Let Me In is based on the swedish film Let the Right One In, which I didn't see so I can't really compare how the remake lives up. I'd be curious though.
The story: Young boy Owen(Kodi Smit-McPhee) is being tormented at school by bullies when a young girl, Abby(Chloe Moretz) moves into his apartment complex. The two become close friends until Own finds out a dark secret about Abby. SPOILER ALRERT: She's a vampire. AWESOME ALERT: She's not a Twilight vampire.
This is a horror movie, so let's look at the horror stats:
monsterness: pretty much
bloodocity: lots
violentiness: kinda
creeptasticality: IT'S OVER 9000!!
metaphoritude: a buttload
I liked this movie, but I didn't nessesarily ENJOY it. It's a great film, but long, subtle, and painful. Not something I could watch over and over again, but good enough to recommend to any hardcore horror enthusiasts.
First off, it's a vampire movie, and a good one at that. It's not one of these new-fangled whosi-whatsits vampire movies where they try to redefine what necessitates being a vampire, it's classic Dracula fair. Drinks blood, sunlight can kill them, sleeps in a box, can't come into a building without being invited. No word on holy water and crosses though, which is pretty realistic since no one in the movie was overly religious or superstitious. The film makers showed interesting takes on the lore, like the idea of inviting a vampire in. It's not the same, "invisible wall" you'd see in Buffy. Also, what happens to someone when they turn into a vampire and no one in the movie notices until it's too late? Watch the movie! That's what!
The movie takes place in the 80's, so if you're a fan of "I love the 80's strikes back" and so forth, you'll adore this film. "OH THEY'RE PLAYING THAT ONE SONG AND HES GOT A RUBIX CUBE AND I HAD ALL OF THOSE THINGS." That's you in your head with your loud head voice when you recognize all the throwback 80's props. I actually remember the candy, "Now and Later", and I will never ever think of it the same way again.
Technically speaking, the cinematography was beautiful. They took their time with their shots, and it wasn't filled with generic "focus on the character doing something all the time." Quite artsy. It was so still and out of focus sometimes it added to the overall creepiness of the picture. All the acting was first rate. Chloe Moretz is looking to be one of the most badass little girls of the decade. The Natalie Portman of her time perhaps?
And what's the moral of the story? High school kids are scarier than vampires!
It's such an odd feeling, I know I should be scared of her s a vampire, but everytime she's out on the prowl, poised for attack, I knew all she could do was bite and kill people. On the other hand, Owen has to deal with bullies. These are real people, and they look so menacing and downright evil. They get that look in their eyes, and you know they're capable of anything! I think perhaps it would have been a scarier film if it was just made up of high school torment.
It's so weird how real world occurrences were more jarring, frigtening, and overall disturbing than the vampire scenes. Maybe its because they took a more subtle and disturbing road with the real world stuff than with the vampire stuff. Whenever Abby would get really hungry, the camera would pan away and they'd show her computer generated silohette ripping a guy to shreds. But when one of the main characters gets in a car accident, you're IN the car, tumbling around! When Owen gets pushed under the water, you're right there with him. There are a couple scenes where we get to hear Abby's real voice and see her real face, but they're few and far between, which saddens my horror heart.
Maybe its because after all the horror movies, we've become to comfortable with blood and gore. It carries no meaning to us if they throw red corn syrup around, but the real events still do. Maybe it has to do with suspension of disbelief. We secretly know vampires aren't real, so they're automatically not that scary, but getting into a car accident or getting roughed up by a bully are completly plausible to us. For many reasons, it's not that unbelievable that Owen would want to shun the real world and go steady with his new vampiric friend.
The story was well told, very suspenseful, and had a number of gripping twists and turns. There were points were completely painful and points that were so so satisfying. Overall, I'd give it a 93 out of 117. A damn good movie. Maybe not the most fun, but damn good nonetheless.
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