Let me start by saying movies that use false advertising should be pulled from theatres upon discovery of their misdeeds.

Let Us In uses Saw villain Tobin Bell to pull audiences in. He’s first-billed, and the best publicity stills for the movie are of him.

And yet, he literally speaks for one scene. He’s got one five-minute scene, and is otherwise missing in action. And that, my friends, is deceptive.

I went into Let Us In hoping to see the character actor Bell chew up the scenery. What co-writer and director Craig Moss gave me was a careless, flimsy supernatural excuse for a horror movie.

It follows two young kids who begin looking into the disappearances of teens in a small town. But things are even deeper than they ever imagined.

Aside from Bell’s cameo, there’s not a single performance of note. The child stars are one-note and boring, the supernatural actors are worse, and there”s nothing redeemable here.

Part high-school dramedy, part coming-of-age, and part flimsy horror, nothing comes together. This movie fails on all fronts.

The special effects look like they were made in a grade 10 Computer Science class, and I couldn’t find anything that gave me joy more than when the film ended.

1/5 Stars