LET ME IN ***½

Matt Reeves  directed and co-wrote this Horror/Thriller. Watch Preview Cast: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloe Moretz, Richard Jenkins, Elias Koteas, Cara Buono, Sasha Barrese. Rated R for strong bloody horror violence, language and a brief sexual situation. Running time is one hour and fifty-five minutes.

An alienated 12-year old boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee), viciously bullied by his classmates and neglected by his divorcing parents, forms a unique bond with his new neighbor (Chloe Moretz), an eerily self-possessed young girl who lives next door with her silent father (Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins).

This is a vampire pic, but unlike any I've seen before. It features a budding romance between a human boy and a twelve-year-old vampire girl (although she says at one point she's been twelve for a very long time). What's different between this and Twilight is the ago of the characters and the innocence of the younger couple vs. the far more mature characters of the popular series. The girl seems sweet and shy (until she gets hungry, of course) while the neglected boy is in desperate need of someone to love and care for him. Their emotional responses to each other seem natural and you're never concerned she's going to attack him. This is a slowly paced film in which the plot leisurely unfolds so that I didn't really understand all that was going on until the very end. It's is an extremely well made film and one you'll be thinking about long after you've left the theatre. It's based on a 2008 Swedish film (Let The Right One In) which is available in an English dubbed version. Theatres/Times.