So I just saw the movie Let Me In and I really can’t believe how I walked out of the theater. I was feeling things during the movie and after the movie that I in no way comprehended I would be feeling.
First of all I was affected morally because the movie deals with evil and in a way that seems to hit home more than any hum drum zombie flick they shove on the screens nowadays. The two main characters, a boy and a girl, both 12 years of age develop, how do I say, feelings for each other without saying it in that exact context?
These are children one of which, the girl, is a vampire, that fall in some kind of love. Definitely not the Twilight version of it either.
I’m not even sure that what they feel for each other would be exactly what I call an effective love relationship. I find the way they come to feel what they feel for each other completely fascinating. Their relationships is a slow, steady, progressive kind of relationship. The fact that they are children, at an age level that is still curious and doesn’t know much and is probably going through some kind of pubescence, also heightens the realism of it for me.
I think the kids are portrayed accurately. The boy character is subject to, what I would consider, excessive bullying which nothing is done about. The girl just moved in next to the boy and she can only come out and night at which time she ends up meeting the boy who is outside, at one point, playing with a rubix cub e. Another interesting thing about the characters is the fact that the boy doesn’t become aware, quite actually, of what the girl is until some time into the movie.
I just couldn’t get past everything that I had seen. I kept thinking about how the boy was going through the feelings and emotions that were surging through him because of the girl; about what it would actually be like if this really happened. It would cause so many psychosocial, plain mental issues it’s unbelievable!
One thing that really got to me was the fact that the girl wasn’t portrayed as innately evil. One thing that I really liked about the movie was that it wasn’t a typical twilight type story. A twilight story is for people who know nothing, so everything has to be explained. This movie assumes, on enough levels, that you know something and presents itself accordingly.
For instance, the only time the girl is ever addressed as a vampire is when the boy asks her, and that’s a legitimate reason because after what she exposed herself, which was caused on accident by the boy, he became really scared and thus needed to sort some things out. The only thing I find curious about that is that there was no reference at all to vampires throughout the movie, it’s like they quite literally didn’t exist. So how is the boy supposed to just automatically assume that’s she’s a vampire? I know what happened in the scene explains a lot but it is also vague and confusing at the same time.
I remember soon after the boy found out about the girl, he was on the phone with his father. His parents were getting a divorce so he had to call him. You could tell that the boy was distressed and it only became apparent as to why when he, tearing up, asked his dad if there was such thing as evil. His dad’s reply was of confusion to which the boy persisted “Can someone be evil?” As the boy was crying and getting no answers from his father, who simply thought it was his religious mother yapping away at him, it became pain stakingly obvious that these children are in a world where there’s no help for them. They are alone, left to fend for themselves, in a world that seems desolate and unyielding.
If you wanna take it a step farther, shove some religious thought into the movie it becomes even harder to take the movie in. I have to think about it for a while. The way the girl vampire is portrayed, it’s almost like she’s not a vampire i.e. almost like she’s not evil, until there’s a trace of blood or she needs to eat. I found myself getting involved with the well being of the girl character. Yet at the same time I was conflicted because if the girl is evil, which to some degree she most definitely is, she cannot be tolerated. Evil in the eye of God cannot and will not be accepted which is why I found this particular movie so interesting. It toyed with my emotions in such a way that it didn’t make sense, and it was flawed. Somehow, the people who made this movie were able to get me to sympathize with the characters and I find that impressive.
I seriously think I’m going to considering buying the book the movie was based off of. I can understand why it makes sense to read the book first, cause the book is always better, but I like to watch the movie first because it gives me visual reference for everything in the book.
Just so those reading this know, the movie is violent and has several scenes with blood and gore. Scenes where the vampire attacks people and scenes that involve bullying.
I walked away, slightly disturbed. But I don’t have a problem with that. Then again I always seem to like a movie that is hard for me to take in. I really liked the movie. I want to watch it again. I think that in order to do a proper assessment of it I need to watch it again. I’ll probably add more sometime in the future, if I choose, after I watch the movie again. Until then!
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