'Let Me In' Review

'Let Me In' is the second screen adaptation of John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel 'Let The Right One In'. As the first movie - which was titled the same as the book - was given superb reviews and deemed on of the best foreign language features within the past decade, this movie had a lot of pressure. And if this was not enough, the director Matt Reeves was also following up his 2008 smash 'Cloverfield' with this movie, so the expectations were high.

I myself have not seen the Swedish original, so I went into this film without any expectations, and came out with no comparisons to make. The film tells the story of a boy who befriends a young female vampire who has just moved in next door to him, with her mysterious guardian. Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloe Moretz deliver strong performances as the young boy and vampire girl. Smit-McPhee plays the tormented child very well, playing the loneliness to the character with an effortless subtlety which comes across very naturally. The alienation of his character is also cleverly heightened by the decision to keep his mother and estranged father faceless throughout. Moretz plays the vampire with an emptiness which emphasises her character's loneliness, which is very different from that of Smit-McPhee's character. Together they create a very believable chemistry which is superbly captured by Reeves. For such young actors they impressively harness this chemistry to make the viewer believe that they truly care for each other a great deal.

This film conjures up a fittingly gloomy atmosphere in it's use of location and score. The New Mexico location is well utilised creating a very cold and dark setting for the film. It is this combined with the eerie and simplistic scoring that creates a lingering feeling of doom.

Numerous scenes in the film show Reeves' talent as a horror director. The horror scenes within the film are very well constructed, and there are never any cheap thrills within. All in all this movie has been very well crafted and gives both crowd pleasing scare moments with plenty of gore, but also combines it with a mood that gets under your skin and stays there. The scenes involving Richard Jenkins guardian figure are very creepy, both because of the nature of the action and because of Jenkins' unnerving performance.

All in all 'Let Me In' is a very well crafted horror, that proves far more effective than most of the mass produced teen orientated horror movies that are always being thrown out. There is a great deal of heart to this film which is created by a very strong central relationship. What makes this film so effective is the nature of having a love story set amongst the backdrop everything else that is going on. Hats off to Reeves for proving that he is a talented director by providing a strong follow up to 'Cloverfield'. As most reviews say that the original is better, I now feel that I must sit down and watch it, as this film was a decent adaptation in itself.

Verdict:

4 Stars