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Let Us In
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Wikipedia article
'Let Us In' is a 2021 family science fiction-horror film written and directed by Craig Moss. It stars Makenzie Moss, Sadie Stanley, Mackenzie Ziegler, O'Neill Monahan, Siena Agudong, and Tobin Bell. The film is about a twelve-year-old girl who is ostracized in her small town for something she never did. When theres a rash of missing teenagers, she, along with her nine-year-old best friend, step in to figure out what's going on.
The film was released on July 2, 2021 and it received negative-to-mixed critical reviews.
Plot
A young couple is surrounded in the forest at night by teenagers in black hoodies and all-black eyes asking to be "let in". They break the boyfriends arm and chase the girlfriend around, finally breaking her leg and forcing her to agree to "let them in". They go missing.
12-year-old Emily lives with her busy, uninvolved parents and spirited grandmother. At school, it is revealed that Emily is a bullied outcast as they imply she killed someone. Scarlett, the queen bee, purposely doesn't invite Emily to her party. Emily catches the glare of "Mean Mr. Munch" on the way home.
Emily's only friend Christopher, a believer in extraterrestrials, invites her to his house to make contact with aliens. That night, Emily is alone at the house. A knock at the front door reveals five hooded, black-eyed assailants who ask for her to let them in. She calls 911 and hides in the bathroom, but the hooded men smash the skylight above the tub and chase her outside as the police arrive. The sheriff tells Emilys dad, Mark, that the skylight was intact and there were no signs of intruders. He thinks that possibly some kids picking on her are to blame.
On the night of the party, Christopher's kind, older sister, Jessie, invites Emily to attend. She ends up playing truth-or-dare with Scarlett and her crew, where they end up insulting her for "killing someone", so she leaves. While outside, she catches the stare of Mr. Munch again. While on the toilet, Bianca encounters three hooded people with sunglasses on. When she freaks out after one caresses her, they knock her out by punching her.
Emily is in a therapy session trying to cope with an unexplained death. Not much is revealed except that she believes it was her fault as her therapist attempts to dissuade her otherwise. At school, Emily hears Bianca has gone missing. That night, Harold Lutz, a journalist with the 'Times', comes knocking at the door to report on the missing people.
Emily experiences a flashback nightmare that reveals her making a besties pact with someone before jumping off the roof into a pool. Her friend jumps in and Emily is awakened after her friend hits the water with a 'crack' At Christophers house, they attempt to make contact with aliens through their homemade communication device before its cut off abruptly. Emily tries to convince Christopher that they should cut their losses while Christopher pleads with her to have faith. As Emily opens the door to leave, they hear noises. Excited, Emily attempts to make contact and speak to the mystery extraterrestrials as they repeat the kids' names and the word 'Jungspar'. The power suddenly goes out and cuts off communication.
At work, Jessie is closing up for the night and encounters the hooded teenagers asking to be let in. She refuses and they somehow break into the store. As she tries to escape, they disappear and Jessie locks herself in a supply closet to call for help. The hooded assailants trick her by sounding like her boyfriend, Tobey, to open the door. Jessie fights back as much as she can until they corner her, break her leg, and force her to "let them in".
Christopher and his mom realize Jessie hasnt come home from work yet, but his mom thinks shes snuck off to be with her boyfriend. Using a tracker, Christopher, his mom, and Emily realize Jessie is still at work, so they head there to check on her. They break in through the back door and realize a struggle has taken place. As Emily searches the store by herself, cops arrive. The next day, Christopher and Emily visit Harold to gather more information, with Christophers sister being the seventh one that week. Harold has done some research and has come across only one other account of the black-eyed kids from 50 years ago, where there were over 25 disappearances with only one survivor: the elderly man, Frederick Munch. Emily and Christopher visit Mr. Munchs house and struggle to get him to help through his intercom. When Emily mentions Christophers sister has been taken, he finally lets them in to the old and creepy house. Mr. Munch claims he has been too scared to talk about the black-eyed kids for the last 50 years until the recent kidnappings started up again. He reveals they took his fiance, but let him live, and took her through a portal that connects to outer space. Mr. Munch tells the kids that these alien-like humanoids refer to themselves as 'Jungspars'. Mr. Munch has been doing research over the years and has figured out the 'Jungspar' come to earth every 20 years to abduct adolescent girls and boys during their harvesting time to bring them back to their planet and force the abducted into slavery. Mr. Munch has seen the horrors of their planet and reveals they are required to get permission to abduct someone, and will do whatever and however long it takes to force someone to say "yes". The pain endured while saying "no" to them is nothing compared to the pain endured when one says "yes", so no matter what happens, never say "yes". Christopher tries to make contact with the extraterrestrials through his homemade device, but suffers a couple setbacks when the power goes out. The aliens reveal themselves as 'Kluuk' and ask Emily to beat the 'Jungspars' by "shine the light".
Emily and Christopher go out into the forest at night and wait for the 'Jungspar' to appear with no luck. They hear some noise and figures appear: Scarlett, Tobey (Scarletts brother and Jessies boyfriend), and others who have lost people to the 'Jungspar', all ready and willing to help get everyone back. Emily lures the aliens to the forest again as they ask for everyone to let them in. The group shines flashlights to scare them off, but they come back and chase the kids through the dark forest. Emily and Christopher lure them towards a car trap where the lights get turned on and force the 'Jungspar' on the ground in agony, but another 'Jungspar' sneaks up on them and takes out the kids in the cars and turns off the lights. As a result, Christopher and Scarlett are taken, leaving Emily and Tobey as the lone survivors. Back at home, the police force Emily to stay home as she pleads with them to let her go and that they're running out of time to save the ones abducted. Christophers phone pings, but Emily is unable to leave her house due to police guarding her and preventing her from leaving. Her nana helps her escape by providing a distraction and Emily heads towards the location of Christophers phone. Harold spots her scootering down the street and follows her to help out. They hit the spot where Christophers phone pinged, but find nothing until a lone 'Jungspar' jumps into a hole nearby.
Emily and Harold jump in to explore the cave and find the alien typing in a code in a tablet to trap the kidnapped kids in a blue-laser jail cell. Harold lures the 'Jungspar' towards him before shining light to put him out. Emily finds all the missing kids from the entire week and tries to put the code in, which doesnt work. So, Harold smashes the tablet and frees them. However, Christopher and some other kids are not with the group and Jessie reveals theyre going to send them somewhere else. Emily saves Christopher just as theyre about to shove him through a portal, but a 'Jungspar' sneaks up behind her and takes her flashlight. Cornered, Emily uses the whistle from Mr. Munch, which creates a sound that incapacitates the aliens. Emily sees a vision of Rachel, the friend who died that everyones been calling her a murderer for, telling Emily her death was all an accident. Rachel asks Emily to take her hand, so they can play together again, but it turns out to be a 'Jungspar'. It asks Emily if shell let them in and threatens her, but she refuses and kicks it through the portal. As Emily finds herself cornered, the kids arrive with flashlights and throw the 'Jungspar' through the portal. Christopher and Emily hug.
One week later, Emily's family and Christopher are packing their stuff to leave for Cape Canaveral as Jessie and Tobey come to see them off. Mr. Munch nods at them as they pass. While driving through the city, the kids are greeted with the townspeople cheering them on as local heroes as they leave for bringing all the missing kids back.
The scene goes to Mr. Munch in his bathroom as he pulls out his eyes, revealing them to be black underneath.
Cast
Release
The film was released direct to VOD in the United States on July 2, 2021.
Reception
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 20% based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 4.20/10. On Metacritic the film has an average score of 56 out of 100 based on 4 reviews indicating "mixed or average reviews".
While Jeannette Catsoulis of 'The New York Times' gave the film one of only two positive reviews, stating that it had "a guileless warmth that drew my good will", Daniel Goodwin of 'Starburst' reflected the majority, noting it was "a bland and weary hotchpotch of derivative ideas and cheap VFX."
References
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