If you enjoy awesome movies then you like Let The Right One In. I guess you could label this a horror film, it's about vampires (or, one particular vampire) and it's pretty much the anti-Twilight. In fact, it makes all other recent vampire media (eg. Buffy, Underworld, True Blood) look silly by comparison. Horror conventions aside, it also happens to be a very good film in it's own right (which some great horror films can still fail to be) and it's a classy piecve of work from pretty much every angle you look at it.
Oskar is a picked-on twelve year old boy in 1980s Sweden. He's a loner without any friends and he dreams of exacting violent revenge on the kids who bully him. His world begins to open up when he meets Eli, a strange girl who moves into the apartment block where he lives. She only comes out at night, and the old man who cares for her seems to be connected to some grisly local murders. Oskar and Eli become friends and, perhaps, something more...
I'll try not to say anything more than that for fear of spoiling the movie, just rest assured that this isn't your average horror or crime movie. It moves beyond that to be something more; a coming-of-age for Oskar, and a morally ambiguous examination of what kind of reality would coincide with the vampire myth if it happened to be real. The film starts quiet, but builds to some amazing, creepy set pieces that explore the traditions of vampire lore from a sideways angle. At the film's heart is the relationship between Oskar and Eli, something that allows Let The Right One In to break free of the horror genre and become something a lot more original and indefinable. Their friendship is the most modern, non-lame, realistic take on how their inetraction might work - which is fascinating in itself, and leaves you thinking well after the film has finished. You sympathise with these characters despite the horrific events they are a party to, but you also question the unsaid drives and motivations that must push them... I guess I just can't express enough how well done this film is.
This review would be longer but I don't want to talk about the movie in too much depth in case it gives anything away. It's pretty much the best vampire film ever made. It's completely un-cliched, disturbingly realistic in execution, and packs more than a few surprising moments. It's an absolute tragedy how little notice this film will get from western audiences simply because it has subtitles, especially in light of the Twilight-fuelled vampire craze that is going on right now. It's like watching everyone else eat McDonalds at a party where the hosts have spent all day cooking a mouth-watering pig-on-a-spit, it's rude and mindboggling. Vampire-fans will get no better sustenance for their hunger than this film, watching this film will actually make them better people*. And if you're not particularly into horror or vampires this film will still knock your socks off all the same. Go watch this movie now!
*Not a guarantee.
DIRECTOR: Tomas Alfredson
WRITER/SOURCE: script by John Ajvide Lindqvist, based on his own novel.
KEY ACTORS: Kare Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar
RELATED TEXTS:
- Based on John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel Let The Right One In. The title is a reference to a Morrissey song.
- Remade as the American film Let Me In.
- Other non-English language fantasy films that exude class and play with horror traditions include Cronos, A Real Friend and Pan's Labyrinth.
- Lindqvist has also written at least two other novels that subvert and reinvent traditional horror conventions, Handling the Undead (about zombies) and Harbour (about the sea).
AWARDS
BAFTAs - nominated Best Foreign Language Film.
1 comments:
yeah! saw this movie last week too! i think its really important that people realize its more of a movie about people and relationships and less about vampires, i almost didnt watch it because id been told it had to do with those sinister creatures of the night (im not too excited about them at the moment) but im so glad i did! i hear the book is even better! (duh).
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