I lucked out Wednesday night and was able to see a screening of Let Me In. I was a fan of Let The Right One In (the Swedish version) and was pretty wary of seeing the Americanized version because we usually fuck things up. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how good the adaptation was.

Let Me In is the story of Owen, an almost 13 kid in 1983 Los Alamos, New Mexico. Hes a scrawny weird kid who appears to have no friends. His parents are getting divorced and his mom is a drunk who usually passes out with a bottle of wine every night. He is bullied at school and is a bit obsessed with trying to find a way to get back at the bullies. One night while being a creepy ass kid and practicing to stab his bully and spying on his neighbors he sees a small girl and old man move into the apartment next door. He later meets the girl, Abby, and despite her warning that they can’t be friends, they become friends. Abby helps Owen feel better about his shitty life, and urges him to fight back when the bullies bother him. Owen notices some very strange things about Abby but looks past them and is happy to have a friend. And thats where I stop telling you about the movie and tell you to go see it.

If you’ve seen the Swedish version I would probably wait until this comes out on DVD and rent it because it is very much the same. The differences are minimal and I can’t see paying money to go see it again in English. However, if you haven’t seen the original I recommend going with a few friends so you can talk about how strange it is after.

The movie left me with a strange feeling, I want to like Owen because hes had a shitty time at life but hes just so damn creepy and weird that I have a hard time sympathizing. Chloe Moretz (Hit-Girl from Kick Ass) does a really good job and is the highlight of the film, even after she rips someones throat out I still feel for her more than Owen. The filming of the movie was great as well, Matt Reeves has stepped up his game from the shaky cam bullshit in Cloverfield and had a lot of great shots. One scene with a fire fell short though. In fact the whole audience laughed at the cheesy feel of it.

All in all I’d say its a good movie but I wouldn’t throw 8 bucks at it, Id wait for a smaller theater and maybe a flask or a beer. 3 out of 5 stars.