Let The Right One In - Preview
Early Reviews Generate Positive Hype for Swedish Vampire Film
Mar 24, 2009
Swedish film Let The Right One In has been quietly building itself a reputation as one to watch. Right here on Suite101, and in numerous film magazines, critics have been touting the film as a top foreign movie to look out for in 2009. As the film nears its official UK release date (10th April 2009), the hype surrounding it seems to be growing at an exponential rate.
Drama, Horror, Thriller, Romance – Let The Right One In is All These Things and More
Let The Right One In focuses on two 12 year olds. Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant), the forlorn and downtrodden target of school bullies, who spends his solitary evenings playing out imagined revenge on his tormentors, and Eli (Lina Leandersson), the peculiar, dark haired girl next door, who only comes out at night. A tentative, romantic friendship develops between these two, and continues despite the increasingly strange, vampiric qualities displayed by Eli.
Most reviews, if they're half decent, will reveal little else about the plot of Let The Right One In. To do so would be to deny viewers the heady pleasure of discovering this gem of a film for themselves. Suffice to say, the cinematography is quite beautiful, bringing a certain poeticism to this strange, and sometimes horrifically gory tale. The harsh, snowy landscape of Stockholm is portrayed as such a weirdly foreboding place that a few murders hardly raise an eye. The performances from the two young leads are also perfectly pitched with a delicate restraint. All this goes towards recommending a genre film more usually suited to teenagers (as embodied by Twilight) to a wider, more mature and film-savvy audience. Let The Right One In takes the road less travelled, and is all the more interesting for it.
Let The Right One In - Based on John Ajvide Lindqvist's Bestseller
Based on a debut novel by Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist, Let The Right One In was a bestseller ripe for adaption. The book gave the vampire genre, with its all too familiar clichés, an original new twist. Actually, twist is the wrong word. There is none of the tease that comes with an M Night Shyamalan film, it's more that the hoary ideas everyone has about vampires are given a fresh new perspective. The title, as well as being based on Morrissey's song Let The Right One Slip In, references the convention that a vampire needs to be invited over the threshold, but Let The Right One In digs a little deeper than that to explore not only what will happen if you do invite a vampire in, but what happens if you don't and they come in anyway.
Adapting Let The Right One In for the Screen
Working closely with Let The Right One In's director Tomas Alfredson, Lindqvist adapted his own novel for the screen. He unflinchingly cut major story-lines lines from the book, not just to reduce his magnum opus to acceptable screenplay length, but also to enhance the cinematic qualities of the story. Recognising what would work best on screen has helped to create an intricate, visually focused screenplay, with an admirably restrained use of dialogue to tell the story. The film is far more about eerie looks and feelings, and the pervasive atmosphere of fear that lurks all around the run down Stockholm apartments where it's set.
No Oscar for Let The Right One In?
Let The Right One In was a big hit in Sweden, and has picked up dozens of awards. It was sadly overlooked come Oscar time, which caused a, let's call it 'lively', debate to rage in chat rooms and blogs, regarding why Sweden put forward a film called Everlasting Moments instead. But as critic Jason Solomans points out (In My View, The Observer Film Monthly, March 2009) does it even matter what films win? “Departures, the winner of Best Foreign Film – has anyone even heard of that?” he comments. He has a point. The lack of an Oscar nomination doesn't seem to have done Let The Right One In any harm. Thankfully, word of mouth has spread the news about the interesting and original Swedish vampire film that everyone should see. Let The Right One In is all set to become 2009's break out foreign film. And deservedly so. Catch it quickly, before the planned Hollywood remake ruins it forever.
Further Reading: Interested in British and foreign films? Check out the foreign films blog on Suite101.
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