Let Me In

3 STARS

If you start watching this thinking you are about to see what is hopefully an exciting horror movie, you will be very disappointed.  That's what makes this film so interesting to me.  Yes, there is blood.  Yes, there is gore.  Yes, there is that ominous background music, but very little.  Yes, there is even a little demon child vampire at the center of it all.


"Let Me In" is about the bond between two young tortured souls who both just want a friend, a fellow kindred spirit who understands their plight.  Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road) portrays Owen, a bullied loner living with his alcoholic mother who is in the middle of a divorce.  He retreats to the courtyard of his low-income apartment complex every night after his mother drinks herself to sleep.  Its here he sits at a picnic in the cold New Mexico winter because he would rather be in the cold than watch his mom destroy herself.  Owen soon meets Abby (Chloe Moretz, Kick-Ass), a right-off-the-bat odd 12-year old girl who has just moved in with her dad.  Even though in their first meeting one night in the courtyard, Abby wastes no time telling Owen, "we cannot be friends," they soon find their way to each other.

The two young actors are both destined for great things in their futures in the movie business.  Smit-McPhee and Moretz are both flawless in their performances.  As the viewer, you genuinely feel for both of them and that they are both in need of just some simple friendship.  Moretz especially had a difficult role.  She had to be this little girl searching for a friend, then at times, an un-aging creature of the night who has to kill.  They are joined in this film by two veterans, Richard Jenkins (The Father) and Elias Koteas (The Policeman).  Jenkins, who has one of the most distinguished, but versatile resumes I've ever seen (The Witches of Eastwick, Sea of Love, Stepbrothers, The Visitor, Eat Pray Love).  At first, the viewer would think of him as a bad guy, but he quickly brings out the compassion in anyone who watches.

"Let Me In" is very dark, but its so much more than a horror movie.  I do not see it that way at all.  Its a drama, plain and simple, but for the smarter horror fan.  So when you start it, let yourself in but be careful with those little girls who only go out at night.

Thank you and see you at the next blog.