Writer and director Matt Reeves takes audiences straight to the troubled heart of adolescent longing and loneliness in this astonishing coming-of-age story based on the Swedish Film Let the Right One In. Achingly lonely, Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is an alienated 12-year-old boy who spends his days plotting revenge on his middle school tormentors and his evenings spying on the other inhabitants of his apartment complex. His only friend is his new neighbor Abby (Chloe Moretz) an eerily self-possessed young girl who lives next door with her silent father (Oscar® nominee Richard Jenkins). A frail, troubled child about Owen’s age, Abby emerges from her heavily curtained apartment only at night and always barefoot, seemingly immune to the bitter winter elements. Recognizing a fellow outcast, Owen opens up to her and before long, the two have formed a unique bond. But as a string of grisly murders occupy his town; Owen has to confront the reality that this seemingly innocent girl might be hiding an unthinkable secret. - (Alert)
A boy befriends a girl living with her guardian and discovers that she is a vampire. - (Baker & Taylor)
Twelve-year old Owen is viciously bullied by his classmates and neglected by his divorcing parents. Achingly lonely, Owen spends his days plotting revenge on his middle school tormentors and his evenings spying on the other inhabitants of his apartment complex. His only friend is his new neighbor Abby, an eerily self-possessed young girl who lives next door with her silent father. A frail, troubled child about Owens's age, Abby emerges from her heavily curtained apartment only at night and always barefoot, seemingly immune to the bitter winter elements. Recognizing a fellow outcast, Owen opens up to her and before long, the two have formed a unique bond. When a string of grisly murders puts the town on high alert, Abby's father disappears, and the terrified girl is left to fend for herself. Still, she repeatedly rebuffs Owen's efforts to help her and her increasingly bizarre behavior leads the imaginative Owen to suspect she's hiding an unthinkable secret. - (Lions Gate)
Video Librarian Reviews
Fans of the 2008 Swedish horror film Let the Right One In (VL-3/09) will be happy to know that director Matt Reeves' remake of the vampire thriller not only maintains the original's subtle suspense, but also adds imaginative sequences involving an unnamed police detective (Elias Koteas) that ramp up the tension. Set in 1983 in wintry Los Alamos, NM, the story revolves around 12-year-old Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee), a lonely, timid boy who is mercilessly tortured by school bully Kenny (Dylan Minnette). Owen, who usually plays alone outside the housing complex where he lives with his soon-to-be-divorced mother (Cara Buono), meets the mysterious Abby (Chloë Grace Moretz), who says she's also 12, "more or less." Abby has just moved into the apartment next door with a creepy older man (Richard Jenkins) whom Owen assumes is her father. But he's actually Abby's devoted caretaker, responsible for acquiring the blood she needs to survive as a vampire. Pale, androgynous-looking Smit-McPhee embodies vulnerability, while Moretz exudes wistfulness in this solid makeover by Reeves, whose only serious misstep is having Abby morph into a savage, CGI insect-like predator. Recommended. (S. Granger) Copyright Video Librarian Reviews 2011.