PLOT SUMMARY: After several disappearances in their hometown, friends Emily and Christopher team up to get to the bottom of the mystery.
A few years back, there was a legend about kids showing up on people's doorsteps or approaching drivers when they stopped at the traffic light. What was remarkable about them was that their eyes were completely black; the kind you would see kids have in horror movies when possession is shown.
The people who claimed to have seen them called them the devil's children because the only thing they said was, "Let me in."
And after that, they disappeared. There was another theory that these kids were actually aliens but instead of being asked to be taken to "your" leader, they asked to be let in so that they could wear people's bodies as a costume and roam the planet.
In that case, it is lightly polite of these aliens to ask for permission first unlike the demons who roam the Earth and simply possess people without permission.
Let Us In is based on that urban legend, except in this, it's a bunch of guys dressed in hoodies and sunglasses, asking in a robotic voice to "let us in."
Spoilers for the movie: almost every character says, "Oh, is that all you want? Fine, you can come in."
These mysterious beings are so polite that they still don't harm these humans. They simply kidnap them and keep them underground for as long as it takes for the protagonist to come to save them.
LET US IN Movie Plot
The protagonist in question is twelve-year-old Emily who no one at school wants to be friends with because everyone thinks she's a murderer.
When she receives a text from the popular girl, Scarlett, she is told publicly that it was accidentally sent to her and that she was not invited.
Emily isn't too worried about her damaged reputation with her peers. She is best friends with nine-year-old Christopher and his elder sister Jessie who loves to take makeup tips from tweens.
So even though Emily's classmates don't want anything to do with her, she has a good thing going for. There's a teacher, Mr Jayo too who is there on her side, encouraging her to work on a science project with Christopher that involves making contact with aliens. And of course, Christopher's family thinks of her as one of their own. And Jessie likes Emily so much she invites her to the very party she was uninvited from. Turns out Jessie's boyfriend Tobey is Scarlett's brother.
Everything works out great for Emily because Tobey insists that his sister entertain Emily. The girls immediately get a table outside and play truth or dare because that is the most interesting thing to do at a party.
Emily is mocked for killing her friend. We learn that Emily had a best friend who died when instead of jumping into the pool from a ledge, she nosedived onto the ground and died. Emily on the other hand had made a perfect dive into the pool.
Because she was there with her friend at that time, everyone mocks her for being the one who pushed the girl.
Emily isn't bothered much and goes to Christopher to contact aliens. Meanwhile, people around town are being accosted by guys in black hoods and asking to be let in. They have superhuman strength and are annoying enough to get people to give up and allow them to be taken.
Back to Emily and Christopher now who have just successfully made contact with an alien who knows their names and keeps saying Jungspars. When asked what they meant, the alien has no answer.
While Emily and Christopher are celebrating, Jessie is on the other side of town, finishing her shift at a cafe and then getting kidnapped by the aliens in black hoods.
Christopher has set a tracker on his sister's phone so when they go and check out the café, they can't find Jessie anywhere.
In the meantime, Scarlett's friend is also taken. The police don't have much to do except not believe teenagers and tweens when they tell them about the guys in black hoods.
It is up to Emily to save the day. She meets up with an old man Mr Munch who tells her that he was once abducted, along with his fiancée by the aliens. He tells her that the worst thing apart from saying no to the aliens is actually saying Yes and being tortured. These aliens apparently only want to take tweens and push them through a portal into their world.
Emily and Christopher rally up the others, including Scarlett who has decided to behave, and set up a trap for the aliens using the shrill whistle Mr Munch gave them. They have also learned by now that the aliens hate bright lights.
The aliens are summoned using the whistle and then when they all gather, the car beams are switched on and the aliens shriek in terror. But the leader outsmarts them all and manages to turn off the lights, and kidnap Christopher.
Mission failed successfully.
LET US IN Ending Explained with Spoilers!
Emily's desperate calls to Chris is captured by the news reporter and who is watching the news but Emily's teacher Mr Jayo who decides to help her. He tells her to get into his car and they hide behind a tree in the woods to watch an alien jump into a hole in the ground.
Emily is tracking Christopher's phone and finally understands why the marker shows that he is around them.
They follow the alien down the hole and find all of the kidnapped victims still in a cave with beams for bars. Emily saves them all and uses the whistle to distract the aliens. The aliens are then tossed through the very portal they had opened for the others and are never heard from again.
Emily and Christopher are invited by NASA because of their project to contact aliens. Jessie lets Emily have some fancy shoes, and the kids are driven by their teacher.
Along the way, they find the streets decorated and all the people cheering for them.
There must be some symbolism as to why that very street is shown multiple times throughout the movie. Perhaps that was the only area the filmmakers were granted access too, or perhaps it was to show empty streets like Emily's empty life and then a decorated one to show that she had managed to break free from all teenage drama and achieved so much. Imagine being twelve and being invited by NASA!
Then again, it was probably the only street where film shooting was allowed.
Scare scale: 3/5
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