The pre-teen adventure film was a staple of my time growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, not being the target audience I didn’t realize that this sub-genre almost disappeared entirely throughout the aughts. I mean, an entire generation with no The Goonies or E.T. of their own? Thankfully that trend seems to be changing in recent years, thanks mostly to streaming services that are catering to the mid-budget films that big studios all but forgot about. Netflix for instance released Finding Ohana, which fit all of the checkmarks for a seminal coming of age adventure. It looks like the studios have noticed the success of that film and are trying it out in theaters again with Let Us In, which we get a quick look at in the trailer released today.
Let Us In follow Emily (Makenzie Moss) and Christopher (O’Neil Monahan) two kids living in a town where a number of teenagers have gone missing. The pair are visited by a group of black eyed teenagers who appear and ask “Let Us In”, their investigation leads them to scary neighborhood guy Mr. Munch (a perfectly cast Tobin Bell) who was around 50 years ago when this last happened. It’s a fairly standard setup, but that’s not what matters, what matters is the execution. While this film does seem like it could end up being a bit more dark than your standard film of it’s type, something in the trailer makes me think it’s going to be alot of fun. Definitely more The Monster Squad then The Goonies but fun nonetheless.
Check out the trailer below and look for Let Us In July 2nd, 2021
