LET THE RIGHT ONE IN

I don't get to see as many movies as I'd like as I'm usually swamped with personal projects, amazing chores, family life, work etc. but I watched Let The Right One In last night. I'm not a good movie reviewer-guy (nay, I am much better at reviewing movie trailers to upcoming bad movies), so I'll leave you with these to read instead. All I can say is that the performances of the two kids are great and that I enjoyed it. It's a very subtle, slow-moving Norwegian film. The director claimed that he at first considered making it a silent film altogether and in a sense it truly could work as a silent film. The film is definitely slow-moving and drawn out, but I still liked it.



The film, based on a Swiss book Let Me In, is well-crafted and has a real retro feel to it (not because it's set in the 80's; more so, it has a real retro feel to the film-making because it didn't rely on fast-paced action sequences, flashy whiz-bang editing, cgi (there's a very tiny bit involving some cats) etc. It might have been the director's intentions to utilize the same cinematic techniques and artistic qualities of the period that the movie is set in. In other words, if you watched the movie not knowing it was made last year, you might mistake it for some obscure Norwegian 80's horror flick. The movie doesn't spell anything out for you either. You have no idea where she's from, how she got to be a vampire, or who her older "friend" is (though I have a hunch who he is which I bet the book would reveal) and it works.

Supposedly an Americanized version of Let The Right One In is being made. Also, though I haven't read anything in the Twilight series, I have a feeling that the romantic horror of LTROI far surpasses that of Twilight. As one critic wrote: "There's no going to the prom in this romantic horror." No, the awkward "romance" between mortal and immortal in LTROI is realistic and sad.