Let Me In Review

• 14th Mar 2011

Let Me In tells the story of a bullied young boy, Owen, and his friendship with the strange young girl, Abby, who has recently moved into their block of flats. As bodies start to pile up around the neighborhood, the local police detective goes in search of those responsible finally tracking down Abby and uncovering her dark secret.

As remakes of successful foreign language films go, Hollywood has a poor reputation to say the least. Let Me In comes hot on the heels of the original Swedish release Let the Right One In which became a huge critical hit in 2008, picking up numerous awards on the festival circuit.

Thankfully the writers of the re-make have kept things very close to its Swedish predecessor, relocating the story to Los Alamos but keeping the characters mostly the same.  They introduce a police detective played by the intriguing and always stellar Elias Koteas, who adds to the fabulous cast in the film. As in the original, the narrative of Let Me In focuses the attention on the growing romantic relationship between Owen and Abby. This in turn is punctuated by the supernatural as Abby feeds her blood lust.

The photography is stunning, taking certain elements of the look of the original and then placing its own signature on top. Other elements, such as the score, are also superb guiding the audience beautifully by the hand through the love story of both leads. Director, Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) must be commended for a super job in taking what is possibly the most highly regarded horror film in recent memory and creating something truly worthy in this re-make.

Let Me In can easily stand alone as an adaptation of the original source material and will hopefully drive new fans into searching out the original film.  As the horror landscape has recently been overrun with a never ending slew of terrible vampire themed projects, Let Me In draws what has become mainstream, back up to a level of beauty and competence sadly missing in so much else. Also of note for any fan of the genre, the release of Let Me In heralds the rebirth of legendary British studio Hammer, who ruled the world of horror filmmaking in the 60s and understood the art of gothic atmosphere.

The DVD comes with an insightful commentary by director Matt Reeves as well as the usual behind-the-scenes stuff.

Aled Jones