Let Me In

I've never been much of a fan of horror movies, since most of them are gratuitous gore-fests anyway and not really scary  in any meaningful way. Once in a while though, there comes a movie that transcends the common slasher/monster/evil creature flick and shows us that the horror genre is still very much alive, or at the very least undead.

Vampires are all the rage these days, with the Twilight saga (ugh), True Blood (excellent), and The Vampire Diaries (blah) et. al. creating a resurgence of interest in the bloodthirsty creatures of the night. Based on the Swedish novel and film Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In), Let Me In is a near-flawless execution of a very unusual sort of vampire love story. Set in the 1980s, this is a classic tale of young love not unlike Romeo and Juliet - if Juliet was a vampire.


***Moderate spoiler alert***




The opening scene begins with a man being rushed to the hospital. We hear over the dispatch radio that the man has been in a car crash and is a suspect in a criminal case. He is also horribly disfigured on his face and hands due to an apparently self-inflicted dousing with strong acid. The local detective later tries to get him to reveal his identity but he refuses. Called away to a phone call, the detective returns to find that the man has leaped out the window to his death, leaving behind an enigmatic note.

Cue the flashback: Three weeks ago (I think).


A young boy sits alone munching candy on a snow-covered jungle gym in a small quad surrounded by modest houses. His mother calls to him to come to dinner. We see during dinner and afterwards that the boy is struggling with a broken home, his parents' divorced or separated. An absent father, an alcoholic mother, and daily harrassment by bullies at school make for a very unhappy boy indeed.

One night, while spying on the neighbours, he sees new neighbours moving in - a young girl about his age and a middle-aged man. Something seems off about this odd couple. The girl seems in charge somehow and she walks barefoot through the snow. The next night, after more torture at the hands of bullies, the boy purchases a knife and fantasizes about stabbing his nemesis, using a tree as a stand-in. The girl is suddenly there, on the jungle gym, interrupting his reverie. She introduces herself as Abby (Chloe Moretz), and he in turn introduces himself as Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee). Like Owen, Abby says she is 12 years old (more or less, she qualifies). Despite her insistence that they "cannot be friends", she nevertheless comes to the quad each night and a relationship blossoms. She reveals precious little about herself but seems to care for Owen as much as he does for her. She encourages him to stand up to the bullies, even offering to help if need be, much to Owen's amusement.

Meanwhile, a series of gruesome murders are occuring in the small town, the victims exsanguinated. Abby's 'father' (Richard Jenkins) is seen methodically stalking and murdering a young man in his car, collecting blood in a large container. It's quite obvious that he and Abby are harbouring a bit of a secret. After his latest attempted murder is botched and the flashback merges into the present, we see the identity of the disfigured man and what happened to him. As the detective closes in, Abby and Owen continue to develop their relationship and when Owen learns that Abby is more than she seems, he must choose to either sever his only meaningful relationship or continue along a path doomed to end badly.

The cinematography presents the world as a cold, sad place. The use of muted colours and harsh incandescent lighting makes for a sombre atmosphere well-suited to the subject matter. Matt Reeves, the director of Cloverfield, helms this movie in another genre-bending effort. Seeing the events march to their inevitable conclusion engages the audience closely, with just the right pacing and mixture of light and heavy moments. While there is very strong violence and gore, it is always used in the service of the plot and is never gratuitous.

Much credit must be given to the two leads. Despite their tender years, they deliver startlingly powerful performances. The chemistry seems genuine and natural, their love story sweet in its way (apart from the murders and what-not). Their scenes are at once touching, fascinating, and a little scary. Moretz (who was great in Kick-Ass) plays Abby with a quiet sadness, saying more with her expressions than her words. Unlike her character in Kick-Ass, there is no glee in Abby when she takes lives as she does it out of a necessity to survive. Smit-McPhee (The Road, Romulus, My Father) is also very effective as Owen, playing the sweet but lonely boy looking for attachment in a world that seems set against him. These very believable performances elevate the film to far greater heights than it would have reached with a lesser cast.

I highly recommend this movie for anyone who likes vampires, love stories (sorta), or just a good movie. Someday, I must watch the original Swedish version.