What's with all the demonic little girls in movies these days? Joining Let Me In is Christian Alvart's thriller, which is unremarkable except for its subversive subtext. Emily (Renée Zellweger), an unmarried woman working in child services, rescues waiflike Lilith (Jodelle Ferland) from demented parents and takes her into her home until a permanent family can be found. As you might guess from her name, however, Lilith isn't as sugar and spice as she seems, and she can really get under your skin, or into your ear, as one of the more horrific scenes attests. Deviating from the usual Hollywood line, Case 39 proposes that a woman who opts for a career over a family isn't pathetic but rather has escaped a life of enslavement to an all-devouring malignancy. Beyond this jab at family values, the film offers few surprises, being a pale imitation of The Exorcist and Damien: Omen II.
