Let The Right One In
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Movie Reviews of Let The Right One In
Movie Review: Let The Right One In
Summary: 5 Stars
Wow, what a different movie! I didn't quite know what to expect, but this silently blew me away. A Swedish film about vampires I hadn't really heard about 'till yesterday, it sounded a bit weird from the product description. Turned out to be one of the strangest films I've ever seen, yet at the same time it is a wonderful film from up here in the cold North. One should be warned right away though; this is quite violent and also very uncomfortable to watch at times. The film centres on skinny lonesome 12 year old Oskar, a Swedish victim of bullies at school and the son of a broken home, living in a suburb of Stockholm in 1982. His mother obviously loves him a lot, and his father as well, but it appears his mother is kind of distraught by life and his father struggles with alcohol. Watching Oskar trying to avoid getting tormented by the cowards at his school was quite discomforting, but it sends a powerful message in itself. Such a great actor for an adolescent!
Eventually, he meets Eli, a 12 year old mischling of androgynous looks (you'll learn the story about it later in the film) that moves in next door with an older man. Turns out, Eli is a vampire and the old man; Håkan, has to kill various residents in the area while trying to secure blood for Eli whom appears to dominate him completely. Eventually they get compromised, and the net tightens around Eli, who has eventually formed a strong bond of friendship with the lonesome yet strong Oskar. Together, they kind of fight the world, yet at the same time it gradually dawns on Oskar what Eli is; "I'm not a girl", as she says at one time. That is all I'll say about the plot, but I can promise you it is very different from anything you've seen. If one should compare it to "Twilight", the recent American film of the same genre, this is a VERY dark film for adults, while that was a relatively light film for young adults.
The film is somewhat similar to another Swedish film; "Show Me Love", which I also highly recommend you check out if you liked this, although it is a bit different. Go ahead and watch this great film about becoming adult, teen hood, life in general and of course; vampires! Also, it is interesting to see Sweden anno 1982, if you had travelled to the same areas today, you would quite probably fear for your life due to the anti-European hatred from the ghettoized immigrants. 5 stars!
Movie Review: Finally, a Vampire movie worth watching!
Summary: 5 Stars
Bram Stoker would be shaking in his coffin if he were to see how vampires are being portrayed today on TV and in Movies. Movies like "Twilight" and TV shows like "Vampire Diaries" are bringing Vampires out in the daytime, having them in intimate relationships dealing with "high school" drama. Thankfully directors such as Neil Jordan ("Interview with The Vampire") and Tomas Alfredson stayed true to the legend of the Vampire.
"Let The Right One In", starring Kåre Hedebrant as "Oskar" and Lina Leandersson as "Eli" brings the classic vampire tale back with a unique twist. The film is based on the book by the same name from Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist. "Let The Right One In" begins with a man out in the woods collecting blood from a recently killed person. Little do we know this collection is for a 12 year old vampire who has been living for hundreds of years. It is a fresh take on the classic vampire dilemma: finding food and staying out of site and sun.
One of the many things this film got right was the atmosphere. This is a Swedish film and was shot entirely in Sweden. This was the perfect setting for a film like this. The constant snow fall and dreary look of the town really added to the realism of the movie. Unlike "Interview with The Vampire", I could relate more to this modern setting. The director chose exactly the right times for the music score to come in. He didn't saturate every moment like a lot of horror directors tend to do.
This story is a lot more than just a vampire girl trying to survive. It is also a story of love and redemption. Oskar is constantly being bullied by the local kids and he is always so retreated and alone. Eli brings a sense of wonder to his life. He finds in her an oddness that brings him out of his shell. He builds a relationship with her carefully and slowly. She teaches him how to stand up for himself and gives him confidence. It is an interesting back and forth between the two as their relationship builds. A testament to the director and the actors.
This is a wonderful film that has single-handedly brought a genre out of the "sparkly" hole vampire films have been in for the last few years.
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Movie Review: iconoclastic vampire story artfully filmed
Summary: 5 Stars
While watching this film on the big screen just yesterday, I was struck by the realization that perhaps no other genre of film plays so heavily on architecture than the vampire film. This modern, contemporary, even human -- vampire story is no different, but is also very different. Rather than the cliche dark forboding castle or gothic mansion, we have the unsettling normalcy of the empty spaces of the modern world. In fact, it is through this interplay between the entrapment of enclosed spaces and the vulnerability of open spaces that most of this film's suspense is built. That, and the crossing over from the lighted space to the dark and vice versa are deftly, almost subliminally, handled. Two scenes, edited crisply together, really represent the permeability of thresholds (and our blithe obliviousness to them) quite aptly -- young Oskar shuts the lights off in an empty classroom, and then steps from the darkened space of the room to the well lit hallway. Instantly we are edited to a shot of him emerging from the well lit building into the darkened space of the out of doors on a wintery Swedish afternoon, where the trio of bullies await. Almost all of the most tiresome and cliche aspects of the vampire legend, with all its baggage, are missing here. By having the main characters so young, and the girl as vampire, the legend is interestingly DE (and then RE) sexualized. In an awkward scene with Oskar, his estranged father and another man (dad's gay partner?) the theme of lonliness and heartache is lingered over yet again. There are also overtones of Von Sternberg's "The Blue Angel" (the clown who lingers in Lola Lola's shadow that we encounter when Emil Janning's professor character first meets her...) that inform this films conclusion (No spoilers here!) Like everyone else says, this film is beautifully shot, wonderfully lit by the natural glow of the dying sun and the eerie glare of the incandescent bulbs of walkways, intersections, bridges. Besides Murnau's historic "Nosferatu" and Herzog's romantic remake of same, I've never had much use for the vampire film. This is a very special film -- one you'll think about for days after seeing it. You might not be scared, but you will be haunted.Movie Review: Beautiful, haunting and mesmerizing coming-of-age (with Swedish vampires) story
Summary: 5 Stars
Oskar is a lonely and disturbed young man, living with an alternately distant and overprotective mother, whose loving but alcoholic father has left them. He is bullied at school, and Oskar imagines what it would be like to frighten his torturer as he has been frightened. Then he meets Eli, an apparently odd but pretty young woman who moves next door, who turns out to be something altogether different. The relationship that develops is both extremely touching and utterly disturbing. The film touches upon themes that are at the heart of the Showtime series Dexter, but with a tenderness that reminded me of My Life as a Dog. It is a completely unique cinematic experience (a nice alternative to Twilight), well worth watching, and that must be seen more than once to catch the most intriguing elements.
This astonishing film deserves to be seen widely, far beyond the "cult film" and even "arthouse" audiences that have been wowed by it in theaters. Here's hoping that with a newly subtitled version on dvd and Blu-ray (it is unclear whether the announced update is what you'll get when you buy it through Amazon), this film will find the mainstream audience it deserves. It is, by far, the most moving scary movie I've ever seen - for its unique combination of innocence and dread, the only precedent I can think of might be the fascinating The Night of the Hunter. The atmosphere of the film is perfect, the story is gripping, the acting is brilliant, the cinematography is powerful (capturing the point of view of children, and attending precisely to the details necessary to tell the story without superfluous imagery, lit to just the right levels to create a stark contrast between day and night). Highly recommended.
Movie Review: The Quiet, Frigid Horror of Predation and Victimization in One Swedish Town.
Summary: 5 Stars
"Let the Right One In" is among the most striking vampire films I've seen. It is less a horror film than a drama with a horrific premise that jumps out at the audience every once in while. The film was directed by Tomas Alfredson from a screenplay written by John Ajvide Lindqvist, author of the novel on which it is based. In a working class suburb of Stockholm in the early 1980s, a frail, bookish 12-year-old named Oskar (Kare Hedebrant) is terrorized by bullies at his school, while a murderer who drains his victims' blood stalks the community. Oskar is miserable, without friends or any obvious self-esteem. One evening, he is approached by Eli (Lina Leandersson), a 12-year-old girl who recently moved into his building. Eli is as socially isolated as Oskar is, but she could be a dangerous friend to have.
The violence that lies beneath the nearly silent, snow-covered exterior is the scary part. It's cold. The population seems affable but disaffected. The efforts of Eli's keeper (Per Ragnar) to procure blood for her are so mundane and matter-of-fact that their violence is all the more startling. Yet I almost pitied him his difficulties. Oskar's mounting anger threatens to explode. Eli is a haunting girl with dark hair and big, blue eyes, possessed of a calm resignation and no aversion to killing. The film achieves its creepiness through a measured pace, quiet setting, and a refusal to spell anything out for us. We're never certain what's going to happen or even what we want to happen. We come to understand Eli's predicament slowly. In the end, I wasn't sure what I thought of her, but Eli made a strong impression. In Swedish with optional subtitles.
The DVD (Magnolia 2009): Bonus features include 4 deleted scenes, a Photo Gallery of 20 production stills, a Theatrical Poster Gallery of 5 posters, and a "Behind the Scenes" (7 1/2 min) featurette in which director Tomas Alfredson talks about the movie, casting, and characters. Subtitles are available in English, English narrative, and Spanish. Dubbing available in English.