History Film / LetMeIn

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Abby seems very sweet and kind to Owen, but spends the film murdering perfectly innocent people, and it’s revealed that she groomed her present caretaker to kill for her since he was a child. Whether she turns Owen into a vampire or is simply using him to procure blood, she’s doomed him to kill with her for the rest of his life.

** Abby's intentions with Owen are a lot more ambiguous in this version. [[spoiler: While Håkan was recruited by Eli when he was an adult, Thomas has been Abby's caretaker since he was a child. This implies that she is just seeing Owen as a replacement, and he is doomed to become a murderer who will eventually be replaced as well. According to Chloe Grace Moretz, Abby does love Owen, but is also manipulating him so that she can have him to herself.]]

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality. Due to the AdaptationDistillation of this film this affects the story even more than the original. Whereas a lot of Abby's victims in the book had distinct personalities and backstories here they're mainly extras so the audience finds it hard to care when they die at her hand. This coupled with the increased focus on Owen and Abby's relationship makes her seem more sympathetic than she really should be. Owen, for the most part, seems to realise her killing people is wrong, judging by his phone call to his father. However, he quickly accepts Abby's nature because she's the only person who's ever been kind to him.

* BigBadDuumvirate: The film has two main antagonists. Kenny, Owen's persistent tormentor and The police officer, whose investigating Abby's murders.

* DramaticIrony: When Owen comes home with a bloody scar on his face and tells his mother he got it from falling in the playground she tells him: "You have to be more careful, honey. I hate to see my baby get hurt". Completely unaware that Owen's getting tortured daily by bullies.

** Owen counts as well. He endures a lot of abuse from the bullies without fighting back until Abby encourages him to. When Kenny scars his face, he orders Owen to lie to his mother about what happened. Owen terrified agrees and is seen doing just that. Part of Owen's character development is becoming less weak willed and submissive. Later in the film he stands up to Abby when she blocks him from leaving when he finds out she's a vampire.

** When he sees Owen writing a letter for Abby, he follows him into the bathroom. He then demands Owen shows him the letter, when he doesn't he proceeds to whip Owen with a metal antenna so hard then it leaves a bloody scar on Owen's face.

** The scene in the cellar, it looks like Owen and Abby might kiss each other on the lips, only for Owen himself to ruin it by trying to turn the moment into a friendship pact due to his being too shy to kiss her and waves his bloody hand at Abby, a vampire. Whose instincts kick in and she very nearly kills Owen.
* MuscleAngst: Implied with Owen. When looking out into the apartment complex through his telescope, he spots a muscular man lifting weights. He then proceeds to look down at his own very scrawny chest looking rather ashamed. At the end of the film when Owen goes swimming while walking through the locker room in his trunks he looks very self conscious at having his scrawny body bared around the much more muscular, athletic students.
* {{Mundanger}}: Despite the presence of the vampire Abby the main antagonistic force in the film is the much more mundane threat posed by the bullying Kenny and his two friends.
* MustBeInvited: The movie universe takes this rule very seriously. When Abby violates it, the results are very bloody. Also, vampires have to specifically get a invitation every single time they enter a home, Abby had already gotten Owen's permission to enter into his apartment earlier when she sneaked into his room but she had to ask again.
* NiceGuy: Owen is a sweet-natured kid who has had a ''really'' shitty life. This is most apparent in his scenes with Abby where hes very kind and sweet to her, as seen when Abby comments she cant remember her birthday and consequently doesnt receive any presents, Owen instantly offers her his rubix cube, despite him barely knowing her and it being his favourite toy.

* NoSocialSkills: Abby, due to centuries being an undead vampire living in isolation with only her familiar Thomas, whose implied to make most of their living arrangements, as company. She doesn't recognize major pop culture items like a Rubik's cube, she's very cold and standoffish to Owen when they first meet. She also doesn't seem to recognize how odd her behavior is, she walks around in her bare feet in the snow despite how odd it makes her look, after Thomas dies and she goes to Owen's room for comfort she sneaks into his bed after stripping naked and doesn't understand why Owen is shocked.

* NothingIsScarier: Abby's slaughter off the bullies. During the entirety of the scenes the cameras focused on Owen's emaciated back covered in blood but you can hear what's happening. From the bullies' screams of terror and the sounds of their flesh being ripped apart and thrown into the pool, to Abby's own inhuman roars. Throughout the scene you can hear the sound of wings flapping, Abby was never shown to have wings when seen in vampire form so the audience can only guess what she looks like as she kills the boys. Most disturbingly at the end, when Owen has recovered from his near drowning Abby's bare feet, drenched in blood appear and she picks him up by his head to look at her. When he does he looks to be in awe and fear, which could just simply be through the trauma of almost dying, but Abby's face is never seen once, so what exactly could Owen be looking at?

* OlderThanTheyLook: Besides the obvious example of Abby, whose centuries years old but stuck in the body of a twelve year old, there's Kenny and his friends. Despite being in the same class as 12-year-old Owen they look like they're years older than he is. The school might allow split-grade classes (which some schools do) or they may have been held back.

* PayEvilUntoEvil: The bullies were in the process of drowning Owen before Abby breaks in and kills them. While some gave some very weak protest to Kenny when it became clear he was actually going to kill Owen they still gleefully went to the pool with the intention of assaulting and torturing Owen. Needless to say they deserved everything Abby did to them.
* ParentalObliviousness: Owen's mother. She is completely ignorant to her own son's life. She doesn't notice how horribly he's being abused by bullies despite the fact he shows up with scars at their apartment and is obviously miserable and desperately lonely. Notably, after Owen's called to the principal's office after defending himself against Kenny, all she can state is that he's "a good boy", never bothering to inquire why exactly her gentle, quiet son would attack someone.

* PragmaticVillainy: Kenny's friends, Mark and Donald. While they enjoy hurting Owen nearly as much as Kenny does, they still have the sense to try to restrain themselves so they can get away with it. They notably point out to Kenny how stupid it is scarring Owen's face when his mother will want to know what happened to him, they tell Kenny to leave Owen alone when they know Mr. Zorić is watching them harass him and in the pool scene they both start to panic when they realize that Jimmy is planning on killing Owen.

* StupidEvil: Kenny and his brother's attitude towards Owen. While the other two bullies enjoy torturing Owen, they at least temper their abuse so they can get away with it. Kenny, on the other hand, has no problem with scarring Owen's face or threatening to kill him when a teacher is watching. Kenny's brother is even worse, he was either going to drown or cut out Owen's eye if Abby hadn't intervened with no real plan of how they were going to get away with leaving a dead body or a mutilated, half-blind boy in a public pool.
* SuicidalSadisticChoice: When Owen's ambushed by Kenny and the bullies in the swimming pool they present him with two choices either he should hold his head under the water until he drowns or let one of his eyes be destroyed.Although, judging by how Kenny's brother, Jimmy, was forcibly holding his head down it seems that he was always planning on just killing Owen.
* SuperStrength: Abby due to being a vampire. At first she's shown to be strong enough to wrestle a muscular man to the ground before snapping his neck but by the end of the film you see how strong she really is. She rips Kenny's brother's head clean off his shoulders and she literally rips the other bullies apart.
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Owen pulls his knife on the four bullies when they corner him in the locker room... which does absolutely no good, as it's too small to do much damage. The bullies laugh it off, overpower him and throw him into the pool anyway. Also, Owen has been abused by them constantly, and he's already utterly terrified off Kenny, so it's only to be expected that he completely freezes when cornered by all 4 of them.
** In the original, the pool scene is depicted as a SymbolicSereneSubmersion moment with Oskar remaining completely calm while being held underwater before breaking through calmly without so much as blinking while smiling lovingly at Elia. In this version Owen is visibly struggling and terrified before Abby saves him, and as soon as the bully holding his head dies he immediately rushes to the surface and he spends almost a minute gasping and recomposing himself while covered in blood. When he looks up at Abby he looks like he's in shock before he forms a trembling, very slight smile. However relieved he is to have been saved and how happy he is to see Abby again he's just been through an extremely traumatizing experience.
* SweetTooth: Owen, despite being very skinny, is shown to have an enormous appetite for sweets. Early in the film, his mother accuses him off spoiling dinner again, implying that his "now and later" sweets make up the majority of his diet.

* {{Telepathy}}: One of Abby's powers as shown in a deleted where she shows Owen how she became a vampire. She gazes into his eyes as she puts him into a trance and he's shown the very violent attack Abby endured from the vampire who turned her. When Abby breaks it off Owen looks traumatized and clutches the exact spot on his neck where Abby was bitten heavily implying he literally felt what she went through.

** The Good. Owen, an innocent, timid gentle boy whose victimized by nearly every other force in the film, from the bullies who assault him to his parents who neglect him.
** The Bad: Abby, while she doesn't derive any pleasure from it and she requires human blood to drink to live, she still kills scores of innocent people throughout the film.

* TheQuietOne: Owen is a very quiet boy. He usually speaks as little as possible. Such as when he's summoned to the principal's office for hitting Kenny and, when she's scolding him, he doesn't say a single word in his own defense despite the fact he's being very unfairly punished for defending himself or at the end of the film when a train conductor speaks to him he wordlessly presents his ticket to him and only gives a very gentle nod when asked whether Abby's trunk belonged to him. He is more talkative around Abby, so it could be he isn't naturally very silent, it's simply that Abby's the only person he's comfortable around.

* ThereAreNoTherapists: Despite the fact its obivous Owen has mental health problems (he enacts his murder fantasies in the open courtyard of his apartment complex) no one suggests he should be offered help or someone to talk to.
* ThenLetMeBeEvil: A possible interpretation for Owen's decision to run away with Abby by the end of the film. Judging by his phone call to his father near the end of the movie it's obvious he's considering the possibility that Abby is evil and struggling with that fact. However, since most of the normal, self-proclaimed "good" world has been so cruel to Owen: his parents neglect him, he has no friends, and no one protects him from the bullies who torture him every day. Whereas Abby is kind to him, gives him attention and affection, and ends up massacring Owen's tormentors when they attempt to drown him. So, you can't really blame him for wanting to throw in his lot with Abby, despite the fact she's a vampire who kills people.
* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Owen and his "Now and Later" sweets. Comments by his mother indicates it's almost the only thing he actually eats, he's very excited about sharing them with Abby, and at the end of the film when he has run away with Abby he's shown to have taken the time to buy himself some more for the train ride.
* TrialBalloonQuestion: After Abby is sick in the car park of the arcade, Owen immediately goes to comfort and hug her. Abby touched by this asks her if he likes her and Owen replies that he does, a lot. Abby decided to ask further about whether Owen would still like her if she wasn't a girl (i.e. that she's a vampire, not a normal human). Owen gets confused by this but confirms that he would still love her.

** Kenny and his friends torment of Owen goes beyond normal schoolyard bullying into truly disturbing moments of sadism, it even becomes somewhat sexual at times. The most disturbing of which is when Owen picks up a metal pole to defend himself at a lake and Kenny's only response is to promise him he'll rape him with it before drowning him.
** Owen himself. He regularly plays with knives and rehearses his fantasies of killing his bullies. Sympathetic considering how horribly he's treated by them but still rather disturbing to watch.
* TookALevelInBadass: A moderate example with Owen. While he remains a shy, withdrawn little boy throughout the film he does become more assertive and ready to defend himself, at Abbys encouragement. In the beginning of the film he makes no effort to fight back as the bullies hurt him but halfway through the film he splits Kennys ear with a metal pole when he tried to hurt him and when they ambush him at the pool his first instinct is to grab his knife.
* UndeadBarefooter: For the most part, Abby never wears any shoes, due to her not feeling the cold. She is seen wearing boots in one scene with Owen after she completes the Rubik's cube but it seems she was just wearing them to make Owen feel more comfortable around her as he noted earlier how weird it was that she went barefoot in the snow.
* UndeadChild: Abby says she is twelve years old. However, she is twelve years old since a very long time.

* UnnervinglyHeartwarming: Arguably the entirety of Owen and Abby's relationship. While they are two lonely children finding love and companionship with each other, there's still the fact their union will involve them living nomadic, violent lives. Specific example include:
** When Abby visits Owen at night and they snuggle together. After she has just eaten her "father" with his blood still crusted on her lips.
** Near the end of the film Abby hugs a very distressed Owen to comfort him, because she just ripped the detective who was investigating her apart in front of him while still covered in the mans blood. Afterwards she kisses Owen on the lips and gets the man's blood on him.
* VampireBitesSuck: When Abby is forced to attack people herself for blood the results aren't pretty. She usually mauls them like an animal until they die of blood loss or she finishes them off by snapping their necks so they don't come back as a vampire.

* VillainsWantMercy: Kenny despite gleefully abusing Owen physically and mentally for the entirety of the film and got his brother involved to attack Owen and only offered a very meek protest when he realized Jimmy was actually going to kill Owen has the audacity to beg Abby for mercy when she massacres the bullies while they were drowning Owen.
* ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer: Abby certainly believes so, when she sees the cut on Owen's cheek she immediately suggests to Owen that he hits his bullies back, when he points out he's outnumbered by them she just replies to use weapons. She is vindicated when for the first half of the movie when Owen simply tried to avoid the bullies they tortured him endlessly but when he slams a metal pole into Kenny's head they leave him alone. They do come back for revenge later but it's only when [[DirtyCoward Kenny has got the support of his much older brother to help him attack Owen]]. Then Abby ends the bullies torment of Owen permanently by killing them.

* WeirdnessCensor. A variant with Owen regards to Abby's behavior. He certainly notices how odd her behavior is, asking why she doesn't wear shoes in the snow, remarks how odd it is she never appears in daylight or knows very famous pop culture items like a Rubik's cube and when he confronts Abby he immediately asks whether she's a vampire, implying he had already guessed judging by her behavior. It's simply that Owen's so desperately lonely that he's willing to overlook those traits as long as Abby will be his friend.
* WindowLove: When Abby crawls up the hospital and sits on the window ledge of Thomas room she gently places her hand on the glass.

* YankTheDogsChain: After he finally stands up to Kenny things finally look like they might be improving for Owen, he started a strength building course at school, his bullies are leaving him alone, and Abby has agreed to be his girlfriend. Then when he initiates a friendship pact with her, not knowing she's a vampire, she very nearly kills him by mistake.
* YouTalkinToMe. In one of Owen's first scenes, and one of the most disturbing in the film, takes part in an iteration of this trope. He stares shirtless into a mirror, while wearing a mask and wielding a knife, while repeating the insults Kenny uses against him.

** Kenny, there's something really off about him. His bullying of Owen reaches very disturbing levels of obsession and sadism throughout the film. In the scene where he sees Owen writing notes for Abby he sees genuinely upset at seeing Owen have any pleasure in his life. He then follows him to the toilets and whips him, when Owen summons the very meager defiance of refusing to repeat Kenny's words back to him, his face starts to spam in sheer rage.

''Let Me In'' is a 2010 horror film by Creator/MattReeves (of ''Film/{{Cloverfield}}'', ''Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes'', and ''Film/{{The Batman|2022}}'' fame), starring Creator/ChloeGraceMoretz, Creator/KodiSmitMcPhee, Creator/RichardJenkins, and Elias Koteas. It is an English-language remake of the Swedish film ''Film/LetTheRightOneIn'', based on the book of the same name by Creator/JohnAjvideLindqvist. It is produced by ''Film/HammerHorror'', making this their first movie in decades.

* YouTalkinToMe. In one of Owen's first scenes, and one of the most disturbing in the film, takes part in an iteration of this trope. He stares shirtless into a mirror, while wearing a mask and wielding a knife, while repeating the insults Kenny uses against him.

** Near the end of the film Abby hugs a very distressed Owen to comfort him, because she just ripped the detective who was investigating her apart in front of him while still covered in the mans blood. Afterwards she kisses Owen on the lips and gets the mans blood on him.

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality. Due to the AdaptationDistillation of this film this affects the story even more than the original.Whereas a lot of Abby's victims in the book had distinct personalities and backstories here they're mainly extras so the audience finds it hard to care when they die at her hand. This coupled with the increased focus on Owen and Abby's relationship makes her seem more sympathetic than she really should be. Owen, for the most part, seems to realise her killing people is wrong, judging by his phone call to his father. However, he quickly accepts Abby's nature because she's the only person who's ever been kind to him.

--->'''Owen:''' What? This? It's a Rubik's Cube. You don't know Rubik's cube?!

* ParentalNeglect: Neither of Owens parent give him any attention or consideration, beyond his basic material needs. His father mentions he hasnt seen him in months and in the one scene they walk he plainly doesnt care or notice that his son is crying. His mother frequently ignores him so she can drink.

* NothingIsScarier: Abby's slaughter off the bullies. During the entirety of the scenes the cameras focused on Owen's emaciated back covered in blood but you can hear whats happening. From the bullies screams of terror and the sounds of their flesh being ripped apart and thrown into the pool, to Abby's own inhuman roars. Throughout the scene you can hear the sound of wings flapping, Abby was never shown to have wings when seen in vampire form so the audience can only guess what she looks like as she kills the boys. Most disturbingly at the end, when Owen has recovered from his near drowning Abby's bare feet, drenched in blood appear and she picks him up by his head to look at her. When he does he looks to be in awe and fear, which could just simply be through the trauma of almost dying, but Abby's face is never seen once, so what exactly could Owen be looking at?

* RuleOfSymbolism: Owen's bedroom has a space theme, with posters of outer space and a space shuttle prominently displayed. According to Kodi Smit-[=McPhee=], this is to symbolize both Owen's sense of isolation and his desire to escape from his surroundings. He also said that Owen's silver jacket is meant to look similar to an astronaut's spacesuit.

* KnifeNut: Averted with Owen. While he certainly is fond of knifes and is frequently seen playing with them, and using them in his revenge scenarios, including one scene where he frantically stabs a tree, he's never shown to be especially talented with them. In the end of the film where the bullies begin their final attack on Owen, he runs to his locker to get his pocket knife. When they corner him he doesn't use it.

In 1982, in Los Alamos, New Mexico, young Owen is tormented by bullies and frustrated with his parents, who are too wrapped up in their divorce to offer him much sympathy. Everything changes for him when Abby moves into the apartment next door. However, Abby is not what she seems, and as Owen strikes up a friendship with her, he is soon drawn into her dangerous life.

* PsychopathicManchild: Thomas counts, he gets extremely jealous of the attention Owen receives from Abby. When he leaves a note for Abby, it's misspelled, saying "I’m sorry Abby", and the writing is in a very childish scribble. Justified, as the film heavily implies he's been her familiar for decades since he was a child and with no contact with anyone besides someone stuck as a 12 year old, he didn't have a lot of opportunity to mature.

* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior:Besides Abby herself, there are other examples.

* PsychopathicManchild: Thomas counts, he gets extremely jealous of the attention Owen receives from Abby. When he leaves a note for Abby, it's misspelled, saying "Im sory Abby", and the writing is in a very childish scribble. Justified, as the film heavily implies he's been her familiar for decades since he was a child and with no contact with anyone besides someone stuck as a 12 year old, he didn't have a lot of opportunity to mature.
* PuppyLove: The main plot of the film, concerning the growing relationship between a lonely 12-year-old boy and a girl who's been stuck mentally and physically at age 12 for centuries. Despite the film being a very dark and brutal horror film, their relationship is portrayed as very sweet and innocent.

* PopCulturalOsmosisFailure: Abby due to her nature as a vampire living a nomadic life for centuries is shown to be very ignorant of modern culture. She doesn't know what video games are and despite loving puzzles, she doesn't know what a Rubik's cube is to Owen's shock and confusion.
--->'''Owen:''' What? This? It's a Rubik's Cube. You don't know Rubik's cube?!

* NiceGuy: Owen is a sweet-natured kid who has had a ''really' shitty life. This is most apparent in his scenes with Abby where hes very kind and sweet to her, as seen when Abby comments she cant remember her birthday and consequently doesnt receive any presents, Owen instantly offers her his rubix cube, despite him barely knowing her and it being his favourite toy.

''Let Me In'' is a 2010 horror film by Creator/MattReeves (of ''Film/{{Cloverfield}}'', ''Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes'', and ''Film/TheBatman'' fame), starring Creator/ChloeGraceMoretz, Creator/KodiSmitMcPhee, Creator/RichardJenkins, and Elias Koteas. It is an English-language remake of the Swedish film ''Film/LetTheRightOneIn'', based on the book of the same name by Creator/JohnAjvideLindqvist. It is produced by ''Film/HammerHorror'', making this their first movie in decades.

''Let Me In'' is a 2010 horror film by Creator/MattReeves (of ''Film/{{Cloverfield}}'' fame), starring Creator/ChloeGraceMoretz, Creator/KodiSmitMcPhee, Creator/RichardJenkins, and Elias Koteas. It is an English-language remake of the Swedish film ''Film/LetTheRightOneIn'', based on the book of the same name by Creator/JohnAjvideLindqvist. It is produced by ''Film/HammerHorror'', making this their first movie in decades.

* ButtMonkey: Owen, the poor guys life is a living hell.He lives in a run down apartment complex with his alcoholic mother who neglects him, his father doesn't care about him and every day at school he's abused, beaten and humiliated by bullies. He's traumatized repeatedly throughout the film: his girlfriend nearly kills him, he sees a man ripped to shreds in front of him and he's tortured and almost drowned at the end of the film. It says a lot about how awful his life was that going to live a nomadic life with a vampire (either as her familiar or being turned by her) is actually the happiest ending he could have had.

''Let Me In'' is a 2010 horror film by Creator/MattReeves (of ''Film/{{Cloverfield}}'' fame), starring Creator/ChloeGraceMoretz, Kodi Smit-[=McPhee=], Creator/RichardJenkins, and Elias Koteas. It is an English-language remake of the Swedish film ''Film/LetTheRightOneIn'', based on the book of the same name by Creator/JohnAjvideLindqvist. It is produced by ''Film/HammerHorror'', making this their first movie in decades.

* NiceGuy: Owen is a sweet-natured kid who has had a ''really' shitty life. This is most apparent in his scenes with Abby where hes very kind and sweet to her, as seen when Abby comments she cant remember her birthday and consequently doesnt receive any presents Owen instantly offers his rubix cube, despite him barely knowing her and it being his favourite toy.