Let Me In

   This is a vampire movie that isn't quite like anything I've seen before, and it is worth seeing for its originality alone.  "Let Me In," written for the screen and directed by Matt Reeves, is a remake of a 2008 Swedish movie called "Let the Right One In."  From what I understand, this one lives up to the quality of the original in every way.  The writer of the original, John Ajvide Lindqvist, gets a writing credit on this version too - which is usually a good sign that a remake is going to stay true.
   It is the story of 12 year old Owen who befriends a girl who just moved in next door with her father.  When asked how old she is, she mysteriously answers "12, more or less."  Her name is Abby and she soon becomes the object of Owen's curiosity and affection, even though she smells kind of funny and rarely wears shoes (even though it is winter).   She admits to Owen that she is not even a girl (she says that she is "nothing"), but he doesn't seem to mind, probably due in part because he is the target of serious bullying at school and spends much of the evening hours alone and will take any attention he can get.  In this sense, both Abby and Owen are loners who are looking for companionship.
  This movie takes itself very seriously, which is the only way I would be able to stay interested in a storyline like this.  The tone of the film never strays from deep, dark and brooding.  There is a lot of suspenseful sequences, graphic violence and quality acting (Kody Smit-McPhee and Chloe Moretz play the kids) that kept me on board for the whole film.  You may recognize Smit-McPhee from the 2009 post-apocalyptic film "The Road," where he more than held his own next to Viggo Mortenson.  I look forward to seeing where his young career goes in the next few years.
  Throughout the movie, we are never allowed into the world of the adults.  Reeves doesn't really let us in on the police investigations as the bodies pile up.  It seems as if the filmmakers do not want us to think that the adults are in charge at all - this is very much a child's world.  Similarly, we never see the full face of Owen's mom and only hear his father over the phone.   
  I kept hearing about this movie last year but never got a chance to check it out until I recently found it on Netflix instant.  If I am not mistaken, it made a lot of critics' top-ten lists last year.  While I am not that high on it, I will say that it is very well made.  It has the obligatory vampire stuff (hate sunlight, love blood, don't age, super fast, super strong, silver eyes) but one new one was that Abby needs to be specifically invited into a room before she can enter, or else she will start gushing blood from her head.  Interesting enough.
  I could never make it through the first "Twilight" movie because it is so stupid - sorry, I guess I should say that I am just not the target audience. "Let Me In" has such stark tonal and stylistic differences; it is certainly intended for an older, more mature viewer than Pattinson and Stewart's nightmare.  The end scene in the pool is about the gnarliest thing I've seen on screen in a while.

(Additional note:  There's a scene where Owen spins The Breakup Song by The Greg Kihn Band on the record player while Abby is rinsing off her blood-soaked face.  YouTube that one when you get a chance)