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Chloe Moretz, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Richard Jenkins, Elias Koteas, Cara Buono ... see more see more... , Sasha Barrese , Dylan Kenin , Chris Browning , Ritchie Coster , Dylan Minnette , Jimmy 'Jax' Pinchak , Nicolai Dorian , Rebekah Wiggins , Seth Adkins , Ashton Moio , Brett DelBuono , Gwendolyn Apple , Colin Moretz , Rowbie Orsatti , Brenda Wehle , Galen Hutchison , Dean Satriano , Rachel Hroncich , Deborah Mazor , Frank Bond , Kayla Anderson , Tobin Espeset , Ben Bode , Juliet Lopez , Jon Kristian Moore

John Ajvide Lindqvist's celebrated vampire novel makes the leap to the big screen once again with the second feature adaptation in so many years (Tomas Alfredson's critically acclaimed 2008 hit Let th... read more read more...e Right One In, being the first). The sensitive target of vicious bullying at school, 12-year-old Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is a social misfit from a broken home. By day Owen dreams about laying waste to his classroom tormentors; by night his attentions turn to his reclusive neighbors in their austere apartment complex. One evening, as Owen takes out his pent-up aggressions on a tree, his new neighbor Abby (Chloë Grace Moretz) appears over his shoulder. A young girl wise beyond her years, Abby just moved in next door to Owen with her stoic caretaker (Richard Jenkins), who seems to harbor a sinister secret. Compelled by Abby's apparent imperviousness to the harsh winter elements, her frail disposition, and the fact that she's nowhere to be found before the sun falls, Owen senses a kindred soul, and strikes up a friendship with the girl, despite her repeated attempts to maintain an emotional distance. Simultaneously, their community grows vigilant following a series of vicious murders, and Abby's caretaker vanishes without a trace. Later, as Abby begins to grow vulnerable, her bond with Owen strengthens. By the time Owen begins to suspect that his evasive new friend is something other than human, it starts to seem as if Abby could use a good friend after all. Given that his bullies are growing more emboldened by the day, so too could Owen. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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89% liked it

205 critics

R, 1 hr. 55 min.

Directed by: Matt Reeves

Release Date: October 1, 2010

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DVD Release Date: February 1, 2011

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Flixster Reviews (7,157)

  • jmanard52
    February 13, 2011
    jmanard52
    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.
  • Deano78
    May 27, 2012
    Deano78
    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 ... read moreMoretz is one to watch for the future, great young actress.
  • 5oclockcoffee
    May 11, 2012
    5oclockcoffee
    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 G... read moreere! 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.
  • fb535316333
    March 9, 2012
    fb535316333
    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... read more 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.
  • StarCrossedVoyager
    February 24, 2012
    StarCrossedVoyager
    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. ... read moreThere'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.
  • axadntpron
    January 31, 2012
    axadntpron
    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 Reag... read moreanomics, the message is a bit too heavy handed. Overall, a good try. But doesn't come close to touching the original. Go figure.
  • paulsandberg
    January 25, 2012
    paulsandberg
    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 moreread 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.
  • fb1033186916
    November 13, 2011
    fb1033186916
    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 atm... read moreosphere of the movie itself made this very satisfying to watch.
  • blkbomb
    October 25, 2011
    blkbomb
    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 see... read moreing 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.
  • fb576007796
    October 25, 2011
    fb576007796
    Better than the Swedish one. Chloe Moretz is the future of Hollywood. Richard Jenkins best performance since Step Brothers.

View All Let Me In Reviews

Critic Reviews

David Edelstein
October 4, 2010
David Edelstein, New York Magazine

The poetic Swedish vampire picture (with arterial spray) Let the Right One In has been hauntingly well transplanted to the high desert of Los Alamos, New Mexico, and renamed Let Me In. Full Review

Mary F. Pols
October 1, 2010
Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine

Let Me In is not as fantastic as Let the Right One In, which you should rent immediately. But it is undeniably powerful and made with obvious admiration and respect for the source material. Full Review

Liam Lacey
October 1, 2010
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

A smart horror film that exploits a deep-seated fear in America: subtitle-phobia. Full Review

Amy Biancolli
October 1, 2010
Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle

It's still a striking piece of character-driven horror, and it still ranks (despite the effects) among the more understated fright fests to hit the mainstream in recent memory. Full Review

Tom Long
October 1, 2010
Tom Long, Detroit News

What works so well here is the juxtaposition of youthful innocence and downright puppy love with monstrosity and murder. Mean kids are scary. Kids who drink blood are scarier. Full Review

Lisa Kennedy
October 1, 2010
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post

It's called Let Me In. That demanding title says something about how the gentle poetry of the original gets lost a bit in Reeves' translation. Full Review

Kathleen Murphy
October 1, 2010
Kathleen Murphy, MSN Movies

[Director] Reeves had the smarts to identify and appropriate everything that made the original film so moving and visually memorable. Even better, he invigorates this faithful reproduction with remark... Full Review

Gary Dowell
October 1, 2010
Gary Dowell, Dallas Morning News

Matt Reeves takes a step toward making everyone's favorite bloodsuckers scary again. Full Review

A.O. Scott
October 1, 2010
A.O. Scott, New York Times

It is at once artful and unpretentious, more interested in intimacy and implication than in easy scares or slick effects. Full Review

Stephen Whitty
October 1, 2010
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger

If you like dank, disturbing little horror movies, invite Let Me In into your moviegoing schedule. Full Review

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Facts

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    • Abby: I've been 12 for a vary long time.
    • Abby: GO AWAY!
    • Abby: I have to hear you say it.
    • Owen: Eat some now, save some for later.
    • Owen: Are you scared little girl?
    • Abby: Owen, you have to hit back. You have to hit back hard.
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Let Me In Trivia

  • In which movie did Paul Newman say to God, "Let me know you're up there. Come on. Love me, hate me, kill me, anything. Just let me know it.'?  Answer »
  • In Tim Burton's 'corpse bride'what does victoria say about her mother's views on music?  Answer »
  • whats locked in that room your in Jonsy let me in and see  Answer »
  • In "The Sixth Sense" starring Bruce Willis, while the main character, Cole,is in the hallway leading to his room, he sees the ghost of a boy in a cowboy suit. What does the ghost say?   Answer »
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