Let Me In (2010)

Featured Audience Ratings

• John M

  
  A vampire romance movie that is actually a real vampire movie. Solid in every form. One of the few times I have watched a remake of a foreign film and have to say they did a quality job. An all around quality flick.

• Dean !

  
  It's a good story and film, I saw the Swedish version first, so kinda spoils any surprises, as it is a scene for scene re-work. In fact I'd say some of the key scenes were better in the original version. Why they added some dodgy cgi in places is anyones guess? Have to say… More
  It's a good story and film, I saw the Swedish version first, so kinda spoils any surprises, as it is a scene for scene re-work. In fact I'd say some of the key scenes were better in the original version. Why they added some dodgy cgi in places is anyones guess? Have to say Chloe Moretz is one to watch for the future, great young actress.

• Rubia Carolina .

  
  I usually don't like remakes. For obvious reasons, specially the American ones. Just to take an example, get a very nice film like Mostly Martha and turn it on the stupid No Reservations. And I just heard that there's a remake to Godard's Breathless with none other than… More
  I usually don't like remakes. For obvious reasons, specially the American ones. Just to take an example, get a very nice film like Mostly Martha and turn it on the stupid No Reservations. And I just heard that there's a remake to Godard's Breathless with none other than Richard Gere! What's wrong with you guys? If a great film, worldly acclaimed, is not yours, you want to ruin it? Nah. Unfortunately, you think you're doing a really good job. Some foreign films have an economic potential if converted to the "American taste" what, let me explain, is not exclusively to Americans. This below average taste has been spread all over the world mostly because of your powerful film industry, so this is not a critic to a country, but to a "way of life" - let's put it that way - that can be found anywhere. Having said that, let's move to Let Me In. Having seen Låt den rätte komma and read John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel, I can nothing but laugh out loud - to not cry - after seeing Matt Reeves' remake. He not only managed to ruin the original film but the book as well. First of all, the kids. They're too much nice, too much cute, too much trained, too much not convincing (me). If we're going to shoot a remake, let's make sure to change a few things, right? Instead of a blond boy and a brunette girl, let's choose a dark-haired boy and a dark blonde girl and voilà! Now we can copy some scenes, frame to frame, add a little bit of crap to it, and we have a "great" and different film. Anyhow, it'd be better if the differences have remained restricted to the cast. I feel sorry for saying it, but even the bullying is worse here. Americans and their vision of right and wrong had, of course, to justify why that boy has such a nasty behavior: he calls Owen "little girl" and treats him the way he does because his older brother does the same to him. Oh poor little kid! Still into this good versus evil vision, we have Owen's mom and Abby's "dad", who only looks like Håkan. Of course the pedophile (not suggested in the film) can't be somehow "nice", so he will not only call little Abby fucking bitch and yells at her, as he seems to be the "boss" in all situations. Why does he douse his face with acid? Because that's what Håkan does in Let the Right One In. For not even one second you believe he would do that to protect Abby what, by the way, is not even explained. Now, Owen's mom. It's unbelievable, but true: she is a freaking religious and that must explain everything, right? Divorced parents, fanatic mom, weird boy. And where this comes from? Reeves took this religion thing of the book, but changed it for worst. In the novel, Oskar has a sort of friend, Tommy, an older boy who lives in his building. Tommy's mom is dating the religious police officer, Staffan, that investigates the deaths. What Reeves did was take Lacke and the other drunks off the scene and put Staffan in. Those scenes in the hospital are really in the book, but he is not killed. Talking about scenes and killing, if you watched Let The Right One In you remember that there were two girls with a dog that find the first Håkan's victim, right? Well, to not let such an important thing out, Reeves makes Ginia - the woman that will be attacked by Abby - a "posh girl" walking with her dog. Oh, and I was almost forgetting the worst thing about this film: when thirsty for blood, Abby becomes a mix of Marilyn Manson and the girl from The Exorcist, what it's said to be the great difference between the two films, making Reeve's film more suitable for the terror genre and less romantic than Tomas Alfredson's. Have these critics seem the same film I did? Because Let Me In is much more romantic in a silly way. First of all, Abby and Owen's relationship develops very fast, specially due to the fact that eight minutes are lost in that useless and typical beginning scene. Also, they're really good kids, no matter if Abby kills people and Owen spies his female neighbour about to have sex. Owen is so nice that, in a normal and innocent idea of sex as sin or 'love in this side, sex in the other', he stops spying Abby when she's changing clothes. Of course that this scene happens mostly because people wouldn't understand the similar scene of Let The Right One In, another reason why Abby says that she's not a girl, she's nothing. If she had only said she is not a girl, people would understand exactly the same as we did in Let The Right One In, where the homosexuality is not clear: she's not a girl, she's a vampire. Not necessary to say much more. Not everything has to be said or shown. I would prefer to wonder what they "talked" in the end than to know that the "trains starts to move". Other few points: I think the cold light of Let The Right One In works much better than the "warm" yellow one of Let Me In, but yes, I understand that New Mexico is not Stockholm . The music that is an important thing in the Swedish film completely loses its sense in this one. When we meet someone and feel connected, don't we want to show the person a film we like, a song we love? That's what Oskar does, when he put that amazing song to play in vinyl and tries to look cool in front of Eli. The song, "Kvar i min bil" played by Per Gessle, says something like "All of my heart crushed like glass, trashed when you said 'you've got to leave'. Where should I run? What will I come to?" what seems perfect to Oskar. Let The Right One In is one of the few cases where the film is better than the book, a sort of cheesy horror flick. Let Me In is one of several cases where a remake is worse than the original film and the book. Can you like it if you haven't seen the Swedish one? Probably, but I'm not the best person to answer that. </br> </br>

• Drake T

  
  People inherently hate remakes, they feel betrayed that someone has to come along to revamp existing material for a younger or different audience to appreciate, as if implying what they loved was now obsolete. Three words, get over it. For the record, I watch plenty of subtitled… More
  People inherently hate remakes, they feel betrayed that someone has to come along to revamp existing material for a younger or different audience to appreciate, as if implying what they loved was now obsolete. Three words, get over it. For the record, I watch plenty of subtitled foreign works without dismay (Grew up on Anime) and having taken the time to watch both back-to-back I actually prefer this one over the original for various reasons. Most notably the way Reeve's reproduction unfolds is more enthralling. It commands a much darker, grittier atmosphere and uses more dynamic camera work where necessary all of which helps the horror aspect of the genre substantially. The cast and characters also feel better represented with Mcphee apparently more fragile and sophisticated accompanied by Moretz who's physically smaller and baby-faced for further contrast to her viscous counterpart form. Even the supporting "bullies" were abundantly believable in their aggressive performance! There are many other changes that I found more agreeable to accentuating the films core relationship (The antagonist to a cop, the symbiotic relationship between her former human and how he related to Owen, Abby's aged writing, love for puzzles, lack of shoes, the immediate combustion and dismissal of her turned victim etc.) but I don't want to drone on. Comparisons accounted, Let Me In is a masterpiece of poetic romance carefully crafted into a well-told horror-suspense of complete, utter tragic beauty. The dark, monstrous themes are perfectly juxtaposed by the fragile innocence that they're contextualized in making for a very bizarre yet fitting watch. Reeve's focused and intimate camera work concurs with the character driven storyline completely exposing the raw emotion between the leading characters (Moretz and Mcphee), their relationship often transcends what little relevance this film has to do with morality. It's not really even about the supernatural premise though which serves as nothing more than a vehicle for intrigue, the core is about loneliness, friendship and our capacity to really comprehend the "simplicity" of love. A much needed addition to the "vampire" movement perpetuated by awful media like Twilight, True Blood, Vampire Diaries etc.

• Sophie B

  
  Visually good looking with a cracking soundtrack and Jenkins as The Father, but that's all that's really good about this. It's basically copied without much artistic difference from the original. Moretz is arrogant and distant, and Smit-McPhee is like an echo of his… More
  Visually good looking with a cracking soundtrack and Jenkins as The Father, but that's all that's really good about this. It's basically copied without much artistic difference from the original. Moretz is arrogant and distant, and Smit-McPhee is like an echo of his predecessor. There's literally no romantic or even friendly tension between the two kids and it just feels lacking in emotion. Not even a shadow of the original.

• Reid V

  
  A valiant effort and a surprisingly enjoyable watch. It is an exercise in style and mood that is well-executed. However, lacks any of the depth and beauty of the original. Also, while Reeves adapts this Swedish tale in an interesting way by setting it in a America ravaged by… More
  A valiant effort and a surprisingly enjoyable watch. It is an exercise in style and mood that is well-executed. However, lacks any of the depth and beauty of the original. Also, while Reeves adapts this Swedish tale in an interesting way by setting it in a America ravaged by Reaganomics, the message is a bit too heavy handed. Overall, a good try. But doesn't come close to touching the original. Go figure.

• paul s

  
  While I'm doing remakes... Here we have a case of a foreign film that was done only a couple of years before - so if you've seen the original Swedish version you wonder once again - why remake it? In this case - probably to introduce those in the American audience who… More
  While I'm doing remakes... Here we have a case of a foreign film that was done only a couple of years before - so if you've seen the original Swedish version you wonder once again - why remake it? In this case - probably to introduce those in the American audience who refuse to read subtitles to a wonderful film concept. Yes, this is a "horror" film - I'm not giving anything away by saying that this deals with a Vampire. But rest assured, this isn't your dumb, teen angst Twilight, or a B movie blood and gore fest - even though there's plenty of blood here. No, in the case of both versions, you have something much more artful - from lighting to camera angles to pacing - the film takes it's time and sets up its atmosphere of solitude very well, and while there is violence, the more gruesome aspects happen just off screen - a wise decision to not flaunt the gore by shoving it in your face. If you haven't seen the Swedish version, and even if you have, the film is pretty darned solid (though I, having seen the Swede version, knew what was coming and could spend more time looking at details like lighting and scene set-up). I can't judge about becoming invested in the characters having seen the prior film fairly recently, but the acting of these two 12 year olds (or at least that's their character's age) is solid and believable. The American version isn't quite as subtle as the foreign one, and makes obvious what was only hinted at in the earlier version (perhaps afraid that the target audience just wouldn't get it), but for the most part Matt Reeves stays away from Hollywoodism, and for that I'm grateful. My only real complaint here is that the speed camera comes off totally bogus and appears amateurish - if I was in the editing suite and looking at the dailies, I'd suggest shooting the ending of the scene in the tunnel over again - or abandoning the speed cam altogether - it was simply jarring and out of place with the attention to detail that the rest of the film possessed. The net result is that this (and its predecessor) is more art film than horror film, but there's enough to satisfy lovers of both. Definitely a cut above most horror type films.

• Paulo G

  
  Dark romance at its best. It's not often do directors succeed in making romantic horror flicks especially if it's a remake. Let Me In is amazingly directed and acted. The chemistry between the two leads made the romance realistic and down-to-earth and even the effects and… More
  Dark romance at its best. It's not often do directors succeed in making romantic horror flicks especially if it's a remake. Let Me In is amazingly directed and acted. The chemistry between the two leads made the romance realistic and down-to-earth and even the effects and the atmosphere of the movie itself made this very satisfying to watch.

• Melvin W

  
  Abby: You have to invite me in.  "Innocence dies. Abby doesn't." Let Me In is an absolutely stunning remake of my favorite Vampire movie ever. To be honest, I was pretty angry when I heard Let The Right One In was being remade, and I said I would never watch this. But… More
  Abby: You have to invite me in.  "Innocence dies. Abby doesn't." Let Me In is an absolutely stunning remake of my favorite Vampire movie ever. To be honest, I was pretty angry when I heard Let The Right One In was being remade, and I said I would never watch this. But after seeing it get great reviews and hearing from a few friends how good it was; I decided to give it a try. Plus having Chloe Grace Moretz play Abby was a perfect casting decision.  The plot is exactly the same as the first. Matt Reeves didn't change any of the ideas of the original, instead he just Americanized it. Reeves is proving to be an amazing director with Cloverfield already on his résumé. His direction here is outstanding. He sets the mood and atmosphere for the movie right away and it never goes away. Watching Let Me In gave me virtually the same feelings that Let The Right One In gave me the first time I watched that.  Reeves also shows a great sense of style and patience with some of the violent scenes. My favorite scene in this film is when Abby's father is waiting in the back of a kids car to kill him. The kid ends up picking up a friend, so we wait. He stops at the gas station, we wait some more. The kid turns on the radio. We wait while listening to Blue Oyster Cults, "I'm Burning For You." You can never go wrong with Blue Oyster Cult. Then he finally gives us the payoff, which is amazing. We sit as a passenger would in the back seat. It is an absolutely riveting scene.  Kodi Smit-McPhee also gives a powerful performance as Owen. The movie depends on Moretz and Smit-McPhee to deliver great performances in order to convey the power of the story. They pull it off easily. I also always like Elias Koteas. He is always a great supporting actor.  Let Me In is a great movie, even as a stand alone film. If you haven't watched this yet because you're such a big fan of Let The Right One In, watch it. The movie is true to the original and gives the fans of the story a little more. After not wanting to see this movie at all, it turned out to be one of my favorite films of 2010.

• Joseph B

  
  Better than the Swedish one. Chloe Moretz is the future of Hollywood. Richard Jenkins best performance since Step Brothers.

• EightThirty .

  
  12/10/2011 (PS3, MP4)

• Chris W

  
  Not much time passed after Let The Right One In was released before it was decided that there should be an American remake. And, while this isn't the most necessary thing in the world, this film, retitled Let Me In, does justice to the story, and, despite being mostly the same,… More
  Not much time passed after Let The Right One In was released before it was decided that there should be an American remake. And, while this isn't the most necessary thing in the world, this film, retitled Let Me In, does justice to the story, and, despite being mostly the same, still puts its own spin on things. This film is extremely atmospheric, moody, and very gripping. There are differences between this and the Swedish one, probbaly the most notable being that this one has renamed the characters, puts things into an American context and setting, and is a tad less subtle and somewhast more accessible. It retains the same basic story and themes though, which is just fine. The film is perfectly cast, and they picked the people I kinda figured they would have. Well, at least castin Chloe as Abby. Kodi Smit-McPhee was excellent in the road, and he's just as great here. Moretz has confirmed here why I think she's such a terrific actress, and I hope she has a long and prosperous career ahead of her. Jenkins is chilling as Abby's guardian, and I liked seeing Koteas as the cop. This film features some excellent music, scenery, and cinematography, and the car crash sequence, shot from POV and done in a single long take, is excellent, and one of the best parts of the film. This is a creepy film filled with lots of tension, yet there's a quiet, beautiful warmth hidden beneath the surface. Give this one a chance. I know that remakes get a bad rep far too often, but this film really is an excellent work of art in it's own right, and there's no way it could have been done any better (save for the Swedish version).

• Alexander W

  
  I am pretty sure some people didnt like it, but it was RIGHT up my alley for the subject, the story, the acting, and quite narration of a good modern vampire movie.

• Unknown H

  
  Not nearly as good as the original but still working with core material "Let the Right One In" offered, it couldn't be all bad.

• Brad W

  
  Let Me In was not a horror vampire movie, it was much more than that. The cast was amazing and after seeing this and Super 8 I realize now a days many kids are better actors then adults. The plot is amazing, a mixture of horror/ romance/ drama/ and fear. The music really stunned me… More
  Let Me In was not a horror vampire movie, it was much more than that. The cast was amazing and after seeing this and Super 8 I realize now a days many kids are better actors then adults. The plot is amazing, a mixture of horror/ romance/ drama/ and fear. The music really stunned me as well because I really captivated on how well the composer captured the mood. This isn't really a horror movie, more of a tremendous work of art that is without a doubt one the greatest horror films of our time and THE greatest vampire film ive ever seen. (Suck it Twilight)

• Idrees K

  
  What real horror movies are like. A smart, compelling, character-driven film that resonates deep within your heart

• Cynthia S

  
  Well. I am a HUGE fan of the original. This version was decent, but seemed to me to lack that creepy factor that I felt with the original. This seemed a little less gritty, uses special effects a little more, and has a more telling script--all of which dumb the movie down a little, in… More
  Well. I am a HUGE fan of the original. This version was decent, but seemed to me to lack that creepy factor that I felt with the original. This seemed a little less gritty, uses special effects a little more, and has a more telling script--all of which dumb the movie down a little, in my opinion. A nice try, though.

• Spencer S

  
  The original is a hauntingly beautiful Swedish film with a gossamer thin subtext and minimal violence. The Americanized version of events still strikes a nerve with an innocent love story between a vampire girl and a young boy. The original was very bright, white, meant to be an… More
  The original is a hauntingly beautiful Swedish film with a gossamer thin subtext and minimal violence. The Americanized version of events still strikes a nerve with an innocent love story between a vampire girl and a young boy. The original was very bright, white, meant to be an insightful monster mashup of blank landscapes and buried emotions. Far more important in this film was sticking to the plot, increasing the use of special effects in the gore and murder scenes, and using a dark contrast and cinematography to encapsulate blood, grief, and a climactic scene of grisly carnage. Using much of the original dialouge, but not matching it scene for scene, comparatively they are equally matched in depth, composition, sound, and technique, though my enjoyment of this over the other was greater. The relationships between the vampire and the people around her are very subtle in the Swedish, while the American digs deeper, including a more believable account of bullying, including a far better and disturbing set of events, making the ending more believable. Pure beauty with highlights of gore, this is one of my favorites of 2010.

• Mike S

  
  Stays honorably true to the original. In fact, it even surpasses it a bit if you ask me. And that's coming from a Swede who is usually not too fond of re-makes. The differences between the two movies are in the margins, and it has the very same atmosphere and feel to it. The… More
  Stays honorably true to the original. In fact, it even surpasses it a bit if you ask me. And that's coming from a Swede who is usually not too fond of re-makes. The differences between the two movies are in the margins, and it has the very same atmosphere and feel to it. The acting is equally sublime as well, and both Chloe Moretz and Kodi Smit-McPhee do a wonderful job in bringing the characters to life again. It does suffer from pacing problems like its predecessor, but these are minor blemishes in an otherwise well-directed horror drama. Easily one of the best vampire films ever made.

• ♥Robyn

  
  ok... Let Me In is an Americanized adaptation of Let the Right One In, a Swedish horror film which itself is based on a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist (also Swedish). A boy who is constantly bullied at school and spends all his time alone in an empty playground behind his home… More
  ok... Let Me In is an Americanized adaptation of Let the Right One In, a Swedish horror film which itself is based on a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist (also Swedish). A boy who is constantly bullied at school and spends all his time alone in an empty playground behind his home befriends his new neighbor. She is sweet and only comes out at night and isnt crazy about wearing shoes either, even though there is usually about 6 inches of snow on the ground throughout the film.... she is a Vampire andwants to keep a low profile.The boy is played by Kodi Smit-McPhee and he is perfect in the role,The beauty of the character (Abby) is that she too is at that age where little girls become teens as well,. so in a sense she is going through the same hormonal changes that all kids go through at a certain age, but the difference is that she is stuck at that age forever and has to distance herself from it at all costs. The scenes between the two leads are at first off putting because of Abbys reticence to start a friendship with Owen but as the movie continues and they grow closer there seems to be a genuine warmth between them, but you have to ask yourself, is she growing closer to him because she actually cares or because she needs someone to fill her "Fathers position?

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