Let Me In Analysis

'Let Me In' is a romantic supernatural horror, which means it a hybrid genre. It was released in 2010 and written and directed by Matt Reeves. It is set in Los Alamos, New Mexico in the early 1980s. As it is a hybrid genre being romance and supernatural the audience expects the main characters to be female and male and also include ghosts/vampires etc; this film does live up to these expectations. The female main character, Abby is played by Chloe Grace Moretz. Moretz stars in a few horror film which include: Carrie, Dark Shadows, and Wicked Little Things.

The narrative structure of the film doesn’t follow the tradition Todorov’s narrative structure. The film starts off with the disruption, a man who is disfigured being taken into hospital. We then see a disfigured man jumps out of the window and left a note saying “I’m sorry Abby”. This is used as a hook for the film to make the audience wonder what happened to the man and who is Abby. Then it skips back to two week earlier. This is the equilibrium. We meet Owen, who is unhappy and a loner. He meets Abby who moves next door to him with her dad, Thomas. Close up camera shots are used in this film to show the expression of the characters faces and to show detail of things. The disruption builds up when Thomas murders a man and collects the blood however then spills it. Abby is angry with him, which helps the audience feel bad for Thomas. Abby is then revealed as a vampire when she attacks one of her neighbours. Later on another night her dad hides in a teenagers car, murders the passenger and tries to run away then crashes the car and then is tried inside. The use of over the shoulder camera shots here helps the audience see what Thomas is seeing. He then pours sulphuric acid on his face and becomes disfigured. He is taken to hospital, it then tells the story which we saw at the start and takes the story back to 1983 and shows the present day. Abby reveals that she is a vampire when Owen tries to make a blood pact with her, cuts his finger and Abby drinks the blood, she then runs away from him as she doesn’t want to hurt him. This makes the audience like her more and feel sympathetic as it implies she doesn’t just want to hurt people. The use of low key lighting helps to build up tension and creates a mysterious mood; it is a convention of the horror genre. The resolution is when we see Owen decide to leave town with a large trunk. A Morse code is tapped out from the trunk.

Another narrative theory is binary opposites which was introduced by Claude Levi-Strauss. The theory is a set of opposites which reveal the structure of media texts. In ‘Let Me In’ there is a binary opposite of good vs evil, this is Owen and Abby; however, I think there is a twist. Even though she is evil for killing all those innocent people, the audience sympathise with Abby because she is a child and doesn’t have a choice. Another binary opposite is human vs supernatural; this also is Owen and Abby, as Abby is a vampire and Owen is human. By having this binary opposite creates a horror link between the two. There is also a binary opposite of love vs hate, this is because Owen and Abby start to fall for eachother, however Owen is put off at first when he hides out she is a vampire. By this there is the binary opposite created and Owen has to decided which one to follow.

Vladimir Propp identified 8 character roles which include:
Hero – our main protagonist and victor.
Villain – the bad character.
Donor – who provides an object or powers to the hero.
Helper – who aids the hero.
Princess – the hero’s ‘reward’ and object of the villain’s scheme.
Princess’s Father – who rewards the hero.
Dispatcher – who sends the hero on his way.
False Hero – the double agent who hinders the hero rather than helping him.
In Let Me In, the hero is Owen because firstly he is the main protagonist and also he saves Abby from herself as he tries to stop her from killing. This is conventional having the main protagonist being a male. The villain is Abby; this is because she is the killer, however the audience sympathises with her and she only kills people because she has to. There is a lot of character who double up as different roles. The helper is Thomas; however instead a helper for the hero, he is a helper for Abby. This is because he helps Abby get the blood she needs; he also lets her take his life by drinking his blood. Abby is also the princess because she is Owens rewards as they leave town together; that makes Thomas also the princess’s father; however, he is her fake father.

This film challenges most of the theories; this is because it does not follow Todorov’s narrative structure. I think this makes it intriguing as is it not what audiences are used to. It also makes the audience pay attention as they want to know what has happened. It also challenges Propp’s character functions, this is because even though Abby is the villain, the audience doesn’t see her as a villain and they feel sorry for her. In addition, Abby is also the princess because she is the ‘reward’ for Owen. By having overlaps with different character could make it confusing however I think that the audience is sympathise because Owen and Abby are both young. There is no use of ‘Male Gaze’ or ‘Final Girl’ theory, this is because firstly the only female we see is Abby and she cannot be the final girl when she is the villain and there is no male gaze because Abby is young. I think by challenging all the theories, it creates an interesting film.