Let The Right One In

Kåre Hedebrant in a scene from the film

Having known about this film for quite some time now, I became more interested in it again when Matt Reeves remake of the Swedish film, Let Me In, was released. Rather than going and seeing the remake at the cinema, (which has actually received rave reviews) I decided to see the original first.

Let The Right One In tells the story of bullied 12-year-old Oskar. When Eli, a vampire, moves in next door, he befriends the pale young girl and romance begins to blossom. What I loved about this vampire tale was that it wasn't a horror, it wasn't a sappy romance like the one in Twilight and there wasn't an annoying vampire gang of friends. It was a love story between two children that had its complications because one of them needs blood to live.

The setting of the film takes place in a small poor town somewhere in Sweden surrounded in snow. The way each scene is shot it makes everything about this poor town seem somewhat beautiful. Like the picture above, Oskar is in his tiny bedroom doing morse code to Eli who is in the room next door. The wallpaper on his wall adds to the beauty of this scene but it's also an intimate moment between two people. Ahh I'm just crapping on, but I felt like this film was shot so beautifully that it was just mesmerizing. The story isn't solely told through dialogue, there are a lot of quiet moments where you just enjoy the scenery.

I'm not a big fan of the vampire genre that is taking over our screens lately, but this film was a breath of fresh air. Also since seeing this and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I'm determined to watch more Swedish films. Judging by my other reviews I have tended to only watch foreign films that are French (I am a big fan of French cinema) but I think I'll venture out a bit now.

Rating: 4.5/5