Movie Week - Let The Right One In

via cinemaissue.blogspot.com

The final offering for Movie Week is Let The Right One In.  It’s sort of a departure for me because I’m not really the biggest fan of the horror genre.   I don’t care for monsters or demons and I’m not interested in slasher flicks. 

But this film had a few things going for it.  First off it was foreign.  Secondly, the word of mouth has been nothing but glowing.  And lastly, I was genuinely curious about it. 

So did Movie Week end on a high note or a low note?

In case you’ve been living under a rock, Let The Right One In is about a bullied kid who befriends the vampire next door.  It was showered with praise and even spawned an American version. 

And Let The Right One In completely satisfies.  I knew enough about the film to have raised expectations and it completely satisfied all of them.  It was intelligent and thoughtful.  It had moments of brutality, but it was never gratuitous.  It was really masterfully done. 

Much like The Dark Night was a film that happened to have costumed characters, Let The Right One In was a film that happened to have a vampire in it. 

Let The Right One In was also hauntingly beautiful.  The cinematography and setting really created a mood that amplified the tone of the story.  The stillness, the quiet solitude it added greatly to making me feel like I was there. It truly was amazing.

Being that it was a Swedish film, I’d never seen the actors before, but they blew me away with their performances.  I really felt for poor Oskar and the bullying that he endured at school, it broke my heart.  And Lina Leandersson’s turn as Eli was equally strong.  Her interest in connecting trumping her knowing that distant was the best approach.  And those bullies were all awesomely believable. 

I really liked how the vampirism was approached.  It wasn’t really a curse but it was something that Eli was dealing with.  It wasn’t glamorized or glorified.  It was just a matter of Eli’s existence.  Her feedings weren’t romanticized, they were just something that she needed to do.  So well done. 

I really don’t have enough praise for this film.  Even the climax of the film is done with such restraint.  It could have been a major set piece for another movie, but here it gives you just enough to see that wrath has been unleashed, but only a glimpse of it. 

So yeah Let The Right One In is everything everyone says it is.  If you haven’t seen it you, you’re missing out on an extremely well done film.