Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Craig Moss
Starring: Makenzie Moss, O'Neill Monahan, Tobin Bell, Sadie Stanley, Lauren Stamile
One of the effects of widespread adoption of the internet has been the
rise of urban legends. The "creepypasta" phenomenon has spawned various
modern riffs on classic legends, among them the "black-eyed children".
These are said to be supernatural beings who resemble kids and teenagers,
save for their inky black eyes and pale complexions.
Director Craig Moss explores this phenomenon with his cheesy but
affable young adult horror movie Let Us In. Opening with a classic scene of teens making out in the woods, we're
immediately introduced to the black-eyed brats, dressed in dark clothes
and hoodies as they abduct the young lovers after posing the question
"Will you let us in?"
Let Us In may be concerned with a very modern phenomenon but
its influences are most certainly of the 1980s variety. No doubt greenlit
to cash in on the popularity of Netflix's Stranger Things, Moss's film refreshingly doesn't resemble The Goonies and
its
Amblin
contemporaries so much as lower budgeted cult fare like
The Monster Squad
and Strange Invaders. Its young actors curse and cause trouble and find themselves in genuine
peril, and it has the zippy pace of a 1930s poverty row programmer.
In classic '80s fashion we have a precocious young lead in 12-year-old
Emily (Makenzie Moss). What gives the film some edginess is how
Emily has a dark past that sees her shunned by her schoolmates. It's not
until halfway through the movie that we learn what exactly Emily is meant
to have done to become a social pariah, and when we witness the incident
in a flashback it's a genuinely shocking moment.
Emily and her 10-year-old science geek friend Christopher (O'Neill Monahan) are working on a school project to contact aliens (as you do at that
age) and find themselves embroiled in the conspiracy of the black-eyed
kids when the latter's older sister is abducted. This leads them to the
doorstep of the town's resident creepy old dude (Tobin Bell), who
has had prior dealings with the alien beings.
Moss is best known for directing a series of sub-Zucker Brothers parody
movies with cringeworthy titles like
The 41-Year-Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt
Superbad About It
and
30 Nights of Paranormal Activity with the Devil Inside the Girl with
the Dragon Tattoo, but in recent years he's turned towards the horror genre with 2016's
The Charnel House and now Let Us In. On the evidence of his latest he's by no means a potential next John
Carpenter. The suspense scenes are staged in the clunkiest of fashion, and
they're often unintentionally laughable, especially when potential victims
interact with the black-eyed villains as though they're just regular
troublemaking kids, despite their vocoder altered voices and obviously
alien appearance. The storytelling is a collection of genre clichés with
scenes lifted straight from superior '80s thrillers.
That said, a horror movie so cliché-ridden can sometimes create a cosy
familiarity, and that's the case here. What Moss does best is evoke the
feeling of a small town, and by the time the end credits roll we feel like
we know every corner of the sunny hamlet Let Us In's not so effective scares play out in. Makenzie Moss (who I'm guessing
is probably the director's daughter) and Monahan make for a charming young
double act, with the latter a sort of bumbling Watson to her feisty Holmes
on a motor-scooter.
Sure, Let Us In is objectively trash with all the aesthetic
appeal of a Hallmark Original, but with its homey smalltown atmosphere and
likeable young protagonists it just might function as a way to introduce
younger viewers to the joys of the horror genre. I'll take its rough
around the edges energy over the polished cynicism of
Stranger Things any day.
Let Us In is on Prime Video UK now.