Let Me In Is the Anti-Twilight


Each week, The Daily Beast scours the cultural landscape to choose three top picks. This week, Let Me In conjures up a 12-year-old vampire far more memorable than Edward Cullen, The Social Network seems to have the Oscar in the bag, and Tony Curtis' memoir provides insight into the Hollywood great.

Let Me In has no hunky werewolves or sparkling vampires, and its central female character isn't a simpering teen waiting to be rescued—she's a bloodthirsty vampire. Unlike Stephenie Meyer's megahit Twilight, this coming-of-age story isn't throbbing with high school romance—it's drenched in blood and horror, writes The Daily Beast's Jace Lacob. The film, released this week, is a remake of the well-reviewed Swedish film Let the Right One In, and writer/director Matt Reeves explains that he insisted that the 12-year-old characters are unlike Bella and Edward; their relationship is a tender one, built on a shared sense of being lonely, bullied outcasts.
The movie doesn't explore teenaged love, but rather how people can become trapped in repeating patterns that can only be broken by a pivotal moment. Who knew vampires could be deep, too?