Synopsis: Lonely, 12 year old Oskar is regularly bullied by his stronger classmates. A new friendship develops when Eli – a pale, serious young girl who only comes out at night moves in next door. Coinciding with her arrival is a series of inexplicable disappearances and murders. As Oskar becomes more aware of Eli’s tragic plight, he cannot forsake her. However, Eli knows that to continue living, she must keep relocating. But when Oskar faces his darkest hour, Eli returns to defend him the only way she can….
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Based on its cover, I had essentially dismissed ‘Let the Right One In’ as a slipshod b-grade horror movie. I mean, I like b-movies and I like vampire films, but there are so many of both that you have to pick and choose. And this one simply didn’t inspire me one bit.
Then word got out that it was actually a pretty good film – and this coming from people who don’t even like horror flicks! Wow. Add to this the fact that it’s a foreign production (something I didn’t initially know), and my curiosity was piqued.
So, last year, in my quest to pick up notable horror movies for my traditional October spookathon, I grabbed a copy of it – a limited edition with a holographic cover, no less. It beckoned. My senses failing, I felt compelled to get it at all costs. And I did.
But I didn’t watch it. Not until now.
And, I must admit, it was a bit of a let-down. Based on all I’d heard, I was expecting something much better than this. Oh, it’s not that it’s a bad film – it’s just that it was underwhelming and I don’t really see why it was being talked about as much as it was. In fact, I understand the ‘Twilight’ phenomenon more than this (it doesn’t make ‘Twilight’ a better film – I just mean that I understand the appeal more)
For one, the film is full of nonsensical bits; there were a number of scenes that were totally illogical:
-there’s the scene in which the blonde woman is attacked by the vampire in front of her friends. The next time that we see them together, her friends didn’t know where she had gone to and were worried about her. I had questions about this: why didn’t they take her to the hospital? Instead, she had gotten home somehow – but didn’t they walk or drive her there? Why didn’t know where she was or how she was doing?
-then there’s the one where the man just walks into the vampire’s home, as though it were an open space for all to traipse through. Don’t they have locks on their doors in Sweden? How did he get in? Why wasn’t the vampire, after so many years of dealing with humans, not ready for this type of interference? Say what?
-or how about the fact that the vampire’s helper was picking people off in complete daylight and bleeding them in open, public spaces? I mean, really! How did the pair avoid scrutiny and survive for so long, with this lack of subtlety? Surely they would have been caught by now, years into this practice? I don’t know if it’s just me, but it seemed so simple-minded, as though the writer didn’t consider the consequences of these actions – much like a child until he/she gets caught doing something bad. Except that the vampire’s helper didn’t
This is just the tip of the iceberg, actually. The film is full of weird, unexplained things like these. It was very hard to maintain my suspension of disbelief, thereby impeding my enjoyment of the film.
Making matters worse was the casting of the vampire’s friend (not to be confused with the assistant): while the child actor played him wimpy enough to justify his character’s inability to defend himself from bullies, a central element of the story, he was so spaced out that I wondered if he wasn’t soft in the head a little bit. As far as I was concerned, he looked like he was constantly in a daze or stoned. Perhaps this was intentional, but still… it annoyed me.
There was one really great moment for me, however. Without revealing too much, there is this pool scene that involves the vampire, and I rather enjoyed the way it was put together – it was done from one character’s perspective, under water. Frankly, I thought that it was original, creative, realistic… and surprisingly funny. It’s a truly memorable scene not only in an otherwise “okay” film, but in my whole year of movie viewing.
In my mind, that’s pretty much the only “must see” moment in ‘Let the Right One In’. However, many clearly thought otherwise: it’s since been remade (and recently released!) and there have been many different editions on DVD. All I can say is: to each’s own. I’ll surely let this one in again someday, but I’m in no hurry.
thecriticaleye 