Halloween Movie Marathon Part 1

Let The Right One In

Vampire love story.  Thanks to the Twilight series, at this point this plot description is the stuff of Jedis, Pirates and other established Hollywood tropes.  Let The Right One In came out the same year as its high profile cousin, but it is paramount that the two not be confused.  Major differences from Twilight are as follows:

1.  This film does not suck (that is, in the sense of it being bad).
2.  This film is Swedish.
3.  This film's protagonists are 12 years old.

To further dispel any confusion:  you may have noticed a fairly similar looking film out in theaters right now called "Let Me In".  This is an American remake of Let The Right One In.  I have not seen it, so I can't say that it's totally redundant (especially since the more I hear from Reeves the more I like the guy) but to be clear, if you have the mental fortitude to deal with subtitles, then this is the film you need to see--or at least see first.

An often bullied little boy in a quiet, remote town befriends a young girl who has just moved into his apartment building.  As he grows more infatuated with her, he becomes aware of her connection to a series of grisly murders and ultimately that she may be something other than human.

This film has been called a masterpiece and after finally watching the thing, I can see why.  Each shot is painfully still and the composition is excellent.  Its violence feels incidental, but not casual; horrifyingly muted.  The only moment where the director allows any hint of B-movie campiness is a scene involving a room full of cats (I'll leave your mind to wonder).  Otherwise, this is an art film through and through.  Prepare yourself for weighty silence.

This is also the first movie I've seen that actually makes the state of vampire-ness something seriously regrettable.  It's presented like a sickness, and it's something you do not want to catch.

This film is also contains a refreshing return to the twist ending.  The best twists are the ones that were right under your nose the whole time, ones that you could have and should have seen coming before the reality of what's happened smacks you over the head.  There's also never a 'sucker-punch' moment where the director pulls the twist out of a hat.  You can connect the dots at any point throughout the second half of the film.  I didn't realize it until the very last shot.  Eli strung me along just as well as Oskar.

It seems like the prevailing doctrine on how to make a 'good' monster movie is to make the creature a metaphor for something else.  The thrill of watching the monster itself has long left us in the era of special effects.  We all know what a vampire is, but what does a vampire mean?  Let The Right One In manages to be metaphorical (it's a cautionary tale and a twisted coming-of-age fable) but also never sacrifices the inherent thrill of its monster.  Before the word 'vampire' is even uttered, the film has built its monster from the ground up, lending new definition to a word loaded with preconceptions.  This is an entirely new breed of vampire and believe me, you won't know what to expect.

Let The Right One In:  A


Type of scare:  Unsettling.  Mixes suspense with sparing moments of stomach-turning violence.  The monster is not left in the shadows but her intentions are.  Its scares are slow and well punctuated.