Don’t Let Him In

Don’t Let Him In follows Paige (Sophie Linfield) and Calvin (Rhys Meredith) as they invite his sister (Gemma Harvey’s Mandy) and her latest sexual conquest (Gordon Alexander’s Tristan) for a weekend jaunt at a cabin in the woods, with the foursome’s vacation inevitably taking an ominous turn after a mysterious stranger (Sam Hazeldine’s Shawn) shows up at their doorstep sporting a bloody injury. It’s clear right from the outset that director and cowriter Kelly Smith isn’t looking to reinvent the wheel here, as Don’t Let Him In‘s unapologetically hoary setup has been augmented with a whole host of horror-specific elements (eg the protagonists are warned that “something’s gone wrong with these woods” by an off-kilter local). There is, as such, little doubt that one’s inherent tolerance for films of this ilk initially plays a major role in Don’t Let Him In‘s success or failure, and it’s worth noting that the movie manages to sustain its watchable atmosphere right up until around the halfway mark – after which point Smith and cowriter Chris Andrews place a lamentable emphasis on the in-fighting that naturally ensues among the surviving characters. The progressive tedium of such moments is exacerbated by the film’s unreasonably deliberate pace, with the increasingly predictable nature of Smith and Andrews’ screenplay draining the proceedings of its suspense and confirming Don’t Let Him In‘s place as a periodically passable yet wholeheartedly underwhelming slasher. (And this is to say nothing of the needless in-media-res opening that bizarrely reveals the identity of the final survivor among the four central characters.)

*1/2 out of ****