Let Us In

Terribly written. Needed a better script, actors were decent but the story was BAD. And it doesn't even follow the urban legend of the Black-Eyed Kids.

This movie had a good premise. Acting was pretty good, but I take offense when little children are put in the position of using foul language every time you turn around. There is no need for it! The clique of girls bullying was not needed. It added nothing to the storyline. It could have focused more on the agenda of the aliens and their reasons for needing humans. Where they were from and their planets story. All in all a good young persons film other than pushing the foul language agenda. Most younger generation movies find the need to insert children being undisciplined by parental figures, such as in Poltergeist and ET. Showing kids being smart but disrespectful. It can be left out in my opinion.

I sat down to watch the 2021 sci-fi horror movie "Let Us In" mostly because the movie had Tobin Bell on the cast list, but also because this was a horror movie that I hadn't already seen.

And I suppose that "Let Us In" is aimed at a younger audience than me, because director Craig Moss' movie fell short of providing me with proper entertainment. But hey, suppose you are a pre-teen viewer, then I guess that "Let Us In" will fall into your liking.

The storyline here was just simply a bit too ludicrous for my liking, and it was so difficult to take the aliens, known as Jungspars, serious in any way. I just gave up on trying to let the concept sink in and sweep me away, it just provided me with no enjoyment.

The acting in the movie was actually fair enough, but the actors and actresses had very little to work with in terms of a proper script and storyline. So it was a struggle to sit through this movie. Tobin Bell wasn't really in the movie for all that long, which I found to be a shame.

My rating of the 2021 movie "Let Us In" lands on a mere three out of ten stars.

Admittedly, I was quite baffled when I saw this film pop up in a brief New York Times article by Jeannette Catsoulis. Her somewhat favorable review, alongside comparisons to other iconic tween-centric properties such as The Goonies and Stranger Things, drew my morbid curiosity and I decided to view this film with an open mind, trying to stymie doubts about its quality and not go in to my viewing set out to dislike it. What transpired over this film's runtime left me confused and frustrated. Let's discuss!

This film was entirely bereft of atmosphere, compelling characters, and charm. The screenplay is shallow and predictable, relying almost completely on obvious, lazy tropes and formulas, from "Tragic Backstory = Instant Sympathetic Protagonist" to "Comic-Relief Sidekick" and all areas in-between. The characters, sequence of events, and set pieces are uninspired and derivative at best. When one inspects the filmography of the film's writer-director Craig Moss, who is responsible for gems such as "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," one can understand immediately the quality to be expected from "Let Us In."

The script is so absent of creativity, it comes as no surprise that the performances of the actors and actresses involved are milquetoast and wooden, even from Tobin Bell of the "Saw" franchise, who is criminally underutilized as the "Creepy Town Weirdo" stereotype. At no point did I believe that there was confidence or energy placed in this film, both on-screen and off-screen. The cinematography is sterile and conventional, nothing is presented in an engaging or visually interesting manner to give this film any kind of identity. The score for this film is so painfully generic that I am convinced it was comprised exclusively of royalty-free music, it was that unbearable. The sheer volume of failures this film accumulates adds up over its runtime, resulting in an exponentially tedious experience.

Now if one wants to defend this film and its overwhelming wealth of flaws on the basis that it is a family-friendly horror film, that is very misguided. Having a family-friendly film of any kind, regardless of genre, does not necessitate a severe lack of quality and craftsmanship. The films "Coraline" and "Monster House" as well as the show "Gravity Falls" are prime examples of accessible, spooky, family-friendly media that have charm, are engaging and entertaining, and do not wallow in tedium and mediocrity. If the work is done and the effort is put in, then you'll never have to sacrifice quality for accessibility for all ages.

In short, "Let Us In" is a stellar role-model of what to avoid in filmmaking. If you as a viewer enjoy well-rounded characters, an intriguing premise, good humor, consistent internal logic, self-awareness, a half-decent script, and good chills, then do not waste your time with this, there are so many better options to choose from.

For anyone interested in the paranormal, believing this film to be the real deal, my advice is move along. I was sorely disappointed being someone very familiar with the actual urban legend of the Black-Eyed Kids. It may be a great family movie to watch with kids 8-12 but wasn't what I expected at all. For a much better film on BEK, check out Hulu's Into the Dark: They Come Knocking. Much more true to the paranormal research.