Bloody marvelous

(THURSDAY, Sept. 30) — Abby is one of those friends yourparents warned you about. Sure, she looks nice enough — but there’s something,well, strange about her. She’s the new girl in town who doesn’t like to talkabout herself. She says she’s 12, “more or less.” She walksaround barefoot in the middle of winter, claiming, “I don’t really get cold.”

She’s also hungry all the time, but not for candy or burgersor anything else that the typical junior high kids eat. She prefers freshblood.

But to Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Abby’s lonely,introspective, often-bullied neighbor, Abby (Chloe Grace Moretz) is undeniablyfascinating. Even when she tries to keep him at arm’s length — “Just so youknow, I can’t be your friend,” she warns him — Owen still seeks her out.They’re apparently the only two kids in a dismal-looking apartment complex, andit’s 1983, the heyday of Izod sweaters, Culture Club and Ms. Pac-Man; who’dwant to face that era alone?

“Let Me In” transfers the Swedish shocker “Let the Right OneIn” to American soil, specifically the New Mexico town of Los Alamos,birthplace of the nuclear program. Yet the real dangers in director MattReeves’ assured, unsettling tale come not from science, but from thesupernatural: Abby is a vampire, and not one of those sophisticated, elegantcreatures of the night we’ve come to know from the “Twilight” series. She’sbeen cursed with a voracious appetite, and she’s not particularly particularwhen it’s snacktime. Even after Owen learns her secret, he’s surprisingly OKwith it. Obviously, misery loves company.

Thriller fans might scurry away from the prospect of a“Right One” reworking the way bloodsuckers hide from sunlight. But “Let Me In”does a remarkably fine job of establishing the same atmosphere of eerieisolation and longing that permeated director Tomas Alfredson’s earlier film.It’s also unexpectedly elegant, considering the jiggly hand-held videography ofReeves’ love-it-or-hate-it “Cloverfield.” The lighting and cinematography arestunning, from the weird, copper-colored glow on the snow in the apartmentcourtyard, to a breathtaking shot of Abby’s guardian (Richard Jenkins, as asort of Renfield to her Countess Dracula) trying to make a hasty getaway aftera carjacking goes awry.

Moretz, the scene-stealer from “(500) Days of Summer” and“Kick-Ass,” and Smit-McPhee (who played Viggo Mortensen’s son in “The Road”)are ideally cast. Their beautifully understated performances provide the storywith real poignancy and resonance; even if all the horror elements wereremoved, this would still be an insightful picture of adolescent anguish. WhenOwen makes a mistake that almost kills Abby, the moment is both horrifying andheartwrenching, not exactly what you might expect from a movie with animpressive body count.

Reeves co-wrote the screenplay with John Ajvide Lindquist,author of the novel that inspired “Let the Right One In.” That combinationresults in a film that’s largely faithful to the source material whilemaintaining its own flavor and humor. Rare is the remake that can pull off thattrick.

An even bigger surprise: The vicious attacks on Owen by hisclassmates are more frightening and startling than Abby’s ambushing of herprey. Living next door to a vampire is an unsettling prospect, but having toface the terrors of junior high? That’ll really make your blood run cold.

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