Let Me In...to the theatre so I can watch this movie again.

For the most part, I despise American remakes of foreign horror movies. They always dumb down the source material to make it PG-13 in an effort to sell more tickets and destroy the essence of the original. Let Me In is the very rare exception, and it came close to surpassing the original. The film was a near perfect adaptation. The two leads were both fantastic, the setting was very surreal and foreboding, and the music was top notch.

The basic plot for the movie is as follows. Owen (played by Kodi Smit-McPhee of The Road) is a 12 year old boy who is going through hard times. He is neglected by his mom and has bully problems at school. He soon meets a young girl named Abby, (played by Chloe Moretz Grace of Kick Ass fame) and the two form a relationship. The catch is that Abby is a vampire. My only real nitpick is the addition of religion to the plot. I felt like that took away from the story, because it focused less on a relationship between two different people and more on a “good and evil” tone.

The acting was great. Kodi and Chloe had great chemistry together and the both continue to show that they have some real acting talent. Chloe’s creepy yet romantically cute portrayal of a vampire played very well off of Kodi’s abused/borderline psychotic yet lonely and sympathetic young boy. They both perfected their given roles and gave the originals a run for their money. The only other “main” character in the film was Abby’s father/protector (played by Richard Jenkins). Elias Koteas (Casey Jones from the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) has a “hey, it’s that guy” role as the police officer and he did a great job as well. The other bit of acting that needs mentioning are the bullies. Like the two leads, their personalities played well off of each other. I can’t spoil it but needless to say, they are some of the better “villains” in recent memory because you can sympathize with them.

One of the strongest points of the movie was the musical score. Michael Giacchino (Star Trek, Speed Racer, and many Pixar films) has crafted an amazing score. When the movie needs tension, Giacchino uses slowly paced hard drum hits and loud trumpet blasts. When the movie calls for a more creepy/romantic turn, he uses a slow piano and a slow paced violin. I’m normally not a huge fan of horror soundtracks, but this one that I will be purchasing.

This is a very easy movie to recommend. I know I say this a lot, but this is coming from someone who hates remakes.