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C. O. DeRiemer |
Date: 2008-12-07

Let the Right One In is poignant, sad, weird, different, elusive, as well as being a fine movie. Oskar is a blond 12-year-old who lives with his divorced mother in an apartment complex in Stockholm. He's bullied incessantly at school. Neither his mother nor his father seems to have much time for him. He's a quiet kid who dreams of getting back at his tormentors. He doesn't seem to have any friends. Then an older man and a child move into the apartment building. Her name, we learn, is Eli. She's 12 years old, too, pale, and at times looks haggard. Oskar meets her one evening in the playground in front of the apartment complex. Snow is deep on the ground. The weather is freezing. The cold doesn't bother Eli. By now we know Eli is a vampire. Oskar realizes this later.

Let The Right One In is a strange fusion of coming-of-age and horror, but the result is something else. Don't ask me what. It doesn't fit in any film genre I'm familiar with. Calling it `horror" is too facile. Calling it "coming of age" is too shallow. In the course of the movie people will die, drained of their blood. Eli's...what?...protector?...partner?...the older man named Hakan she lives with...will kill for the blood he and Eli must have to survive. He'll die a terrible death himself. Eli will tell Oskar that they can't be friends, yet Oskar yearns for friendship. He asks Eli to be his girl friend before he knows she is a vampire and she asks him if he would like her if she weren't a girl. When he asks her age, she tells him she is 12 and has been for a long time. Oskar's innocence may be part of his protection. Eli is not innocent, but at times she seems as fragile as Oskar. Like the man she lives with, Eli will kill for blood. She must.

Kare Hedebrant plays Oskar and Lina Leandersson plays Eli. I understand that at the time of filming Hedebrant was 12 and Leandersson was 11. Both were nonprofessionals. They are unnervingly natural. Neither makes a single false step. Hedebrant is exactly what a lonely, bullied 12-year-old could be. Leandersson is able to imply things we may not want to know just be being still. I wound up hoping for the best for both Oskar and Eli...but what the best might be could go in a number of directions.

This is a film, adapted from his novel by John Ajvide Linqvist, which invites discussion and interpretation. Not everything is kept clear, and, for me, that increases the sense of elusiveness. Lat Den Ratte Komma is a wonderful film.

Excuse me, however, if I reach for a barf bag. The director of Cloverfield, Mat Reeves, has evidently signed to make an English language version for Overture Films and Hammer Films. The chance that something unusual, unsettling and restrained will be turned into butcher shop leftovers is just about, I'd guess, one hundred per cent. See this movie while you can. Since it probably will be shown in only a handful of American theaters, I recommend you buy it sight unseen when it comes out on DVD. It's that good.

E. A Solinas |
Date: 2008-12-17

Vampire movies tend to come in two flavours -- either they're gory bloodsucker actionfests, or celebrations of goth hotties tortured by their immortality.

But "Let The Right One In" is neither kind or story. Instead this haunting, atmospheric Swedish movie is a poignant look at a very unique friendship between a young boy and a vampire child. Brilliant acting and a sort of pale, ghostly directorial style make this a vivid experience, but the brilliance is in the story itself.

One winter night, Oskar (Kare Hedebrant) sees a car drop off his two new neighbors. He doesn't pay much attention at first, since he's always either ignored or bullied.

But as he vents his frustrations by stabbing a tree, he sees the ghostly, rumpled Eli (Lina Leandersson), who informs him, "Just so you know, I can't be your friend." She turns out to be as much of an oddball as Oskar -- especially since she only ventures out at night, smells a bit funny, and is unaffected by the winter cold. But despite her odd greeting, the two strike up a friendship.

At the same time, a series of brutal murders are taking place all around town -- and it's no great shock that Eli's companion Hakan (Per Ragnar) is harvesting blood for Eli. Being no idiot, Oskar realizes that Eli is a bona fide vampire, and doesn't intend to let that get in the way of their puppy love. Yet when Hakan's errands go horribly awry, Oskar finds himself to be the only person Eli can rely on.

It's no great exaggeration to say that "Let the Right One In" is undoubtedly the best vampire movie made in many years. While the movie has plenty of more violent moments and a snowy backdrop, director Tomas Alfredson is far more focused on the sweet, eerie relationship between two lonely, otherworldly young children. And actually, one of them is young in appearance only.

Alfredson paints the movie in white, scarlet and black -- pale, wintry light and snow that covers the world, occasional splatters of blood and deep shadows that seem to swallow everything up. And he handles the entire storyline gracefully. Every part of the movie has the same matter-of-fact, unflinching treatment, including the nastier parts -- such as a gruesome blood-harvesting murder by Hakan, or when Eli attempts to enter a house without being invited. Trust me, it's bad.

The most loving attention is devoted to the children's friendship, which manages to be as strange and beautiful as a rare dragonfly. Their nighttime meetings almost have the quality of a dream ("I might not be here tomorrow") and Alfredson keeps their blossoming relationship from ever seeming cutesy or contrived. And it has an innocent quality that transcends the sometimes bloody, disturbing storyline.

And trust me, "Let the Right One In" has no sentimental ideas about children (even vampiric ones). They can be more violent than anyone, because they are more vulnerable than anyone.

The stars of this movie are undeniably Hedebrant and Leandersson, and it's nothing short of amazing that they have never once acted before this movie. Both have the ice-pale faces and deep eyes of otherworldly creatures, making their friendship seem almost inevitable. Leandersson in particular is brilliant at showing the different sides of Eli -- one minute she's shyly asking about a Rubik's cube, the next she's bellowing at her creepy familiar.

"Let the Right One In" is a hauntingly beautiful story of children's friendship and love, wrapped in the most unique vampire stories in many years. A must-see.

Thomas Pratt |
Date: 2009-03-15

First off, let me say, in my mind Let The Right One In is the best movie of 2008 ... period! That said, the DVD release is NOT the theatrical version!!! Read the other reviews if you would like to know what it's about but I want to make a quick comment on the DVD.

First off, the english dubbing is a joke. Turn it off and go with the subtitles. Thre dubbing takes aways from the story and is almost laughable.

Next, the subtitles are not correct and much is left out!!!! If you watched the trailer you see Oskar ask Eli to be his girlfriend ... a sweet moment between 2 tweleve year old kids ... in this version, the subtitle reads ... 'Do I have a chance with you?" WHAT????? What 12 year old talks like that??? The subtitles get worse, and much is left out.

I've seen this movie 3 times in the theater, and reviewed for several websites. I'm sad to say, this DVD is not that movie. By changing the subtitles, and actually removing dialogue, the story has lost much of it innocence and taken the viewer on a trip that is confusing at times ... I guess the the producers of this film didn't feel American Viewers could understand the simple beauty of this story and had to sreamlime the dialouge and make it more adult ... Shame on them!!! I'll be loooking for a European release to purchase ...

Robert P. Beveridge |
Date: 2009-06-01

Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008)

When trying to convince my sister-in-law and daughter, both thirteen, to watch this fantastic film, at one point I got tired of trying to do so with my usual critical terms and just said, "it's Twilight, but good." Which, of course, scandalized them both, but when it comes right down to it, there are a great number of similarities between the two films' themes, but the execution is almost polar opposite. Film buffs will detect, for example, hints of Kieslowski in Tomas Alfredson's location choices. I defy anyone to say that about Twilight (and be able to back it up).

The plot should sound familiar, if you're in America (since it seems everyone in the country has either seen Twilight, read the book, or both): a young human falls in love with a young vampire, who returns that love, but realizes that a true match between them is impossible. Where Stephenie Meyer's sparkly vampires, on the one hand, want to be RomEmo and Juliet, it seems as if John Ajvide Lindqvist (adapting his own novel) simply said "hey, how about we write your basic love story, but give it an undead twist?" Ironically, the one that doesn't try so hard is the one, if either of them does, that will end up the classic. Oh, yeah, and Eli (Lina Leandersson in her first film role)? She don't sparkle. However, similar to Twilight, there's a scene where the human finds out what happens to the vampire during one of those times that are traditionally supposed to be bad for vampires. And, like Twilight, that scene is one of the movie's most memorable. But trust me, there ain't no sparkling.

I don't even know where to begin saying great things about this movie, so I'll start with the obvious: the two young actors playing Eli, the vampire, and Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant), her human friend. I absolutely, positively cannot believe neither of these two has acted in professional movies before this. They are absolutely perfect in every way. Oddly, they remind me of Jude Law and Elina Lowensohn in The Wisdom of Crocodiles, though the roles are reversed (and yes, I do mean to imply there's tension of a romantic nature between them), and despite my love of The Wisdom of Crocodiles, Leandersson and Hedebrant are simply flat-out better in this film.

Then there is Tomas Alfredson. Unlike his stars, this is not, by any means, Alfredson's first movie. Before getting showered with awards from around the world for this flick, Alfredson had already won both TV and movie awards, most notably for his 2004 film Four Shades of Brown. This is the kind of guy who would likely, were he in the American system, never even consider making a horror movie. But then, I'm not sure there's anyone like Alfredson in the American system. Who's the last director you can think of in Hollywood who made a TV comedy series, a movie spinoff, gritty dramas, and a horror film staring a couple of preteens? That sort of thing doesn't happen in America. And we are the worse for it. (And when was the last time you saw Kieslowski echoed in a horror film? Look at the building in which they live--if the two movies had been made in the same country, I'd swear it's the exact same apartment block that sits off to the side of the block where all the main characters live in Dekalog. And it's not just the building--it's the lighting as well.)

I've already mentioned John Ajvide Lindqvist's script, but I should do so again, because it doesn't matter how good your actors are, you have to give them something to work from. And this script? Genius. It's everything that, I think, Twilight wanted to be and failed, both book and movie, so miserably to be. Everywhere that Twilight is ham-fisted, Let the Right One In is understated. As a result, the relationship between these two characters feels far more real than that between Bella and Edward, for whom the world essentially stops in order for the two of them to emote. The big difference, naturally, is that Twilight is essentially a romance, and is written in the way Americans expect a romance to be written. Let the Right One In, on the other hand, is a drama that contains romantic elements. The love story is less important than the characters who are involved in that love story; Lindqvist's characters are gloriously three-dimensional. Lindqvist took a lot of care to bring his characters to life, and it paid off in spades. Eli and Oskar are two of the most endearing characters in modern film, to the point that when we see Eli doing the things she needs to do to survive, there's no real horror involved; we can sympathize with the vampire during the vampire's least human moments. (There's one scene in particular towards the end of the film where this is particularly powerful, but it would be the mother of all spoilers to tell you what it is. You'll know it when you see it, and like the scene I mentioned before, it's one of the film's best. The sympathy that Lindqvist has taken the time to build is, one hundred percent, the reason this scene works as well as it does.)

I could keep going. Once I'd made the Kieslowski connection in my head, I almost dug out my Dekalog review as used it as a template for this one. (This was the result of frustration; I've been trying to write this review for two months, and every time I've tried, it kept turning to mush. What finally made it gel was the other connection, to The Wisdom of Crocodiles. I can't believe it took me two months to see that.) It's one of the handful--at best--of movies I've seen since Dekalog that has had an effect anywhere near as profound. And the list of movies that would qualify contains a number of immortals (most notably Satantango). It's obviously far too early to consider calling Let the Right One In one of the best movies ever made. That hasn't stopped the machine that ranks the IMDB Top 250, where this movie sits at #190 as I write this. Time will tell if it becomes the classic it currently promises to be, but on a more local scale, I can remember few ten-best-of-2008 lists where Let the Right One In did not appear. The reason for this is evident; it is, in every way, a superlative achievement. In the time I've been reviewing movies, which now stretches over two decades, I have given a five-star rating to less than thirty films. This one joins the pack. *****

Roger |
Date: 2009-01-25

To describe this move as a horror movie is to miss the primary themes underlying it. I'll try to limit repeating what others have said about its background. Oskar lives in a stark, lonely world where nobody seems able or willing to take the time to understand the pain caused him by cruel classmates at school. His parents display affection but remain distant, too busy with their own worries. Oskar senses this and does not confide in either parent. He has nobody, no one to feel his pain. Until Eli.

Like Oskar, Eli holds a dark secret of her own. She must kill to survive, yet there is a very human side to her that does not delight in inflicting pain. Nobody, not even the one person who knows her secret, understands the conflicts in her heart, her desire not to be cruel combined with the need to kill in order to live. Eli's affection for Oskar comes through in small yet significant gestures that viewers may not realize until after the movie. At one point, she even risks her existence to show Oskar who she is and that she can be vulnerable. Like Oskar and even more so, Eli is alone to deal with these unsolvable conflicts.

Tomas Alfredson brilliantly captures the barren, emotional desert in which Oskar and Eli live. The direction is focused but restrained. The excellent musical score complemented the movie well. Alfredson draws the viewer into this lonely world where two people find in each other a strength, a hope and discover that perhaps their world is not as lonely as they had once believed it to be.

Kare Hedebrant and Lina Leandersson are brilliant in their acting debuts. Both bring an innocence and refreshing simplicity that make the complex roles they play easily believable. It's hard to imagine anyone else in these roles and while I'm not opposed to the remake being made in the US, my expectations are minimal, so much so that I don't plan on seeing it unless the reviews are stellar. I can't see any remake being as good as Alfredson's original. This movie is that good. Big budget doesn't equate to excellence.

Thanks to the brilliant directing and acting, anyone who has struggled with loneliness will find much to identify with in this movie. It simply captures you. The themes in this move are like still water. They run deep and I expect to be thinking of the themes for some time. Like the book and musical score, this wonderful movie goes into my collection when the DVD is released. This movie is destined to become a classic, an underappreciated gem.

IMPORTANT EDIT!!!!! The DVD release is NOT THE SAME FILM I WATCHED IN THE THEATER. Magnet ruined it with changes to the subtitles and the musical score seems softer at least to me. Don't waste your money until Magnet changes the LOUSY subtitles. Even better yet, get a copy from a region outside North America that wasn't ruined by Magnet's bonehead revisions! Just be sure that you have a player that can play other region coded DVDs.