I wanted to watch the original Swedish 'Let The Right One In' movie but missed it then, so the next best thing was to watch the american remake 'Let Me In' that was screened here recently.It wasn't the kind of typical cheap horror flick and the story was not too fast paced or packed with drama. Instead it explored a bit more of the relationship between the two precocious young leads. There was no scare tactic every few minutes or so to milk the audience's fear, but when there were frightening scenes, they were very effective, stomach churning and disturbing e.g. when a victim was hung upside down on a tree and his jugular was pierced to release his fresh, warm blood into a container below.
Set in 1983 in New Mexico, the movie started off in a small town where a screaming patient bathed in strong acid was sent to the hospital and the police was involved in the investigations. The story unfolded from there to two weeks earlier before the incident and essentially, it was about a lonely pubescent 12 years old boy Owen (played by Kodi Smit-Mc-Phee), whose separated parents were on the brink of divorce, and his newly formed relationship with a new neighbour - a 12 years old girl Abby (played by Chloe Grace Moretz) who moved in with someone who was presumably her father. He was frequently bullied in school by a few boys and developed a bond with the seemingly lonely girl.
From there on, whilst I have not watched the original film before, everything turned out as I expected. I wouldn't say it was a predictable storyline but the reviews that I read on this and the original film may have something to do with me knowing too much. Unknown to Owen, the older man was not Abby's father. Instead, Abby was a vampire and was sort of an immortal since she never aged a day since she was twelve. The older man was in fact a boy she befriended decades or years ago and he was with her all these years, helping to kill someone to feed her thirst for blood. They moved from town to town to escape the authorities, with all the missing victims and uncovered bodies surfacing, and brought them to here.
Abby had a sort of pure innocence and naivety and I feel it is this special quality that enabled her to "bewitch and enslave" her victims to willingly kill and die for her. I use the word "enslave" because I think no one in the normal frame of mind who witnessed the horrors of her deeds or her true form would choose to continue to be with her. As her older lover sacrificed himself and died for her and the investigating police officer closed in on her but was killed by her, her bond with Owen grew stronger as she helped him killed the 4 bullies. The movie ended with Owen running away from home in a train with Abby in the suitcase. Once again, she enslaved a new victim who would commit more heinous crimes with her in the years to come.
This is a really damned long review that I wrote of the movie. But if I were the writer or director, I wouldn't end it here. I would fast forward the time to 2010 and show the same 12 year old Abby running in the shadows. Following close behind would be a 39 year old man, who is the aged and tired looking Owen, before he was nabbed and killed by the police. The story lives on again with her finding yet another young innocent victim to continue her undead life.
With this movie, the very talented and pretty 13 years old Chloe who starred in recent movies '500 Days of Summer' and 'Kick-Ass' was prominently put on the radar of Hollywood casting directors and compared to the slightly older but equally mesmerizing 20 years old Emma Watson. Whether the two of them would continue to do well in Hollywood following their movies remain to be seen.
Anyway, a link on this movie is shown below:
