Sweden, Land Of Subtitled Vampires - Let The Right One In (2008)
What better time for a film about vampires to come out than when all the kids are on their Easter holidays. Let The Right One In opens this Friday, and is certainly a refreshing change to the usual keep-the-kids-amused fare we get into the cinema at this time of year.
This review comes with a warning though: the movie’s is Swedish. That means it was shot in Sweden, that they speak Swedish, and that there’s subtitles. If you’re not prepared to read the subtitles, then I don’t ever want to have to talk to you again.
On paper, Let The Right One In sounds a lot like the recent tween-pleasing Twilight: young Oskar (Hedebrant) keeps to himself and has few friends at school, living in an apartment with his mother. When Eli (Leandersson) moves into the building, he becomes enthralled with the young girl, with the eventual revelation that she is a vampire, incapable of escaping her hunger for blood.
Therein ends the similarities, as Let The Right One In acknowledges the darkness of its topic in a way Twilight never would: at its core a film about vampires, we’re treated to the blood, death and violence you might expect, and although Eli evokes her fair share of pity for viewers and Oskar alike, Leandersson plays a deliciously terrifying character that provides some genuine scares. The film, set in Sweden (and with subtitles) makes use of the environment as much as possible, blood and water (in all its forms, including ice and snow) coming together to create some truly graphic imagery: even the sounds that Eli makes as a vampire are disturbing enough that, for a lot of scenes, we don’t need the accompanying visuals to be absolutely terrified.
Much of the drama of Let The Right One In plays out thanks to the acting talents of its young stars: terrifying as Leandersson can be, her talent would go unnoticed were it not for the wide-eyed innocence of Kare Hedebrant as Oskar, embodying the outcast child that we pity (especially when we see him bullied in school), that Eli wants to save, but who may be just as much of a monster as Eli herself.
Alfredson’s direction creates a high level of tension throughout the film, in a way that few others can manage, something that is added to by a sparse soundtrack and infrequent dialogue, alienating the viewers in some ways, but in doing so, giving us something in common with Oskar. Even at its most bloody, special effects and make-up are at a minimum in the film. And yet, here is where the film’s weaknesses lie: as much as it pulls its audience in dangerously close, some of the effects just don’t work and only serve to break the film’s thrall. Some scenes and characters are equally distracting from the heart of the film, with many left in to be faithful to the novel the film is based on: few of them are properly explained and most provide more questions than they do answers. In a film like this, we’d be much happier to watch Oskar and Eli play all day and night.
Let The Right One In doesn’t offer the epic romances of Twilight or the slay-fest of 30 Days of Night: instead, we’ve a slow, thoughtful vampire film that despite its flaws, deserves a place amongst the finest vampire, growing pains, and foreign language movies of this decade.
Originally posted on FrankTheMonkey.com and shared on BurnAllZombies.com April 9, 2009