Let The Right One In

The first thing that really struck me about this film was the brilliant acting by the two young main characters, Oskar and Eli, as well as other minor characters played by young actors. The talent captured in this film is nearly unbelievable considering the age of the actors. But there is far more to this film than brilliant acting from young actors. It’s an interesting twist of romance and horror and it may be so interesting because I have never seen anything quite like it. I would like to note that I did see the American remake of this film and thought it was boring but the Swedish original was so much better it left me scratching my head why anyone would consider remaking this masterpiece.

This film stays true to all the original vampire folklore, which rarely ever happens. My favorite genre of film is horror so I have seen quite a few vampire movies and this one truly separates itself from the rest. There are gory scenes but the film doesn’t concentrate on the blood to frighten you. All of the scenes that I recall from the film were cut short and could have been dragged out longer if the director chose to. This is what I love about this film and other horror films that use this same style of cutting scenes after some gore/scare and then cuts to another scene which is usually tranquil. It leaves us wondering what happened. I think this style in horror films allows the audience to have an authentic frightening experience.

While many will label this a “vampire movie” there is much more to it than just vampires. The story is about two lonely children (a male and a female) who become friends and eventually form a romance. The young boy, Oskar, is bullied and reads about violent crimes in order to deal with it. Through each other’s friendship they find their own strengths in themselves. One of these characters (the female, Eli) is a vampire but that’s not important to the story, it just makes it a little more interesting. It’s a beautiful dark fantasy world with a vampire, a bullied child, and a brutal serial killer. All of these components mixed with melodramatic music and incredible cinematography created a unique atmosphere that is unlike any other film I’ve seen in the horror genre.

The cinematography of this film was beautiful. There were some amazing shots that were a real pleasure to watch. One scene in particular was near the end of the movie when Oskar is in the pool. I loved the way the scene was shot with no cuts. The camera was constantly rolling and focusing on different subjects all at the same time. I know I have said this about many of the other films I have posted responses to but this film is truly a beautiful work of cinematography.

This film can be interpreted different ways by different people and that’s another reason that I enjoyed this film. I watched this film with my girlfriend and we both had different interpretations of the ending. I love films like this that are thought-provoking and encourage discussion about the film. This is another thing about the film that separates it from other horror movies. It’s just not that simple. It’s much more complex. Most horror films are very simple and the storyline is very clear with little room for controversy regarding the storyline. Let The Right One In isn’t like the majority of horror movies. It’s unique and maybe that’s the reason that this film will find it’s way in my personal film collection.