dir. Conor McMahon

What if your brother showed up on your doorstep and asked for your help? How about if you didn’t really get along, and on top of that, he’d turned into a vampire? That’s the situation Matt (Karl Rice) is faced with when his irresponsible big bro Deco (Eoin Duffy) appears one morning with new fangs and an aversion to the sun.

With plot points that could make for a supernatural family drama, or a character study with vampires, Let The Wrong One In instead goes for the funny bone and bites down hard. While the brothers are trying to determine the vampire rules, and see if Deco has gained any special powers, they’re a two-man vaudeville show, playing off each other perfectly. There’s sweetness too alongside the laughs: family tensions simmer, especially between Deco and their mother – made worse by the stress of learning her son is a vampire – but amidst the friction the family still reaches to show one another love. 

Boasting naturalistic dialogue and editing and direction that highlights the actors’ comedic timing, the film also has solid special effects, clearly having used the budget wisely. With sequences that include a beheading, skin frying in the sun, and even some flying body parts, buckets of blood will keep gore hounds happy.

Charming and emotionally rich, fans of heartfelt horror comedies – such as Shaun of the Dead – will want to be sure to let this one in after all.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ariel Powers-Schaub