MovieChat Forums > Let Me In (2010) Discussion > The REAL horror of this film is only imp...

The REAL horror of this film is only implied. SPOILER ALERT

posted a year ago by whynotwriteme (7329)
2 replies | jump to latest

Almost everyone seems to think this is a sweet little Vampire romance story, with a cute couple of kids running away to live happily ever after in Never Never Land.

This movie, although it never comes right out and states it, is actually a bleakly terrifying story about a naive hopeless 12 year old boy basically selling his soul to an ancient, evil creature, getting a few decades of love and companionship in return for becoming a slave and aging into an old pedo creep who murders innocent people to feed his mistress.

About 50 years ago, The Father was just like Owen, as seen in the old photo Owen finds. He too was some lonely misfit kid seduced by Abby into running away from his family and devoting his life to serving her needs.

However, The Father aged and Abby did not. Soon, they were no longer a couple of cute kids on an adventure, but a creepy older guy obsessed with a prepubescent girl to the point of murdering for her. The situation just became sicker and bloodier and weirder until The Father finally found himself pouring acid over his head and sacrificing himself to save Abby, while she grooms his juvenile replacement right under his nose.

The same sort of fate awaits Owen 50 years down the line. He will be the creepy old man living in shitty apartments with a monster who looks like a 12 year old girl and murdering people for their blood so she can feed.

Abby has done this countless times over the centuries. What makes Owen any different from his predecessors? Any attempt to gloss this over and claim "this time is different" and Abby will turn Owen into a real vampire too and they'll be happy forever together is a cop-out and turns the story into a fluffy fantasy instead of a horror film.

[–] The_Rev (212) 7 months ago

I didn't get the sense that The Father was a pedophile, and I'll tell you why. While they were once in love, I believe the act of caring for her turned him from a boy who was once IN LOVE with her, to a man who felt emotionally obligated to love and help her, despite his moral objections. I mean, did the dude look HAPPY at all during the movie? No. He was miserable. He went from boyfriend to slave, and had been a slave for decades at that point. I'm sure at one point he loved her, but it was pretty obvious, save for one scene where he showed her some positive emotion, that he generally was weighed down by the responsibility of being her caretaker, knowing someone else would have to die in order for her to live. Since she wasn't going out to feed herself, HE was the one putting his neck on the line for her, even though she was immortal. She was just reaping the benefits. Plus, he risked being killed by Abby should he refuse and she gets angry for revenge (or desperate for blood :-P )... I feel like that's really the only reason she showed any feelings for him at this point in the film; she just needed him to kill for her, and using their past closeness was her best weapon against his moral objections.

[–] whynotwriteme (7329) 7 months ago

That's very possible and it only enhances the degree of horror that awaits Owen in later years.