Pun Salad

I watched and blogged about the Swedish horror movie Let the Right One In a couple years ago. I liked it well enough to check out this new American version. It is a faithful remake; the main difference is that you don't need to navigate subtitles. Instead of dreary early-80's Sweden, it is set in dreary early-80's Los Alamos, New Mexico. (President Reagan is heard offscreen in a couple of scenes; I don't know what point the filmmakers were going for.)

Owen, a young boy, lives with his mom in a beehive apartment complex; he is relentlessly bullied by his schoolmates. Dad is elsewhere, and sorely needed; Owen is capital-T Troubled, occasionally indulging in violent revenge fantasies. One night Abby moves into the apartment next door; she appears to be a young girl accompanied by her father (the great Richard Jenkins). But appearances can be, and in this case are, deceiving. Pretty soon some grisly murders occur. This does not prevent Abby and Owen from developing a relationship. But not a healthy one.

Even though the movie has kids in it, it's not for the kids: rated R for (as the MPAA puts it) "strong bloody horror violence, language and a brief sexual situation." The actress playing Abby, Chloë Grace Moretz, previously played the role of "Hit-Girl" in R-rated Kick-Ass; she just turned 14, and she might be trying to set a record for appearances in movies that she can't see herself, unless accompanied by a parent or adult guardian.