Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Let The Right One In


Synopsis From Backcover:

Lonely, 12 year-old Oskar is regulary bullied by his stronger classmates.  A new friendship develops when Eli, a pale, serious young girl who only comes out at night moves in next door.  Coinciding with her arrival is a series of inexplicable disapperances and murders.  As Oskar becomes more aware of Eli's tragic plight, he cannot forsake her.  However, Eli knows that to continue living, she must keep relocating.  But when Oskar faces his darkest hour, Eli returns to defend him the only way she can...

I don't think I can ever stress how much I really loved this movie.  It is so rare for me to truly love a vampire movie that was made post The Lost Boys.  I can probably count on one hand how many I've truly enjoyed since then.  John Carpenter's Vampires was a dissapointment, Dracula 200 was just OK, The Forsaken should have been forsaken, and don't even get me started on the Twilight movies.  I get really excited when a new one comes out and I'm almost always dissapointed.  So when I kept hearing great things about Let The Right One In, I took it with a grain of salt.  And since it never came to Wichita, I never had a chance to see for myself if reality live up to the hype.  So when I was at Barnes & Noble and saw it on sale for $9.99 I figured, what the hell.  Let's see if it's as good as I've heard.

Thank frickin goodness I went with my impulse buy.  There was nothing about this movie I didn't love.  Oskar is this lost, little boy who is horribly bullied by the other boys in his class, so when he meets the mysterious little girl who just moved into his building, he grabs at the chance for friendship with everything in him.  Little does he know that his new friend is a vampire trapped in a childs body for all eternity.  And little does either of them know of the dangerous and dark paths their friendship will take them down.  I'm going to leave my description of the storyline right there, I don't want to give too much away. 

The filiming of this was brillianty done, there is not one frame that was wasted.  Angles and shots were used to heighten the tension level and keep the audience on their toes. There was a level of tension throughout the movie that was balanced with the need to drive the storyline and make you care for the two main characters even when things are being done you probably wouldn't agree with. 

Now with all the praise I've heaped on this movie so far, I'm a little hesistant to say this next bit of information.  If I had to say that ther was anything wrong with the movie, and it would be under duress, it would be the fact that the ending seemed a little hurried and maybe a trifle bit forced.  I didn't mind what happened in the ending, I just had a slight issue with the pace of it.  However, it had no effect on my feelings towards the movie as a whole.  It was a brilliant masterpiece of suspense and horror.

8 comments:

Zia said...

Great review!! I Loved this movie!

Rabid Fox said...

Ah, you see. Now I just want to watch this movie even more, especially after having read the book. Nice review.

Staci said...

Sounds like a good one..I've never even heard of this!!

Anonymous said...

Why have I never heard of this before now??? I must see it!

Steph said...

What an incredible description of this movie -- you've made me want to watch it. I am also loving your description of the sad state of the vampire genre since The Lost Boys. :-D

I read Let the Right One In, but though my daughter's seen the movie adaptation --
http://aspergiansarah.xanga.com/704647100/let-the-right-one-in-l%C3%A5t-den-r%C3%A4tte-komma-in/

I haven't watched it yet. It sounds amazing.

Wolfchild said...

Could you elaborate on how you found the the ending to be forced or hurried? I have never seen anyone make this comment before, and I am always interested when I come across unique impressions of this film.

Michelle Stockard Miller said...

I told you it was good! Now you really must read the book. I read it after I saw the movie and I loved it. It was my favorite read in 2009. I'm glad you liked it. I need to buy it myself!

Elena said...

This is a great movie, I actually prefer it over the book (but I think that might have something to do with the book being translated into English from Swedish). I gave up on vampire movies being any good a long time ago, but I like this one because it's more of a love /friendship story than anything else. Now I feel like watching it again...