Welcome back to Movie Recaps. Today I will show you a horror,
romance film from 2010, titled Let Me In. Spoilers ahead! Watch out and take care.
In 1983, in a hospital in Los Alamos, New Mexico, a man is admitted with burns over 9,5% of his
body. He's a suspect in an important murder case, so the detective can't wait to talk to him and he
approaches him while he's still in bed. The man's so disfigured, however, that he cannot talk,
but the detective has an idea. He leaves a little notepad and a pen on the table next to the bed
and tells the man that they'll find out who he is sooner or later, so he can save everyone time if
he just confesses now. His heart rate starts going faster when the detective asks him about cults and
satanism, but their talk is interrupted by a nurse that tells the detective he has an urgent phone
call. Just as the burned man starts raising his hand to grab the pen, the detective leaves the
room to take the call from the receptionist, who tells him the man's young daughter had been there
but didn't leave any information. Suddenly, the nurse can be heard screaming from the man's room.
When the detective goes to check, he finds that the burned man had jumped off the window
after leaving a message on the notepad: "I'm sorry Abby". Two weeks earlier, Owen, a lonely
12-year-old boy, is hanging out in the small yard in front of his apartment and eating candy. When
his divorced mother calls him over for dinner, he buries the candy wrappers in the snow before
joining her. Dinner time gets tense and awkward when Owen's father calls and starts arguing
with his mom, and the call leaves the mother crying on the couch after they're done eating.
Owen takes a knife from the kitchen before returning to his room and practices threats
with it while wearing a creepy mask. The knife is put down when he hears some noises from outside,
so Owen uses his telescope to spy on his neighbors. Jack is exercising,
while Larry and Virginia start arguing only to make love a moment later. Owen can't take his
eyes off them until Virginia notices him, then he hides. But when he hears a car parking, he
decides to peek out the window again: the couple is gone, and there's a middle-aged man, Thomas,
and a young girl, Abby, moving to the apartment next to Owen's. For some reason, Abby walks around
barefoot. The next morning, while leaving for school, Owen sees Abby's footprints on the snow.
At school, Owen is constantly bullied by Kenny and his friends. First, Kenny throws a spitball
at him during class, then they corner him in the locker room after their swimming lessons. The
bullies make fun of him for not swimming and call him "little girl" while hitting him with a towel,
then they push him onto the floor to give him a series of wedgies. They don't let go of him until
Owen wets his pants. After class, Owen stops by the store to get some candy and sees a collection
of knives, so he decides to buy one. Later in the evening, he uses the knife to hit a tree in the
yard while practicing being threatening. He's interrupted by the sudden apparition of Abby,
who continues to be barefoot on the snow. After some chitchat, Abby tells him that she cannot
be his friend and leaves, so Owen goes back to hitting the tree. Some moments later, he sees
Thomas leave the building while wearing all black and carrying a bag. Thomas goes to a store parking
lot and breaks into a car to wait for the owner to come back. The guy returns with his groceries
and drives off, but it isn't until he stops in front of the train tracks that Thomas acts:
after putting on a mask, he kills the driver and drags him into the woods to hang him on a tree.
Then he cuts the guy's neck and lets the blood pour out into a jug that he accidentally spills
when he trips while picking it up. He doesn't have time to clean up because there's a truck coming,
so he grabs the jug with the leftover blood and returns to the apartment building. Owen
is arriving home at the same time as Thomas, and he can hear him through the walls arguing with
someone with a deep voice that wonders if they should go out there and do it themselves. Thomas
replies he may be getting sloppy because he's tired of doing this and he may want to get caught.
The next day, the detective and some cops show up at school to ask some questions, because the guy
killed last night was a recent graduate. In the evening, Owen spends time in the yard again,
playing with a Rubik's cube. Abby approaches him again and, after failing to get him to leave,
she asks about the cube. Owen teaches her how to play while asking him about her bare feet,
Abby explains she never gets cold. After lending her the cube for the night, Owen returns to his
apartment while she stays playing outside. But the cube suddenly drops off her hands when her
body starts aching. Abby goes to a nearby tunnel and calls out for help while pretending to be a
wounded child. It's Jack that finds her and tries to help her, and when he picks her up,
Abby attacks him. She shakes him and hits him a few times before throwing him on the floor and
sucking his blood, then she breaks his neck to kill him before leaving. Moments later,
Owen is spying on his neighbors again and notices Jack isn't at his place while he hears Thomas
through the wall scolding and insulting Abby for something she did that he now has to clean up. He
also sees Thomas leave the apartment in a hurry. "Cleaning up" ends up meaning Thomas finds Jack's
body and tosses it into the river, using a pole to push it deep underwater. The next morning, Owen
finds the solved cube in the yard, covered with snow. He meets with Abby again in the evening,
and after exchanging names, Abby tells him she's "more or less" twelve and that she doesn't know
her birthday, so Owen tries to gift her the cube, which she turns down. But she does accept teaching
him how to solve it, so they spend the rest of the evening together, playing. The following day,
the teacher plays a movie for the class, so Owen uses this time to learn morse code,
and Kenny sees him. The three bullies corner Owen later in the bathroom and Kenny gets angry when
Owen refuses to show him what he had been writing, so he hits him with a stick and calls him a girl,
giving him a scar on the cheek and reminding him not to tell anybody. When he returns home,
Owen lies to his mom and says he fell down on the playground. After dinner,
he meets with Abby and shows her he's reading "Romeo and Juliet" for school, he also gives her
a sheet with the key to morse code so they can chat through the wall. Abby gets worried when
she realizes Owen can hear her through the wall, and when he asks about her parents, she says her
mom is dead but doesn't answer Owen's question about why her dad was mad at her the other day.
After Owen tells her his parents are divorcing, Abby asks him about his wound, and Owen tells
her the truth. She doesn't like what she's hearing so she tells him he must hit those bullies back,
and if the knife isn't enough, then she'll protect him. Owen is skeptical, but Abby puts
her hand on top of his and tells him she's a lot stronger than she looks. When they return to their
respective rooms, they start using morse code to communicate through the wall. The following day,
Owen goes to see his gym teacher and signs up for after-school strength training.
Afterward, he steals some money from his mom's purse and uses it to take Abby to the arcade,
where he teaches her to play Mrs. Pacman. Then he takes her to the store to buy some candy,
which she turns down. Seeing him get disappointed over not being able to share his favorites,
Abby ends up accepting one, only to run outside to throw up right after. She apologizes to Owen but
he doesn't mind, he just hugs her. Still worried, Abby asks him if he likes her, he answers yes.
Then she asks him if he'd still like her if she wasn't a girl, to which he replies
he guesses he would. They walk back to their building while she mentions she's moved around
a lot and Owen says he wants to get out of his horrible town. When they start holding hands,
they're interrupted by Owen's mom, calling him over for dinner. The kids return to their
apartments after wishing each other good night. At his place, Abby finds Thomas getting ready to
go out again because he has no choice. She tries to comfort him with a gentle touch to his face,
which Thomas appreciates, but he still asks her not to see Owen again. Thomas goes out and breaks
into another car, hiding behind the back seat while waiting for the right moment to strike.
The driver picks up a friend, who throws his bag in the back seat but doesn't notice Thomas yet.
Eventually, they stop by the gas station, and the driver gets out to buy some stuff.
After turning on the radio, the friend turns around to grab his bag and finally sees Thomas,
who decides to go for it and attacks the guy. The victim puts up a fight, but Thomas manages to kill
him after some struggling, and the noises aren't heard thanks to the music. The car owner finally
realizes the problem, however, when Thomas gets on the driver's seat and starts the car to get away.
Seeing the road ahead becomes difficult when the angry owner throws a smoothie at the front window,
so Thomas has trouble steering. The car ends up falling into a ditch and flipping over,
getting its two passengers stuck under its weight. Since the car owner is coming closer and the cops
will soon arrive as well, Thomas grabs a bottle of acid that he kept in his bag and pours it all over
his face to render his features unrecognizable. Back in the apartments, Owen and Abby are touching
hands through the wall when Abby hears the news of a murder suspect getting hospitalized for burns.
She goes to the hospital and asks to see her father, but the receptionist says access is
restricted by the police. As Abby leaves, the receptionist notices she isn't wearing any shoes
and takes pity on her, but when she goes outside to stop her, she's gone. The receptionist decides
to call the detective to tell him of Abby, taking us back to the beginning of the story. Abby has
climbed the building and is now watching Thomas through the window. After she taps the glass,
Thomas comes over and shows her he cannot speak when she asks to be allowed to come in. They press
their foreheads together before Thomas offers his neck to Abby to feed, which she accepts.
As he loses consciousness, his body slowly slips and falls to the snow-covered ground.
Some moments later, Abby shows up at Owen's window. After waking him up and asking him not
to turn to see her, Abby requests permission to come in, which he grants her. Abby takes off her
clothes and gets in bed with Owen, who notices she's freezing and wonders how she got in,
not believing her when she says she flew. Owen decides to ask her to be his girlfriend,
and at first Abby turns him down, saying she's not a girl, she's nothing. But she changes her
mind when Owen explains nothing will change and grabs his hand to put on her cheek as she accepts.
When morning comes, Owen is alone, and he finds a note from Abby saying "she must be gone and live
or stay and die". Owen's gym teacher takes the class to the frozen lake for hockey and skating.
Once again, Owen is cornered by his bullies, so he grabs a metal pone to defend himself.
When Kenny tries to take it from him, Owen hits him on the head, damaging his ear. The teacher
wants to check on them, but he's distracted by the sudden screams of a bunch of kids: they've
found Jack's body in the lake. After Owen and his mom have a meeting with the principal to discuss
his actions, they go home, where they are visited by the detective wanting to ask some questions.
Owen is sent to his room and when watching through the window, he sees cops investigating Jack's
apartment. Afterward, he sends Abby a message with morse code but she doesn't reply because the
detective is now ringing her bell. When she sees who it is through the peephole, she decides not
to answer, and the officer eventually leaves. The next day, after using the school gym equipment,
Owen sees Kenny being bullied by his friend and brother for his ear wound, his brother also takes
his car keys and calls him a little girl. In the evening, he meets with Abby and tells her
how he stood up for himself, Abby is proud of him and rewards him with a kiss on the cheek.
Then he takes Abby to an old abandoned apartment a previous teenage neighbor had introduced him to
and no adult knows of. Abby starts playing some music and asks Owen what he wants to do,
he responds by cutting his finger to make a blood pact. The smell of blood is affecting Abby, but
no matter how she tries to fight it, she can't. With her face changing to a more monstrous shape,
she falls to the floor and drinks the blood that has dripped there. When Owen calls her name,
she tells him to go away, but it's her the one that suddenly runs out and climbs a tree.
At that moment, Virginia comes by walking her dog with Larry following no far behind. Abby jumps on
Virginia when she comes closer and starts feeding on her, but Larry pushes her off and after some
struggling against him, Abby runs away. Moments later, Owen sees how an ambulance takes Virginia
away while he puts a bandage on his finger. He tries to talk to his mother but she's deeply
asleep, so he calls his dad instead and asks him if evil people exist. His dad misunderstands the
question and thinks his mom is putting ideas in his head so he tells Owen they will talk later,
leaving his son upset and crying alone. Owen decides to visit Abby, asking permission to
come in as she had done with him. As they begin to talk, Abby confirms Owen's suspicions: she's
a vampire that needs blood to live, she's been twelve for a very long time, and Thomas wasn't
her dad. Among her collection of puzzle toys, Owen finds an old photograph of her and Thomas,
Abby looks the same but Thomas is a young boy like them. This scares Owen so he tries to leave,
but Abby stops him, only allowing him to move again when he wonders aloud what she's going to
do with him. On his way out, Abby reminds him she did say they couldn't be friends. At the hospital,
the detective visits Larry and Virginia as part of the investigation. While he interrogates Larry,
Virginian wakes up, showing her eyes have transformed into a vampire's. She notices
the IV inserted in her arm and removes it to start drinking the transplanted blood from the wound as
a nurse comes in and opens the curtains, allowing the sunlight to come into the room. This lights
Virginia on fire, which quickly spreads around the room and to the nurse as well. Owen sees the
news of the hospital fire while dining alone in his apartment because his mom is away meeting the
lawyers. There's a sudden knock at his door: it's Abby, who asks him to invite him in. Owen doesn't
understand why she can't just walk in, so Abby shows him why she needs verbal permission. As soon
a she goes inside, she starts bleeding from all over her body. Owen quickly catches on and says
she's allowed inside aloud before hugging her. While Abby takes a shower, Owen cleans the floor
and throws away her dirty clothes; he also starts playing some music and tells Abby she can borrow a
dress from his mom. Speaking of the devil, it's at that moment that Owen's mother comes back,
so the kids run to Owen's room and Abby climbs out the window to return to her own apartment. Some
moments later, after checking his mom has fallen asleep, Owen goes to Abby's place. He spends
the night with her and falls asleep on the floor, where he finds a note from Abby the next morning,
saying she's in the bathroom and he shouldn't come in. When there's a sudden knock at the door,
Owen checks who it is through the peephole and sees it's the detective. He steps back,
intending not to let him in, but he steps on a loose board that creaks and gives his presence
away. The detective forces the door open and comes inside with his gun ready while Owen
hides under a table. The officer starts looking around the house, finding the murder victims'
wallets and Abby's note on the floor, which makes him move to the bathroom next. In there,
she finds a bunch of blankets in the tub, which he takes away to find Abby sleeping under them.
Needing light to see better, the detective begins removing the boards that cover the windows,
but Owen stops him just in time as a burn starts appearing on Abby's leg. Now that she's awake,
she jumps on the detective and feeds on him. The detective stretches his hand towards Owen,
silently asking for help, but Owen can only close the door and step away. When Abby comes out,
she hugs Owen and tells him she needs to go away before kissing him on the lips as a goodbye.
A couple of hours later, he looks out the window and cries when he sees Abby leaving on a taxi
after having hidden the detective's body in the abandoned room they had hung out at. The next day,
Owen assists swim class. His teacher leaves the natatorium when one of the bullies calls him over
to check on a trashcan on fire, which was started by Kenny and his friends as part of a plan.
With the teacher outside, the four boys lock the door behind him, enter the pool area and demand
everyone to leave except for Owen, who tries to escape through the locker room but it's captured
by the bullies and taken by to the pool. Kenny's brother grabs him by the hair and tells him that
if he can stay three minutes underwater, he'll only give him a little nick with the knife, but if
he can't, he'll poke one of his eyes out. Owen is pushed underwater and kept there, when suddenly,
he starts hearing some weird noises like glass breaking and the boys screaming. Blood starts
filling the pool as and even the head of one of the bullies falls into the water. It takes him
a moment but Owen finally manages to get out of the pool and, as he catches his breath, realizes
Abby has come back and killed all the bullies to save him. The next day, Owen is on a train,
eating his favorite candy with a trunk in front of him. After showing his ticket to the conductor,
he knocks on the trunk to send a message in morse code, and Abby knocks back from inside.