Let Me In: Crossroads – review

Author: Marc Andreyko

Art: Patric Reynolds

First Published: 2011

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Abby's life as a vampire is dangerous enough as it is, and it's about to get much, much worse - the murder rate in the sleepy little town she calls home is climbing fast... and this time she's not the one responsible! Desperate times lead to very desperate measures as Abby and her caretaker fight to protect her secret from a new monster who wants their home - and wants them dead!

The review: Let Me In is up in my favourite vampire films and, in my opinion, superior to the also excellent Let the Right One In. However, I was unaware that there had been a prequel graphic novel until I read so in Simon Bacon’s Becoming Vampire. Somehow it had passed me by. Because of the love of the film there will be a major spoiler in this.

So what we have is a prequel and I will say the artwork is excellent. However the volume does suffer a little bit within, due to the actual story. The most obvious place it struggles is in the fact that it follows the general storyline of the film, with Abby meeting a boy of a certain age, determined to be friends and the father being jealous of this relationship. I really felt that they should do something more unique, broader. There is a side story of small town developers trying to grab the land of some farmhouses (one housing Abby) and a worm that turns, but this could have stood deeper scrutiny.

Talking of the relationship between Abby and the Father… well he is given a name (Thomas), you recall that he was never named in the film, quite deliberately. Now I am not saying they were wrong to do so in this, but they were wrong to do nothing else with the relationship. If they were going to take the step of naming the Father then they should have taken the radical step of examining the relationship in depth but, beyond the jealousy, there was little else.

As for Jon, the boy Abby meets who lives with his stoner/traumatised Vietnam vet father, I know that Simon Bacon suggested it “shows Abby grooming another young boy, as she will do with Owen, to replace Father”(pg 51). This is one reading, and legitimately so. However, this boy seems less broken than Owen, and Abby seems less like the darkness within the child made manifest in this – the fact that Jon is not developed massively as a character probably does not help with this. The fact that a mortally injured Jon is then turned by Abby belies the replacement of the familiar line and could suggest a blossoming attachment deeper than the cynical grooming of a servant.

There appears to be a moment where Abby flies. This is new lore, unsatisfactory given that this prequels the film (and the actors’ images are reproduced quite skilfully).

So, on the surface not a bad little prequel but it was shallow where it should have taken the risk and been deeper. 6 out of 10.