Let Me In(2010) directed by Matt Reeves and starring Kodi Smit-Mcphee as bullied twelve year old, Owen, who befriends vampire girl Abby, played by Chloe Moretz (the girl from Kick-Ass), who looks about the same age but states she has been twelve for a very long time. The original was a Swedish film called Let the Right One In made in 2008; both are based off the book referred to as either title. Owen is frequently bullied by other boys at his school and when Abby moves into the apartment next to his, he immediately tries to be her friend. The acting of the children, I thought, was rather good for what they had to do. The role of Abby was quite different from Chloe Moretz’ Kick-Ass, and required her to be more mysterious yet still deadly. I also thought Kodi Smit-Mcphee’s Owen was believably scared, confused and brave when needed but, there aren’t any movies I know of to compare his performance to.
The one thing the instantly caught my eye as soon as the movie started was the special effects. The snow fall in the first scene looks completely fake and as the ambulance drives through it, it looks like the ambulance is just driving through normal air. The vampire movements; however, are very vampire-like except I feel like they made the CGI version of Abby too small and thin to match what she really looked like. Along with some of the special effects I had a problem with a few of the camera angles. Whenever Abby or Owen were in the corner of the screen, back to the camera, it would focus on them instead of what they were looking at which took up the majority of the screen. What they were blurring wasn’t anything that would raise suspense, in both cases it was just other people such as Owen’s mom.
Despite the animations and camera views, I did like how close it stuck to the original movie and book. The play ground where they first meet and frequently hang out looks almost identical to the original with nothing more than a small jungle gym. Let Me In also stays true to Let the Right One In in that the girl is very sheltered and protected by her “father” who hangs people upside down to collect their blood for her. I also like the fact they stuck in the Morse code communication between the two kids, although they used it more often in the original.
So, without giving away the ending, Let Me In is a pretty good movie that stays close to its origins. If you like vampires, cold wintery nights, blood and violence, then check out this movie. Let Me In and Let the Right One In are both definitely worth watching and I suggest watching both of them to see the differences and similarities for yourself.
