of the film’s memorable scenes were in the first half of the movie, and this second half really drags until the focus gets back on the vampire stuff.

While I never fell asleep during any of my viewings, I can totally understand someone who did during this portion. I stand by what I said about Owen and Abby’s chemistry from before because it is pretty compelling, but unfortunately that can only go so far when this is supposed to be a vampire movie.

Speaking of “Vampire Movie,” the detective from before is still trying to solve the killings after the “father’s” death, and he goes around his apartment building to ask some questions. Eventually he makes his way to Abby’s apartment, but it doesn’t go so well for him.

*Ha! You thought I was reaching for your hand. See you later! Enjoy your death!*

This results in both the cutest and grossest scene in the movie at the same time.

That aside, I think this image on its own represents the vast complexity of Abby’s character and the debate Owen is currently having in his head if he made the right choice to be Abby’s friend. I love it when movies have moments like this that sum up the entire thing in one shot. It’s because of this that Owen creates some distance between him and Abby for a little while.

So Owen has PE the next day in the pool where Kenny, his older brother, and his henchmen decide to get revenge on Owen for the whole “Ice Pole to the Ear” thing. They end up cornering Owen after lighting a fire outside to lead the teacher away and force him to hold his breath underwater for 3 minutes. They’re taking this split-ear situation way too seriously.

If Owen can’t hold his breath for 3 minutes they’re going to gouge one of his eyes out.

*Better take a deep breath*.
What kind of "Jeff the Killer" gangster bullies are these?
Also, it was way too easy to get rid of everyone to make this revenge plot possible.

Unlucky for these bullies, Abby bursts in and murders all of them in some pretty horrific ways I might add.

There's not much gore with this one, but it definitely doesn't look pleasant.

This results in Owen and Abby reuniting, but you have to ask: Did Abby come to save Owen, or was she just hungry? You don’t know in the end, but since Owen has been through enough at this point he decides he now wants to stay with her. He takes the next train out of town with Abby in that same crate from before to protect her from the sun and the movie ends with the saga continuing.

Is Let Me In worth the watch this Spooky Season? Well, much like Owen and Abby’s relationship, it’s complicated.

Even if you take out some of my personal issues with the over-emphasis on Owen and Abby’s friendship, there are still characters that aren’t needed, plot threads that go nowhere, and faulty logic from time-to-time. For some that’ll be hard to overlook, and since this is my job at this point I couldn’t overlook them either. However, what’re the things I liked about this?

Well I still stand by all the things I mentioned in my review that I enjoyed. The relationship between Abby and Owen is still interesting even if I wish they pulled back on that from time to time. Abby’s “father” is still my favorite character for what he represents for the story and for Owen going forward.

It still chills me the most knowing that the "father" was once just like Owen and Owen is going to take his place.

Everything vampire related is cool in this movie and I love how Abby is human yet also clearly not. Does the good outweigh the bad? It’s really a case-by-case sort of thing.

Some people will surely love this film, but I bet others won’t be able to get into it. To me it’s a “Take It or Leave It” kind of movie. Similarly to 12 Monkeys, there are great concepts explored in this movie that I enjoy and get me thinking, but what gets me the most is the slowness of it all.

I’ve said before that I love the “Slow-Burn” type of horror that takes its time building up to an explosive climax, but I feel like the slowness here doesn’t really build so much as pad. There are creepy moments here and there, but overall that’s about as scary as this movie gets and it doesn’t last for that terribly long either.

Also, while the climax is big, it’s not as big as I would’ve liked. It relies a bit too much on the audience to infer what’s gruesome about it as opposed to showing what’s gruesome about it. That and I think a much more explosive climax would’ve helped make the slowness (primarily of the second half) seem a bit more warranted.

All that aside, if any of the good aspects of this movie have made you interested in checking it out, then by all means invite Let Me In into your home this Spooky Season for your viewing pleasure.

Honestly I think this movie has earned a 3/5 Edward Cullens. I compared this movie to 12 Monkeys a couple times and I remember rating 12 Monkeys 3.5/5, so I decided Let Me In deserved a 3/5 because of the slower and more boring moments. Both movies had slow moments, but I feel like Let Me In had twice as many which prevented me from rating it at the same level.

(I make no claim of ownership for any of the images used in this post)

(Each of them are owned entirely by their respective copyright holders, which are not me)

(I’m just a humble blogger who talks about movies, I do not make them)

(Yet)

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