Let The Right One In (2008)
Certified: 16
Duration: 115 minutes
Directed by: Tomas Alfredson
Starring: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar, Henrik Dahl, Karin Bergquist, Peter Carlberg, Ika Nord, Mikael Rahm, Karl Robert Lindgren
KRS release
Let The Right One In is a veritable gem of a movie that deserves to be seen on the big screen. Back in December, we had seen the American remake of this film, a remake that is also a gem in its own right. The American version got the feel, story, theme and atmosphere just right.
Having said this, Matt Reeves had quite a template to work with, as this Swedish film is one of the most groundbreaking horror films to be released in the last decade of movie-making. On watching the original, it was obvious that an American remake would soon be on the way.
Adapted from the book by John Ajvide Lindqvist, the influences of an early Stephen King and classic Anne Rice are evident. It is a muscular film that does not simply depend on atmosphere and runs circles around anything that Stephenie Meyer has come up with up until now. This is a film about growing up, about loneliness whether it is the loneliness of a teenage boy or that of an ageless vampire girl. At the same time the film is erotic in its undertones, symbolic in its cold setting and suspenseful in the way it plays out its hand.
The film recounts the relationship between a vampire who seems to be a child of about 12 called Eli (Lina Leandersson) and a bullied boy Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) who is slowly growing into a young man. Both are lonely souls and the housing estate complex that they live in, all dark and gloomy, brings them further together. The two possess a sense of subversive anger.
It is interesting to note that this film explores that usually-ignored area of the vampire myth where the fanged creature has to be invited into a household before making an entrance. The fear of garlic and crosses, aversion to light, the biting of necks, transformation into bats and those hypnotic powers are all well known parts of the ever expanding mythos of the vampire. The fact that a vampire requires an invitation into one’s home, is little known and here delved into quite well. The result is a masterful film about love, but a sad and poignant kind of love that is also a horror tale.
Tomas Alfredson plays the characters and the audience as if he were playing a symphony, all tightly controlled. He seems to be enjoying himself by turning the tables on us, making us yearn to see this young girl and boy connect, as we feel the romance lingering. Thus, it is even more a shock to the system when the freakish and violent acts that the girl commits are brought so savagely to our attention.
It is quite a rude awakening and the fact that our feelings towards Eli do not change makes Let The Right One In an even better film. We are always in doubt as to the intentions of the vampire girl but we feel that their destinies are entwined.