LET ME IN (Alliance, 2010) D: Matt Reeves, w/ Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloe Moretz. Rating: NNNN DVD package: NNN Rating: NNNN
A story centred on puppy love and propelled by complex emotions and an ambiguous attitude toward good and evil lift Let Me In well above the run-of-the-mill fright flick.
Lonely, isolated and enraged at being the ongoing target of school bullies,12-year-old Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) thinks he might have a friend when Abby (Chloe Moretz), also 12, moves in next door. They’re both emotionally closed, but trust and attraction grow. Meanwhile, Abby’s father is feeding her the blood of murdered strangers.
Smit-McPhee and Moretz inhabit their characters with a confident energy that feels completely natural and absolutely riveting.
Though it’s a faithful remake of the 2008 Swedish film Let The Right One In and delivers an effective sense of helpless dread, Moretz lacks the androgyny of the original’s blood-drinker, a key element.
Writer/director Matt Reeves talks about androgyny and other matters in the source novel in a commentary otherwise devoted to production stories and praise for his cast.
EXTRAS Commentary, making-of doc, effects doc, car crash doc. Widescreen. English, French audio. English, Spanish subtitles.