LET ME IN

DIRECTOR: Matt Reeves

STARS: Chloe Moretz, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Richard Jenkins, Elias Koteas

ICON

VIEWED in isolation, Let Me In is a competently made movie that offers an unusual take on the vampire tale. Here, the bloodsucker is an eternally 12-year-old girl who, although supernaturally fast and strong, still has the emotional dependence of a child—craving companionship and allowing herself to be cared for. The central human character is no mighty monster-slayer but an introverted boy powerless to avoid the daily torments of the class bully.

When vamp Abby (Kick-Ass’s Chloe Moretz) meets wimp Owen (The Road’s Kodi Smit-McPhee) in the snowy courtyard of their apartment complex one night, he offers her someone she can relate to more than her grizzled guardian, while she gives him a secret happiness and strength. As friendship turns to innocent love, the inevitable happens and Abby’s need to feed threatens to expose her, forcing Owen to choose just how far he will let her into his life.

Unfortunately, however, Let Me In can’t be viewed in isolation because it is a remake of the 2008 Swedish flick Let the Right One In, and besides dumbing down the title and changing the character names, Hollywood’s alterations are all for the worse. Attempts to inject extra action into what is essentially a mood piece are jarring, and “colour” such as the video arcade make the setting less believable as a sleepy community where a vampire might go unnoticed.

Worst of all, the made-for-each-other strangeness of Oskar and Eli in the original just isn’t there with Owen and Abby. Kodi and Chloe may be fine young actors, but in these roles their words and pauses never seem meaningful. In fact, their very presence smacks of studio-exec logic—take a Euro hit, add the up-and-coming stars of two American hits and you’ve got a guaranteed winner, right? Oh, wait, and let’s make it more of a cop story… people can’t get enough cop stories…

The only conceivable reason to see this in preference to renting/buying Let the Right One In on DVD is if you flat out refuse to read subtitles.

Let Me In opens in cinemas on October 14.