I was lucky enough to get in for a pre-screening of the film, Let Me In, on Wednesday at the Broadway theatre in Salt Lake City. (I smuggled a cat in a purse that I said I was “holding for my girlfriend”) I sat next to my good friend and fellow contributor to this site, Proletaria-tron. After the movie was through, he mentioned that he was going to put up a review for the movie, and said, “I’ll let you tag your review onto mine. I’ll e-mail you…” Something to that effect. Anyway, I agreed, and anxiously waited at my desk for my chance to write a few words about this movie. Two days later, I had still not received the e-mail, when I decided to check the BigShinyRobot homepage, and what did I see?

https://www.bigshinyrobot.com/reviews/archives/17366

The bastard stabbed me in the back and published a review without asking my highly respected opinion. What does that mean to you people? Just that you get a second review with me and my only real friend, Flufferz! And now for the review!

“Let Me In” is a remake of the Swedish film named similarly, “Let the Right One In” Honestly, I don’t think either name is even good, let alone better than the other… I would have called it, “Dracula Bat ‘At-cula” if I had it my way, sadly I’ve been barred from contacting most movie studios in anyway whatsoever.

Let Me In, is about a creepy little boy named Owen, who is picked on at school. He’s a loner up until a vampire moves in next door who he eventually befriends and falls in love with. To me, it sounds like the plot of a teen comedy, but it turns out it’s more of a horror film… At this time I think it’s worth mentioning that the last horror movie I watched was “Runaway Bride”.

This version of the film was directed by Matt Reeves, the director of CloverField, (which I thought was basically okay.) He was also given (oddly, I think) a, “written for the screen” credit. It is my thought that he did a good job in both of these rolls. The film was shot well, and it wasn’t over handed in the least. He did have the distinct advantage of tracing someone else’s project, but I think this is okay considering his disadvantage of being the writer of “Under Siege 2”.

The acting in this film was surprisingly not annoying, being that it was staffed almost completely by children. My only real complaint (I’m using the word “real” liberally) is that the main boy, and the vampire girl, didn’t look quite as creepy as the pair that played the couple in the Swedish version. They did themselves a real favor by casting Elias Koteas (Casey Jones) as the policeman who is hunting down the vampire, because, with my prejudiced opinion, I think he did a really good job.

The main reasons I can find to actually watch this film are pretty scattered. While I think this was a fine film, I really don’t think it was different enough from the original to demand another viewing, but it was certainly well enough made to deserve a recommend. To me, the appeal of the story is to watch a vampire interact with what seems like a partially realistic small town. They subtly show you the archetypes of our typical conception of a traditional vampire, and I think with good writing, give each of these traits enough precedence to make some really powerful scenes. From their blood lust, to their allergy to sunlight. My particular favorite aspect, was the concept that for a vampire to exist in our society they would travel with a familiar (referring to a vampires minion) to help them harvest blood.

At the same time, I feel this was a hard film to watch. I think it all depends on how much you love horror movies, because some of the gore was too intense for me. (What can I say, I’m a doctor that can’t stand the site of blood… I mostly only became a doctor to see unhealthy women in their pantyhose.)

At the end of the day I think this was a pretty good movie, and I wish that every remake or screenplay had at least this much care and attention paid to it. I will award this film with 7 illustrious Dr. Cyborg movie points, out of a possible 10. Flufferz gave it 8 out of 10, (He gave it an extra point because they mentioned tuna fish.)