Conor McMahon (director)
(studio)
18 (certificate)
100 (length)
01 April 2022 (released)
03 April 2022
Let the Wrong One In doesn’t mess around with vampire lore. It’s all here: garlic, sunlight, stakes, bats and blood. Where it does take a different route is to do away with the cliché of the vampire as svelte and elegant.
These characters are from Dublin and the complete opposite as we see Deco (Eoin Duffy) stumbling along the street, having been bitten by Sheila (Mary Murray) - who was turned while on her hen party in Transylvania. Using an umbrella against the sun, he’s a pathetic sight as he makes his way to a household that doesn’t want him very much.
His past dabbling with drugs has caused a huge split with his mother (Hilda Fay) and a lesser one with brother Matt (Karl Rice). With mother out to work Deco manages to get himself into the house and after projectile vomit of blood Matt decides he’s a vampire and calls a doctor. The message however is intercepted by Henry (Anthony Head) who is actually a vampire hunter tracking his fiancé Sheila who is running amok with her vampire hen party.
His appalling Irish accent soon falls apart as does his killer persona when the brothers find out what a crushing bore he is. Nevertheless he’s a danger and with help from Dublin’s taxi driver network has kept track of the vampire explosion in Dublin and what diabolical plans Sheila has in mind.
It doesn’t take long to work out the level that writer/director Conor McMahon has pitched Let the Wrong One In. And that’s not demean it in way as the slapstick and comedy ideas here are very good. As when Deco is having trouble controlling his urges as vampire and Matt is battling between Henry and Deco in chairs.
It’s a great ensemble cast hitting and bantering of each other mixing it with plenty of fun and between the good, the evil and not so evil mixed with the absurd: calling a doctor for vampire.
There’s no holding back on the gore either but in general the laughs are the priority here and there’s plenty of them.
Let The Wrong One In was presented at Glasgow FrightFest 2022 and is now available on digital platforms.
