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5:25 a.m. - 2023-05-18
LET ME IN 2: OWEN AND THOMAS
"Maybe I'm getting sloppy. Maybe I want to get caught. Maybe I'm just tired." Thomas
"I'm sory abby." Thomas's farewell note

In the beautifully shot opening scene of LET ME IN, we see at first a nocturnal landscape, then lights in the distance. Then we become aware of sirens and realize that the lights are from two police cars and an ambulance. Inside the ambulance we get our first glimpse of Thomas (the very talented Richard Jenkins), horribly disfigured to the point of being unrecognizable, being desperately worked on by two paramedics, as they hasten to the prison ward of the local hospital. Through the words of a homicide detective (the always interesting Elias Koteas), we learn that the patient/prisoner is a suspected serial killer, perhaps even a member of a Satanic cult. But Thomas's true identity is not made clear until later. The gradual revelation in the visuals, as well as the confusion about the identity of the patient, foreshadows Owen's slow discovery of Abby's true nature later in the film.

Owen first sees Thomas and Abby, imperfectly in the darkness, when they move into the apartment next to his. Alone in his room as usual, Owen has been spying on his neighbors in a scene that evokes Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW. The neighbors, seen through Owen's telescope, never seem as real to us or Owen as will Abby. Abby leads the way into the apartment building, never looking back at Thomas, as he lugs a large trunk like a porter on safari. This opening sequence, seen in retrospect, defines their relationship. They have been together for most of Thomas's life, as we learn from the photos that Owen discovers in their apartment. At times they seem like an old married couple, one alternately scolding the other. But in a revealing and almost tragic scene, Abby orders Thomas to move from his spot so that she can communicate with Owen through the shared wall of their adjoining apartments. Thomas doesn't understand at first, then gets up slowly, like an old man with stiff joints, obeying Abby's command. There are seeming moments of tenderness between them, but Abby is in charge. Thomas has grown old in her service.

In the viewer's eyes, Thomas goes through several potential identities. First he seems to be a serial killer, but somehow answerable to Abby, who berates him for a failure in a strange, androgynous voice that is nothing like what we hear in her interactions with Owen. Like Owen, we think he is Abby's father, but finally learn that he is her familiar--something like Renfield in DRACULA, but in a more intimate and nuanced relationship. Like the bully Kenny, Thomas at first seems to be the greater evil, but just as Kenny was subordinate to his brother Jimmy, so is Thomas to Abby.

Nevertheless, Thomas is unfailingly loyal to Abby, willing to make himself her next blood meal once his usefulness has been exhausted. Over all those years it would not have been difficult for him to kill her, as we realize in the scenes showing the devastating effect of sunlight on vampires; he could simply open the windows to their apartment, admitting the sunlight, as almost happens when the detective finds Abby in the bathtub. When Abby asks him if he is going out--to find another victim for her--he answers rhetorically, "Is there a choice?" Abby's reaction is one of sadness and compassion, laying a gentle hand on his arm. But given her proven ability to deceive, can we believe what we think we are seeing? When about to be apprehended, Thomas disfigures himself with concentrated sulfuric acid. We saw him packing it with his other murderer's tools before setting out that night. It must have been something he has always known might be necessary, and that he accepted as necessary. Was the acid his idea or Abby's? Will Owen be given a similar backup device?

The pole that Owen uses to hit Kenny resembles the one used by Thomas to hide the body of Abby's victim. Earlier in the movie Owen, alone in his room, fantasizes about fighting back against Kenny, using the same language the bully has used against him. He holds a knife, and we see Thomas expertly using his own knife to exsanguinate his victim, suggesting long years of experience. Owen also wears a mask, as does Thomas when he hides in the back seat of his victims' cars. But Thomas's mask appears to have been fashioned from a black plastic bag. Thomas has literally put himself in a garbage bag; he is disposable.

The old photograph tells us that Thomas was about Owen's age when he and Abby became close. It suggests a pattern, and, not boding well for for Owen, what seems to be a coming of age preteen romance is in sharp contrast with the co-dependence of Thomas and Abby years later. The impending divorce of Owen's parents, as well as the squabbling relationship of the couple across the courtyard suggest the ephemeral nature of real-life romantic relationships. Owen and the viewers would like to think they have discovered young love, but nothing is young forever.

 

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