Let Me In (2010)

Classification Issues

• Violence
  • Scenes include a character biting a victim's throat, a woman biting her own arm, and a man being stabbed in the throat. These moments result in blood and injury detail.
• Threat and horror
  • There are scenes of strong threat and horror imagery involving vampires.
• Additional issues
  • Occasional use of strong language ('f**k') occurs, as well as mild bad language ('shit', 'piss', 'crap').

Background

The original film – based on a bestselling novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist – garnered huge critical acclaim when it was released in the UK in 2009. It was nominated for the Best Film Not in the English Language BAFTA, as well as winning the equivalent category at the British Independent Film Awards and the London Critics Circle Film Awards in the same year.

Let the Right One In, a subtitled horror film, attracted a measurable audience in the United States, earning over two million dollars during its limited theatrical release and achieving notable DVD sales.

The success of the film saw the rights to the novel and screenplay bought by Hammer Films and an English-language remake was quickly commissioned. The directorial helm was originally offered to Thomas Alfredson, director of the Swedish-language version, but, when he refused, Cloverfield director Matt Reeves – who would go on to make Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and The Batman – was brought on board to direct and to write the screenplay. 

Classification history

Let Me In was submitted for classification in September 2010, having previously been the subject of an advice viewing by the BBFC. Advice viewings are a service available to distributors who require an indication of what category a film is likely to achieve based on a version that might well be incomplete (with missing scenes or with special effects to be added). The advice given is informal and the BBFC reserves the right to classify a work at a different category to the one advised when it is formally submitted in the completed version intended for release.

The film arrived with a 15 request – the same category awarded to the Swedish version, Let The Right One In. 

When classifying Let Me In, Examiners noted strong bloody violence, horror and language as the principal classification issues. The film also contains nudity and scenes of bullying.

At 15, the BBFC’s Classification Guidelines at the time stated: “Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable.” The Guidelines for horror at the same category stated: “Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.”

Notable scenes of violence include an early murder, when the victim is strung up in a forest and drained of blood, which Abby’s guardian collects in a bottle. The incision in the man’s neck is masked by his body, but there is gushing blood and the scene immediately placed the work at a clear 15. However, Examiners did not feel that this constituted the “strongest gory images”, and there is no sadism or terrorisation as the victim remains unconscious throughout. The film’s climactic scene, when Abby attacks Owen’s bullies at a swimming pool, also contains a lot of blood, with red liquid fanning out in the water and clouding around the dismembered body-parts of the victims. The images are brief and, again, were not felt to go beyond the 15 level.

Let Me In also contains scenes of clear bloody injury, the strongest of which is probably that in which a woman who has survived a vampire attack becomes a bloodsucker herself and begins gnawing at her own arm. As a nurse pulls back the curtains, light falls on the woman and we see her pulling bloody flesh between her teeth. The scene is very brief as the daylight immediately causes her to burst into flames. Strong injury detail is also seen after Owen hits his bully around the head with a metal pole, splitting his ear. Again, the strong injury is on screen for such a short time that this could not be said to “dwell on the infliction of pain and injury”. 

As the violence and horror in the film take place within the very clear context of a vampire fantasy, Examiners acknowledged that the likely audience would expect this kind of bloodletting. They noted that the violence “is not inflicted to gratify sexual or sadistic urges or to provide such gratification to the viewer”.

Let Me In was classified 15 for strong bloody violence, horror and language’.

Differences from the Swedish version

Although much of the film is very similar to the Swedish Let The Right One In, some of the earlier film’s stronger tonal moments are missing from the English language version. 

In the Swedish film, as in the book, we are led to believe that the young vampire character, Eli, had been castrated and we briefly catch a glimpse of their mutilated genitals as the character gets changed. In the US version, no mention is made of this and we are left to assume that Abby is, and always was, a girl. 

The relationship between Abby and her guardian is also less complicated in the US version of the film. In the book, the guardian character is a paedophile and there are hints in the Swedish film at an inappropriate relationship between the two characters. However, in the US version, we see an old photo-booth image of Abby and her guardian as children together and assume they shared a similar relationship to the one she has with Owen.