Is Let Me In Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Yes, 5 out of 10. It's mostly a story about a bullied boy and his new neighbor, with several violent scenes.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
5 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Medium
It lingers for a night, mostly as sympathy for a boy with very few friends.
DOG
Dog: fine
no dog dies in this one.
Ruling: Fine for most adults, though the bullying scenes and a few violent ones are hard to watch.
Let Me In runs one hour and fifty-six minutes and is set in New Mexico in 1983. A twelve-year-old boy with divorcing parents and a bully problem meets the barefoot girl who has moved in next door.
The premise, briefly
A bullied twelve-year-old boy in 1983 New Mexico befriends the barefoot girl next door, who has moved in with an older man, and they tap Morse code through the wall.
How much do you want to know?
🐱
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
Abby kills the detective who finds her and decides to leave town. Then she returns to save Owen from his bullies by dismembering them. Owen leaves on a train with Abby hidden in a large trunk.
The scene you're dreading
Near the end, at swim class, Kenny, his older brother and their friends ambush Owen and start to drown him. Abby returns and dismembers them.
The dog
No dog dies in Let Me In.
It is a story about a lonely boy with several sudden attacks, and knowing that Owen and Abby leave together takes some of the weight off.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
A note that apologizes in the wrong spelling
In March 1983 in Los Alamos, New Mexico, a man with a ruined face is brought to a hospital while a police detective tries to ask him about a recent murder. When the detective steps out to take a call, the man jumps out of the window and leaves a note that says "I'M SORY ABBY". The film then goes back two weeks. Owen, a lonely twelve-year-old ignored by his divorcing parents, watches a barefoot girl named Abby move in next door with an older man. At school a teenager named Kenny and two friends keep tormenting Owen. He lies to his mother about it and tells Abby the truth, and Abby urges him to hit back and promises to protect him. They become friends and send Morse code messages through the walls between their apartments.
Abby's companion Thomas kidnaps a local teenager and drains his blood into a jug, but spills it all by accident. Abby is hungry, so she attacks a neighbor and kills him by drinking his blood, and Thomas has to get rid of the body. Later, Thomas is found hiding in the back of another car. The car goes into a ditch and rolls over, and trapped inside, he pours sulfuric acid over his face and ends up in the hospital. Abby visits and drinks his blood, and he falls to his death. That night Abby wakes Owen and insists that he say out loud that she can come in. She takes off her clothes, sleeps in his bed, and they agree to go out together.
A frozen river that gives something back
The following day Owen's class goes skating on the frozen river. Kenny and the others corner Owen, and he hits Kenny on the side of the head with a metal pole and splits his ear, while the other students find the neighbor's body under the ice. Later Owen suggests a blood pact, and the sight of blood makes Abby show her vampire form and run off to attack another neighbor, who she fails to finish off. The next night she tells Owen she is a vampire and that Thomas was not her father, and Owen finds an old photo of her with Thomas as a boy. He is scared and wants to go, and she lets him. The injured neighbor becomes a vampire and burns in the hospital when a nurse opens the curtains. Abby later asks Owen to let her into his apartment again and steps in without his answer, bleeding all over. He invites her in, cleans her up and gives her a dress of his mother's. When his mother nearly catches them, Abby leaves by the window.
Swim class is not a safe place
The detective barges into Abby's apartment, where he finds her sleeping, until Owen draws his attention away. Abby wakes and kills the detective, and horrified by what she has done, she decides to leave town and kisses Owen goodbye. Then comes the scene people dread most, near the end. In swim class, Kenny, Jimmy (his older brother) and their friends light a dumpster to pull the teacher away, then jump Owen and try to drown him. Abby comes back, rescues Owen and dismembers the boys.
The ending, explained
Abby rescues Owen from the boys who were drowning him and tears them apart. Sometime afterward, Owen boards a train out of town with Abby hidden inside a large trunk. Thomas died in the hospital, the first neighbor's body was found in the ice, the second neighbor burned up in the hospital, and the detective was killed in Abby's apartment. Owen and Abby are the two who get away.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether there's a scene after the credits.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: no dog dies in this one.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Let Me In scary?
Yes, Let Me In is a 5 out of 10. It is a story about a bullied boy and his neighbor, with several sudden violent scenes and a medium level of dread.
How does Let Me In end?
Abby rescues Owen from the bullies who are drowning him and dismembers them. Afterward, Owen takes a train out of town with Abby hidden in a large trunk.
Does the dog die in Let Me In?
No dog dies in Let Me In.
Is there a post-credits scene in Let Me In?
Nobody has confirmed whether Let Me In has a scene after the credits.
Who is Thomas in Let Me In?
Thomas is the older man who moves in next door with Abby. Abby later admits he was not her father, and an old photo shows Thomas with her when he was a boy.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of Let Me In is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
Let Me In is one hour and fifty-six minutes of a lonely boy and the girl next door. Install Scaredy Cat and it will blur horror like this before you see it.
