Let The Right One In (2008)

3 out of 5 fangs.

Trailer

It`s pretty rare that a movie described as being in the horror genre is able to hold its own in a dramatic sense as well. Let The Right One In actually did it pretty well.

Subbed in English and spoken in Swedish, the movie tread the thin triple line between a long and drawn out European film, a slightly inappropriate drama involving children and another vampire movie lost in a sea of similar attempts. Fortunately, it avoids all three pitfalls pretty artfully and keeps you interested without scaring you away too often. I never found myself really cringing at anything, but was never bored enough to sleep either and believe me, I have a very comfortable couch which is not conducive to viewing any kind of movie after 3pm according to my old-man body-clock.

Alright. So the main character is a 12-year-old boy, Oskar, who`s bullied at school but makes a slow friendship with this girl that just moved into his apartment building. The movie follows Oskar, the girl, Eli, and the girl`s "father" as he goes out and murders people around town to harvest blood so that she won`t have to be subjected to killing humans herself, which she does anyway on the side when her cravings get too strong. Interesting sound tidbit here: the filmmaker was really specific in the way he wanted to portray the characters in this movie. During the first half of the film, the younger characters were always shot in close-up with the background out of focus to ensure that we get a sense of how isolated these kids are. It also helps that it`s set in a suburb of Stockholm in the winter which is pretty isolating in itself. There are a lot of long moments/pauses on the children`s reactions which lead me to think that either (1)these children are super cerebral and sentient creatures, (2) the actors are confused about how to react to the previous line or (3) it`s proof of the stereotype that European movies are always long, pensive, dark and drawn out. Let`s give the benefit of the doubt to the kids this once and say that they`re just deep feelers. That sounded raunchy.

Speaking of raunchy, there was a quick shot of the vampire girl changing into a dress and you can see her choch pretty clearly. This was a little upsetting for my sensitive-to-gay-priests American mindset but quickly overcome as I reminded myself it was made in Sweden and in Europe, nudity, drugs, gays and liquor are all in a "depends on the family" kind of idea group. But I thought about it and decided that if she were my daughter, I definitely wouldn`t want her showing her 12-year-old on the silver screen. I wouldn`t care how much she was getting paid or how "method" of an actress she claimed to be at that age. They can pay for a fucking body double if they want baby choch so bad in that movie. My little girl`s choch is no one`s business but her own until she`s like 18 and then I just have to start drinking heavily until I get used to the fact in a very Steve Martin in Father of the Bride way.

It`s a fun watch. Just be sure to download the .srt file or you`ll feel like you`re watching junior Twilight through the eyes of an IKEA employee.

- B