"Let the Right One In"

[pacificpikachu]

On the urging of archaneah, I watched a Swedish film called "Let the Right One In". And it was utterly fantastic!

I'm going to be vague in any observations I make because I think you should all go and watch it for yourselves, while reading as little about the story as possible beforehand. Don't even read a synopsis or any reviews if you can help it! It'll be all the more powerful that way, I promise. Feel free to skip my babbling below if you want, too--it's really not interesting anyway unless you've seen the movie.

(Just as a note so you can decide whether to download or not, it is R-rated, has some violence/gore and some non-graphic child nudity, and horror themes. Just figured I'd bring those things up in case any of that makes the movie unwatchable/not at all of interest for whatever reason.)

This is the torrent I downloaded: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4481747/Let.the.Right.One.In.LIMITED.SUBBED.READNFO.DVDSCR.XviD-SAPHiRE

First off, the artistry in this film is amazing! In a subtle way, though. The bleak color palette, the framing, the careful obscuring of most of the violence (makes it far more powerful, in my opinion), how pale the main character is, and just the coldness of it all. It's a lonely film and it looks the part very well. I ate it up visually, making sure to enjoy each shot. I thought the use of windows, doors, and mirrors in this movie was just incredible! They were everywhere and it worked well both visually and symbolically.

It was nice to see a film that takes such a tired, overdone, and (to be frank) by now downright boring subject and makes it poignant, fascinating, and horrible again. I've said for a long time I doubted I'd like a story on this subject, but I take that back for this one. :D (In general, opinion still stands, because most of these movies really are awful.) It's fairly grounded for the type of film it is, and I appreciate that. It's matter-of-fact, hardly overdramatized, and that gives it its own power because what you feel is not from melodrama, but from the situations themselves. The acting is superb and understated, especially considering the age of the two mains.

I think it's interesting how ambiguous many things are left in the movie. That's not to say it doesn't wrap up things or that it's just left completely up in the air or anything of the sort, but a lot of it is open to interpretation. The movie does not lead you to one particular judgment or another on things that are usually presented in a much more black-and-white way, especially in Hollywood movies. Is this a love story, or is one of the characters using the other? (I'll attest I see it as more of the first, but I can definitely see why some would say it's the second.) How did Hakan and Eli meet, and what kind of relationship do they have? Will Oskar end up like him, decades later? The morality of any of the given actions of the characters is left reasonably neutral--it's easy to see and understand both sides of the story even when you are horrified by what's going on on-screen.

There are a lot of very memorable scenes. The climax scene of the movie was so unique and suspenseful and amazing! It's both disturbing and heartwarming at the same time. I loved the final scene, too.

This movie is fairly slow in pace and a few people (I skimmed some online reviews after watching the movie) said they felt like some of it should have been edited out, but I disagree. I felt like it all fit together nicely, and actually, when the credits started rolling I was wishing for more! Not because I didn't feel that was a good place to conclude it, because it really was, but because I found it enchanting and didn't want it to end.

Also, there are some darkly humorous and even downright bizarre scenes in this movie in addition to the deeper stuff. It's arguable whether the more humorous scenes were good/helped lighten the mood a little, or too jarring and weird. I'm kind of split. I don't feel like the movie suffered as a result of them but at the same time they were odd to say the least.

Anyway, if anyone else decides to watch (and you should!) please come and discuss/let me know what you think? Either in comments or your own entry. :D Thanks so much for recommending KK, I really did love it and now I want to watch it again, after given some time to forget it a little so there's more impact.

I think I may pick up the translated novel sometime, though it'll probably be a while because I don't like reading books and seeing movies right back-to-back because then I'm comparing instead of just enjoying each for what they are.

Apparently Hollywood is doing a remake of this movie. WHY? I can't say I'm even interested in seeing it. Why Hollywood feels the need to take already perfectly amazing movies and make awful adaptations of them, I do not know. It's one thing if the movie is incredibly old or something, but taking foreign films and remaking them at their whims? Pass, please. :/

Comments

[ethersol.livejournal.com]

ah you mean "Låt den rätte komma", right? coz i have had that movie sitting on my HDD for a while now...been meaning to watch it xDD i didn't read your spoilers though >_> but thanks for reminding me to watch this!

[pacificpikachu.livejournal.com]

Indeed, that's it! Now go watch it!

[snowflaika.livejournal.com]

I've seen the movie after hearing so many good reviews I guess I put my expectations unreasonably high D: I mean... I usually enjoy these kinds of movies. I don't mind slow pace, I enjoy subtle imagery, open endings, slight violence and unexplained parts in the story left for viewer's imagination + I'm positively biased to everything Swedish XD basically this movie is everything I love (except vampires. I dislike them as a species and don't find them even remotely fascinating) but it still didn't click with me for reasons I can't even explain.

I pondered about deleting the movie from my disk a few times but I always thought I should give it a second chance and watch it alone again when I'm in the right mood... but after reading around a bit I'm getting more interested in the book it's based on, maybe I would be less critical of it if it was in written form. Or I can wait for the remake XDDD that will make me appreciate the original film.

[pacificpikachu.livejournal.com]

Nah, there's nothing wrong with just not getting into a certain film no matter how much everyone else likes it. I know I've had that happen to me before--where I just can't get into something/don't care for something even if it's my sort of thing. (I don't like vampires either at all, in fact I'm very negatively biased towards them. In general I think they're SUPER boring and overdone and I've felt that way since I was a kid... But this movie was well-done enough that I really liked it.)

Anyway, perhaps it's worth checking out the book and maybe watching the movie again if you feel like it! I dunno about the American remake, I'm kind of pissy about people remaking perfectly good foreign films to be more aimed at a mainstream audience. Maybe I'll get over my annoyance with this and see it eventually, but... XD

[snowflaika.livejournal.com]

Ahaha tell me about it. Another fad I don't quite understand are zombies, but I'm willing to accept it when the idea behind them is of biological nature, an "intelligent" and highly resistant virus or something of that kind, not a woodoo. Vampires are just ridiculous in my mind, and highly overrated.

That's why I'm expecting the original to look awesome in comparison XD I wish they would reconsider making remakes of movies like this, but when it's money involved who can blame them. People will still go and see it, fans will whine and moan for a while and that's it.

[archaneah.livejournal.com]

That movie hurts me every time I watch it. I always like to think that it's a love story, but there's a big part of me that thinks that it's wish-fulfillment.

The way I've aways taken this movie is that childhood isn't really real. Like, that adults want the best for their kids and sort of have this fantasy built up of childhood, and everyone (kids included) believe that's what it should be like. But then, when you get right down to it, kids are just as nasty, violent and mean-spirited as adults. They just don't have guns. And kids deal with complex problems as well.

Even at the end of the movie, it was this fantasy, dream-like sequence where maybe he can get away and be happy, and while you're watching it, you believe it too. After watching it though, you realize there's no way it can ever last. Whether it turns into a parasitic relationship (and the dream is shattered that way), or authority figures come after him and take him back home, it will end all the same.

So I always saw it as a movie about growing up or being an adult, fundamentally, in a child's body, and how all much of that hurts.

Also, haha, I haven't read the book, but I hear the book covers that one "brief nudity" scene a lot more throughly and explains what that's all about. Kind of an interesting topic th throw in.

[pacificpikachu.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's kind of how I feel about it, too--we know the reality of what's going on is very cruel, but at the same time the film is about two very lonely people finding and accepting each other. But to see it just as that is doing the film a disservice. It is not a happy movie even though there are bits of happiness in it. I don't know, I feel like the characters are perhaps better off together than they are alone, but at the same time Eli still has to drink human blood, Oskar still was involved in all these deaths and likely will continue to be involved in killings (and we see, despite his revenge fantasies, he is reluctant to and even perhaps unable to commit acts of violence against people other than his bullies). Like you were saying, even though you feel sort of happy that the characters are together at the end, afterwards the reality of it catches up and you realize that it's just a little happiness amongst a backdrop of cold realities.

Yes, it's definitely a growing-up story and...well, there are a lot of themes in it, really. I could go on and on. But ultimately that's a big part of it. And ultimately I think we know the end is no fairy tale, not at all, as much as the ending may make us smile at the time. It's so interesting how the film mixes emotions like this. I don't know if I've ever seen another movie that makes me feel a little triumphant at children dying a horrifying death (the climactic scene) and then realize just how screwed-up that is and not even be sure what to feel. Bizarre, man. I love it.

Yeah, somebody in a review I read said Eli was castrated by a vampire nobleman a long time ago? It is an interesting twist in the movie, and I like that Oskar didn't care (and obviously that he didn't care that Eli is a vampire as well). It shows his extreme desperation for positive attention, that he's willing to overlook just about anything for companionship. And we can see why, with the feeling of loneliness and emotional pain Oskar feels throughout the film. He doesn't have close bonds with anyone, really, it seems. His acceptance of Eli regardless of anything is both innocent and desperate at the same time, in a way.

Apparently (unsurprisingly) the US remake is just making Eli's character (name changed to Abbey, I think?) a girl. Wow, Hollywood, you're so predictable. Are they aged up and sexy as well? I won't be surprised if that's the case, pfft. :/ I haven't read that much about it because I get all pissy when I think about the US remake, but the director said something about "making it more accessible for mainstream audiences." Fff. >( I'll admit I'm a little curious but not curious enough yet to read reviews because I'm still too mad that there's a remake to begin with, hahaha.

Anyway, thank you for the rec, it was great! I'm going to watch it again in a few weeks or something, and then perhaps read the novel. :D

[kirarakim.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah great movie. One of the few vampire movies I was actually impressed with since it actually does something different with the genre. I heard the book is even more disturbing.

This is the American trailer btw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reRRAEVHq8E