Film Review: Let Me In

Rating: 6/10 - Good

Yet another vampire film has graced our cinema circuits with its presence. However, Let Me In is a thriller vampire film with a bit of childhood romance thrown in. It will give you the thrills and will leave you walking out the cinema feeling slightly disturbed. Slightly different to the other vampire films recently hitting our big screen.

Director: Matt Reeves. Screenplay: Matt Reeves. Producers: Simon Oakes, Guy East, Nigel Sinclair, Donna Gigliotti, John Nordling, Carl Molinder. Cinematographer: Greig Fraser. Editor: Stan Salfas. Score: Michael Giacchino. Distributor: Relativity Media. Starring: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloë Grace Moretz, Elias Koteas and Richard Jenkins. Running Time: 115 Minutes. Age Restriction:16LV.

The story follows a 12 year old boy, Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who is brutally bullied at school. He befriends a new neighbour, a 12 year girl who is a vampire. The young girl Abby (Chloe Grace) is living in secret with a guardian, a non-vampire, who goes out and murders people to get their blood to give to Abby for her to survive. Owen does not know that Abby is a vampire and begins to grow quite fond of her, asking her if they could ‘go steady’. Abby begins to fall for Owen and the two have a young romance, growing a deep connection to each other.

There are several murders in this film that are quite graphic and have you wincing behind your hands until you know it’s safe to look again. The young vampire Abby, when in her ‘vampire state’ is very eerie looking and moves in a strange way that is not very realistically done. She attacks her victims and becomes very wolf-like, which I can’t seem to relate to vampires.

The story allows you to grow fond of the two young children and you feel empathy towards each of their situations. With Owen, you feel sorry for him as he is so brutally bullied at school and is such an innocent looking child. You are on his side and want him to fight back and be stronger. He is also going through his parents’ divorce and seems to be distancing himself from it. The young Owen has more to his character than a shy bullied boy; he holds many secrets in his heart for a young child.

Then there is Abby, even though there is something very sinister about this girl you feel sympathy for you her as it is not her fault she does the acts that she does. She needs the blood to survive and there is no other way for her to get it. When not in her ‘vampire state’ she is a sweet young girl who is afraid of the world and keeps to herself.

The story is quite slow and doesn’t really seem to have a point to it. The entire movies seems to revolve around the two young children falling for each other and then on the other side, all the murders that take place. It shows two very different worlds which eventually collide. The majority of the film begins two weeks before the opening scene. It explains what events took place to lead to that opening scene and then what happens afterwards.

Verdict: If you are not a horror film fan I would suggest you steer clear from this film as it has many ‘fright’ moments. It is also very disturbing and contains a great deal of bloodshed. If you can handle horror, blood and sinister ways then this is actually not a bad film to go watch.

Let Me In is in theatres now.