Let Me In [DVD]

I thought this film was a beautiful, bittersweet tale of a young boy who would do anything to have one friend like Abby, a girl who's 12 and has been for a very long time. The pace is slow, interspersed with remarkably brutal and intense scenes of violence - this is not a bad thing, the slow pace makes the scenes of horror that much more effective.

The main characters are portrayed very well. You get the sense from the start that Owen is a very isolated boy, affected by his parents separation and alone in facing his troubles at school. Its love at first sight for him when he sees Abby and this is expounded when he meets her. Abby is a girl with horrific capabilities, yet when not in a trance of visceral blood-lust, talks and behaves like you would expect a girl of her age. Her subtle, affectionate touches however (particularly in a scene with her 'father') evidence someone who's been around quite a bit longer than your average school girl. The supporting cast is all good and by the end you just wish that the dogged detective would just go away and leave the kids alone!

The tale is bittersweet because you know that Owen is utterly intoxicated by Abby and would follow her anywhere, yet she can never 'grow-up' and they can never grow old together, she will always be 12 until the day Owen dies. Let Me In is an affecting film, one that will not easily be forgotten and quite a bit more than your average fang-flick. Congratulations Hollywood, you still have a heart when you want to!

It's hard not to judge this film in terms of the original, but in fact it is a very good movie in its own right. The action is set in the remote American hinterlands of the high mountains of New Mexico. It's the depth of frozen, claustrophobic mid-winter, 1983. An isolated 12 year old boy miserably struggles to avoid being tormented at school; his separated parents head for divorce and his mother anaesthetises the pain with religion and the bottle. Bullied and vulnerable, the boy is very susceptible to the strange girl who moves into the apartment next door. Except... she hasn't been a girl for very many years.
The story of their developing relationship is told with great dexterity and delicacy. The performances from the two young actors are extraordinary; highly emotional without being sentimental. At all times the fragile nature of the children's growing trust and affection is brutally enhanced by the aggression and cruelty of the bullies, and by the vampiric girl's fundamentally bestial nature. This isn't Twilight. There's no soft-focus, doe-eyed beauty to the nature of a creature which must tear flesh to feed, or die itself. `Let Me In' pulls no punches about the savagery of the vampire or its horrible weaknesses. The scene where the girl is *not* invited in and suffers the consequences in order to win the boy's trust is... gruelling. Yet of course by far the worst behaviour, the most appalling brutality, comes not from the vampire but from the normal children who delight in making the boy's life nearly unbearable.
`Let Me In' uses very few of the normal cinematic tricks to startle the audience. There are hardly any `boo!' moments. But there are plenty of chilling, horrific moments, and a gradual racheting of tension throughout. Watching the girl's protector try to harvest blood for her to feed is at once awful and compelling; even more so when his fate is revealed. This film pulls few punches about what it might be like to feed on live humans: it is unpleasant in places. In others it is almost unbearably sad, and very occasionally it provides moments of sheer satisfaction.

This is complex and multi-layered horror story-telling, and a minor masterpiece. Well worth watching in its own right - and then worth comparing with the original, Let The Right One In, so you can judge for yourself which is the most effective. Unlike many Hollywood remakes of European films, this one really was worth doing.
9/10

See Let The Right One In [DVD] [2008]

After watching 'Let Me In', I can't say I wasn't slightly disappointed. Many people have watched the film first, then thought they'd read the book. However, I grabbed the book first from Asda, having heard good reviews of it. The book is pretty good, and I enjoyed it. It was a new take on the Vampire sub-genre, and after Twilight destroyed my very soul, a gritty view on Vampires, bullying and friendship was very welcome. However, the film 'Let Me In' for me doesn't justify it. I know many people say 'the film will never live up to the book', but I think that sometimes a book and a film can stand in its own right- such as the Harry Potter books and films. However, for me the film just left me feeling slightly hollow and disappointed, despite the fantastic acting and beautiful camera work. I've ordered the original 'Let The Right One In' now (I would have bought that one first, but they didn't sell it in Tesco LOL) so I'd love to make the comparison. Don't get me wrong, it's a good film; touching, gritty and chilling. Yet the book, for me, hit those characteristics a lot more.