Oh, I really, really wanted to enjoy Let Me In. As you know, I loved the originals: the book – Let The Right One In – and the Swedish movie of the same name. And I even relished the idea of the story reinvented the Mountain States (though I wish Colorado’s incentives had won it for Fort Collins, rather than Los Alamos, New Mexico.)
But I’m really sorry to report that I found Let Me In really disappointing. It’s well cast, (the kids are great, Richard Jenkins is creepy), beautifully lit, and well-enough paced , but it’s just feels like it’s entirely lacking the social commentary – the poverty, the alcoholism, the child abuse, the broken homes, the bullying and casual violence – that made the originals so chilling and so immediate. They even chickened out of the icky sex change business. So I was disappointed. Disappointed.
Los Alamos does well out of the movie though, it’s front and centre of the action – a smart PR move by the town, proving that even bad publicity is good publicity. Details of filming on location via the link.