“You might want to ask your readers about audience reactions to Let Me In starting today,” says HE reader Christian Hamaker. “I saw it last night with a large contingent of press, but also a sizable audience of regular moviegoers. And the reactions to this film were perplexing.

“People simply don’t know how to respond to a vampire movie that doesn’t deliver traditional scares. They tittered with expectation that a Big Scare was about to come, and laughed at some of the early relationship between the two young principal characters — both somewhat understandable in the earlygoing. But at some point, they were laughing too hard, presumably, I’m guessing, they simply don’t know how to respond to a movie that doesn’t offer up Freddy Krueger-ish boo-scares.

“At one point, a frustrated critic behind me shouted to the other audience members, ‘Shut the f*%k up!’ I think he spoke for several of us who appreciated the movie’s artistry.”

Note: The “moron” screening technically happened in Maryland, just over the border from Washington, D.C., but it was held for Washington, D.C., or D.C.-area media.