THE CRITIC-AL LIST
Reviews by Alan Jones
5 STAR FAB - 1 STAR RUBBISH

Tron: Legacy
Machete
Skyline
Saw 3D
Let Me In
Resident Evil: Afterlife
Salt
The Expendables
The Last Airbender
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Inception
Predators
The Twilight Saga:Eclipse
Toy Story 3
Hot Tub Time Machine
Iron Man 2
Repo Men
The Collector
Clash of the Titans
Shelter
How To Train Your Dragon
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Shutter Island
Alice In Wonderland
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Case 39
The Wolfman
Legion
The Lovely Bones
Black Death
Daybreakers
Avatar
Ninja Assassin
The Descent: Part 2
Amer
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
The Box
2012
Disney's A Christmas Carol
The Horseman
Solomon Kane
Pandorum
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
District 9
An Education
G.I. Joe: The Rise Of The Cobra
Orphan
A Perfect Getaway
The Imaginarium Of
Doctor Parnassus
Up
Harry Potter
And The Half-Blood Prince
The Taking of Pelham 123
Transformers
The Revenge Of The Fallen
Antichrist
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Last House On The Left
Inglorious Basterds
Angels & Demons
Adventureland
Star Trek
Crank: High Voltage
Coraline
Dragonball Evolution
Let The Right One In
Drag Me To Hell
Race to Witch Mountain
Knowing
Monsters Vs. Aliens
Not Quite Hollywood
Lesbian Vampire Killers
Martyrs
The Children
Surveillance
Watchmen
The Unborn
The International
Friday The 13th
Franklyn
Push
Punisher:War Zone
The Good The Bad And
The Weird
Hush
Underworld
The Rise OF The Lycans
My Bloody Valentine
Bolt
Slumdog Millionaire

Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. Starring Milla Jovovich, Ali Larter, Wentworth Miller, Boris Kodjoe, Norman Yeung, Kasey Barnfield. Horror/Action. USA, 100. mins.

Ultimately pointless, but the first horror in over thirty years from the recently revived House of Hammer is an honourable Americanization of the elegantly eerie Swedish cult hit LET THE RIGHT ONE IN.

While not as haunting or provocative as the beloved Eurohorror FrightFest premiered in 2008, CLOVERFIELD director Matt Reeves does keep the slow build, the austere remoteness, the delicate fragility and chilling melancholy contained in Tomas Alfredson’s adaptation of novelist John Ajvide Lindqvist’s bullied boy meets vampire girl dark coming-of-age saga. Cleverly relocated to the wintry New Mexico town of Los Alamos, LET ME IN tells the sweetly sorrowful tale of schoolboy Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee from THE ROAD) growing up in a harsh, confusing and frightening world where his mother has become a drunk in the aftermath of marriage break-up and is bullied mercilessly by resentful classmates. Then two new neighbours move into their soulless REAR WINDOW-esque apartment complex. But the equally removed Abby (Chloe Grace Moretz from KICK-ASS) is in reality an ageless vampire and her ‘father’ is her victim scavenger who is getting rather careless in his nightly blood gathering expeditions stalking the local gym. Their unlikely relationship haltingly blossoms and eventually forges an eternal bond with major repercussions for the local community. It’s a strange experience watching LET ME IN because it’s sort of the same as LET THE RIGHT ONE IN but not quite even though the makeover aspects are done in remarkably good taste and don’t really betray the memory of the original. But it must be said that in recreating and repositioning the main set pieces - the sudden savage attacks (aside from the bad CGI), the hospital bed burning, the swimming pool massacre - Reeves answers more questions than the far subtler original did making this version rather Hollywood conventional. It begins with a predictable bang before backtracking to ‘Two Weeks Earlier’, now a TV series cliché, and here there is no doubt the angelic assassin Abby is using puppy loved up Owen and grooming him to take the place of the devoted but ageing Richard Jenkins.  Yet neat additions like detective Elias Koteas, substituting for the pack of concerned Swedish neighbours confronted by the grisly events on their doorstep, the fact you never see Owen’s mother’s face, a terrifically jarring car crash filmed from inside the vehicle and Michael Giacchino’s superbly atmospheric score give fresh credence to the deliberate horror tropes above the fairytale feel of the original.

Both child performers are heartbreakingly credible too; their relationship is touching and true. Despite having numerous misgivings over what seemed like an act of sacrilege to Lundqvist’s ethereal mix of beauty and terror, brand this makeover much better than expected.

Alan Jones

© London FrightFest Ltd. 2000-2010
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