Is true love born out of necessity and co dependence? ’Let Me In’ is a poignant love story set in New Mexico, where a 12 year old boy who is the frequent victim of school bullies is drawn to a 12 year old mysterious girl who shifts to the neigborhood.
Owen and Abby share striking chemistry and the scenes they share are a treat to watch in the movie. They behave like innocent kids yet their passionate relationship will touch anyone. Owen is sensitive and alienated with little or no support from his divorcing parents.
Abby is a vampire, a monster who lives on blood drained by a serial killer. This serial killer who looks aged and poses as Abby’s dad used to be her boyfriend once and would do anything to keep Abby alive.
As the story goes, Abby will not age so she needs to look for another companion after her current companion kills himself while saving her.
Abby is reserved, moody, and mysterious. She shows maturity because she is physically a 12 year old but in reality an ancient vampire. She trusts Owen unconditionally often doing things just for the sake of pleasing him. So the other question arises if Abby has a heart which feels?
The genres of thriller, horror, love story and mystery blend smoothly in Mat Reeves’’Let Me In’ which is based on a Swedish movie ’Let the Right One In’. Abby’s emotional support and friendship strengthens Owen who is able to fight back the bullies at school.
After Owen comes to know the truth about Abby, they part ways in pain. However true lovers cannot stay apart and that is the surprise ending of the story.
The Twilight movies also deal with love and relationships but should not be compared to this work. This is much more realistic and deep. There are an abundance of gory scenes and in this movie you see for the first time what happens to a vampire when they entire a home without invitation.
About the American adaptation, from Wikipedia:
In adapting the story for American audiences, Reeves stated that keeping the 1980s time period within the film was critical in exploring the theme of good and evil. He used Ronald Reagan’s "evil empire speech" as an example of American thought during that time period.
Reeves stated, "The idea of Reagan’s ’evil empire’ speech and that whole sort of school of thought was that evil was something that was outside of us. Evil was ’Other, ’ it was over there, it was the Soviets". Reeves felt that this idea was central to the main character Owen, as he "would be grappling with these very, very dark feelings but being in a kind of American town where there was that sort of [Reagan era] mindset and religiousness.
How would you fit in? How would you feel about yourself being confused and being 12 or 13 years old and not knowing what it means that you wish you could kill those kids who were terrorizing you every day? The humanity of that."
I would not be surprised with the box office collections of this movie and comparing it to the twilight saga. It did not get so much publicity and features lesser known actors.However child actors Kodi Smit-McPhee as Owen and Chloë Grace Moretz as Abby have immense potential to become great adult stars based on their controlled performances in this movie.
They are also well supported by others in the cast. The background absorbs the alienation and loneliness of the main characters.
I would love to read the novel of the same name by John Ajvide Lindqvist and also watch the Swedish version directed by Tomas Alfredson.