Let the Right One In
By Nick Manteris · 0 Comments · Leave a Comment
Let the Right One In is being touted as the greatest thing in vampire movies since Nosferatu, but the plodding pace of the film subverts any good that it has to offer. (It is also being described as the antithesis to Twilight, which isn’t entirely fair since Twilight is just a high school romance with some supernatural elements.) This movie, however, has an actual vampire in it, which apparently makes a big difference, because this Swedish film is generating a lot of hype. People must be responding so favorably because this is a somewhat traditional take on the vampire myth and it seems fresh because “traditional” has been a rare occurrence in vampire fiction lately.
On average, there is at least one new vampire film released every year, but, despite this fact, there are just not that many good vampire movies. Chronos and Near Dark are probably two of the best ones, followed by The Lost Boys, Fright Night and Interview With the Vampire. Next up are Blade, 30 Days of Night, Frostbitten (the other recent Swedish vampire film) and From Dusk Till Dawn, but then it gets a little more difficult to fill out the top ten. (Underworld was fun enough, but does it belong? What about Night Watch? Vampire’s Kiss? …Lifeforce?) Let the Right One In might be a top ten vampire flick from a sheer lack of competition. The regrettable thing is that none of these films are without (sometimes serious) shortcomings, and even though they are enjoyable despite these flaws it would be nice to have one faultless story involving vampires. Admittedly, the problems in Let the Right One In are mostly related to the execution of the story rather than the portrayal of the vampire myth…pretty much the opposite of many of the other aforementioned movies. The good news is that this story doesn’t contain blood sprinkler raves, buff saxophone players, clinging to the ceiling, instantaneous vamping out, talking animals, “death by stereo” or sparkling in the sunlight. (There is a sunlight-related “burst into flames” though, but at least it wasn’t a sudden “melt into goo” or an instant “burn into ash” scene.)
- Score
- 6/10
Unfortunately, the film as a whole is, for lack of a better word, anti-synergistic… even though they get a lot of the little details right the whole is somehow lesser than the sum of the parts. Maybe it’s the way the movie drags until those details are revealed or maybe it’s the things like the generic school bully that just work against the story, but Let the Right One In is not the instant classic that the world wants… and it certainly isn’t the great vampire film we all need. They are planning an English remake though, and if it fixes the storytelling problems then maybe that version of this story will inspire someone to finally create a worthy vampire tale.
One last thing: If you decide to watch this film you may be tempted to choose the English dubbed version on the DVD. Trust me: You do NOT want to do this.
