Let Me In.

Well well well, what do we have here then? A film that was actually worth watching? What an honest surprise.

The source of my surprise, as it happens, is a recently released film known as 'Let Me In', it's a horror type film, rated roughly 15 (requiring me to flash my Student ID to get in, because apparently I look under 15), and don't worry, I'd never heard of this film until recently either. and, as the plot synopsis is quick to spoil, is about a young boy who befriends a young girl who's also a vampire. The film was rather tense to watch, even if you knew, and indeed BECAUSE you knew what was going to happen next, and had a good twist at the end which I will give a sincere attempt to not reveal.

The last film I watched as of recent which was meant to be scary was another unheard of film called 'The Hole' which was rubbish because the 3D was comparable to paper cutouts, the characters were boring as anything, all the scares were fake out jump scares which never led to anything and the plot was just uninteresting. Let Me In on the other hand had interesting characters and an interesting plot which pretty much wrote itself around them. The main sources of scares in the film was by far the two main characters, who were both 12 years old, and creepy as hell.

The reason for the two protagonists being as creepy as hell is because pretty much everything about them is only implied, there is a painful silence in any scene in which either of the protagonists (named Owen and Abby...I think.) are on their own, because the atmosphere and the creepy children's stellar nonverbal acting skills pretty much speak for themselves. Let me give you an example that may contain spoilers, after Owen discovers that Abby is secretly a Vampire, he says few words of interest, and no words to measure his current emotional state, everything is only implied. Merely by watching the expression on his face the viewer can tell that he goes through feeling deathly afraid of her, to trying to attempt to understand her, to accepting her burden, all nonverbally.

In addition to the characters emotions, several other things are not specifically shown, for example, one thing I noticed, that I wasn't sure if it was initially intentional, is that lots of character's faces are never seen, even Owen's mother who shares several scenes with him, is never directly shown, as well as his father who only appears in one scene via phone.

Yet another implied thing is the character of Abby herself, who borders on implied and being a complete mystery, for instance, we ever never told why or how Abby was a vampire, or even her true age. Again, the only implied thing is that she is far older than she looks, as evidenced by her eventual line that she "Has been 12 for a while." A-la Twilight. As well as the exact nature of an extremely uncomfortable scene in which she is implied to strip naked and climb into bed with Owen, who was requested to not look at her. Which to me, in addition to being awkward to watch with other people, implies a sense of age.

In short, if you enjoy horror, vampires, and strong (in my opinion) characters, and child actors who look like they live in the Uncanny Valley, then I highly recommend Let Me In. And I advise myself to remember to put it on my list of DVDs to buy.