October 3 – Let The Right One In
Posted: by Sean Gonzalez
Let The Right One In (2008): Directed By Tomas Alfredson
In One Sentence: A beautiful tale of romance between two young children not fully cognizant of the exact horror they live out.
Why You Should Watch: I went into this movie completely blind. I knew nothing of the plot and that ended up adding a whole lot more into reasons I totally loved this film.
First off, it’s entirely in Swedish so the subtitles will be your saving grace. This is awesome because it forces people to actually pay attention to the movie instead of looking on instagram at the same picture of your friend’s fucking cat you’ve seen five times today but keep hoping something new will show up. It can be incredibly desensitizing when someone is watching a horror movie and misses a big scare/plot point because of their social media attention whoring.
This is a film that does not oversexualize or zombify vampires. Lately there are two streamlined Vampire movies/shows. There is the “Oh my god he/she is so beautiful I wish they would take me, turn me and then do whatever they please with me for the rest of my sexless mortal life,” or the “holy shit I can’t tell if those are zombies or vampires but they are fast and entirely terrifying to the point of non-belief.” This movie floats somewhere in the middle of the pools of blood left by the others. The plot isn’t centered exactly on the creature, but rather the human nature of pain, vengeance and apathy. It just so happens that there is a bond solidified by two young children in a morbid situation.
Honestly, I didn’t even know this film was so recent. It is show in this oddly dim light and focuses a lot on pure nature driven scenes that it felt like a 90s movie to me. This is fantastic, because it has a vintage feel but is set in a timeframe where the movie looks like it could even be a documentary. There is also this chilling scene at the end that is probably the best use of sound ever in a film that I have watched. Not only is the sound entirely spot on, but the context of the scene is absolutely horrifying. You’ll know what scene I’m talking about (it has a pool).
The actors are spot on, with both the children actually having their required characteristics present in even the way they look/walk. The others are equally spot on, with not much thought having to go into “is this believable” because every character makes it believable. From the horror of watching a bloodsucker to being a punk ass kid picking a fight, the people that make up this movie just fit.
Favorite Line: “I’m twelve, but I’ve been twelve for a long time.”
