I'm not a huge fan of foreign horror movies. Sure, Japan makes a few good ones from time to time, but for the most part, I prefer to see the American versions so I don't have to read the subtitles to understand what's going on. The only trouble is, sometimes the Americanized versions aren't quite as good as the original. I haven't seen the Americanized version yet, so I can't compare the two, but if it's even close to how good this one is, I'll watch that one too.
Let the Right One In comes from Sweden, as far as I can tell. I think it's swedish, anyway. Look, they were speaking a foreign language and it was snowing all the time, all right? It could have been Alaska for all I know. Anyway, this movie is a tender, heartwarming drama about a tormented and lonely little boy who meets a lonely little girl, and they hit it off, and what transpires afterwards is enough to warm the cockles of my cold icy heart.
Sure, the little girl is a vampire, but that's not the point. This movie is right up there with Return of the Living Dead 3 as far as tenderness goes. I cried at the end of that movie, goddamit. Cried like a little baby who'd lost his bottle. Not this one, but it was a close thing. Close, I tell you. (sniff) Spoilers to follow.
Oskar is, much like me as a child, picked on by his classmates. I identified with him immediately in that respect. Unlike me, Oskar does not fight back at all, being a meek, emotionally torn child who just doesn't have it in him to hurt another human being, though he fantasizes about killing one of the bullies picking on him. It's about this time that he meets his new neighbor, Eli.
There is no secret about what Eli is. At least, not from the audience. To Oskar, she is merely a girl about his age who seems to spend so much time out in the cold that she is used to it. Since he does the same thing, this doesn't come as much of a shock to Oskar. Yet from the start of the movie, we see Eli and her, well, let's call him a companion, hunting blood for her. There is no explanation, really, of how Eli got there, or who she is, or how old. To Oskar, she says only that she is 12, and has been 12 for a long time. Things only really start to become troublesome when Eli's companion mangles a killing, and is discovered. But what happen after that I will leave to you to watch.
There's a few drawbacks to this movie. One is, one of Eli's victim's survives her attack, and transforms into a vampire like Eli. Only, while visiting a friend who has a lot of cats, the cats swarm and attack her like the scene in Sleepwalkers (which I reviewed last October), much to the same effect. It's almost as if the scene was ripped directly from that movie. Another is Eli's relationship with her companion. From the beginning of the movie I suspected there was a lot more in common with Eli's companion and Oskar than was obvious, and by the time the end of the movie came around, they seemed even more alike. Which does not mean good things for Oskar, but eh.
The horror in this movie was understated to great effect. Eli seems nothing more than a waif, much like the little girl vampire from Interview with a Vampire, only Eli is much stronger. Her true strength does not even become apparent til the end of the movie, almost as if she is holding back for dramatic effect. There are several scenes where you have to look closely to even notice she's not just a little girl, even though her vampiric side is in full bloom at the time. One such instance, which you might even miss and yet has no bearing on the story, is when Oskar takes Eli into a dark room. While the door is open and light filters in behind her, Eli looks perfectly human, yet once Oskar closes the door and fumbles around for the light switch, all you can see in the dark are Eli's glowing eyes, for just a brief instant, and then CLICK the lights go on and Eli is human once more. Oskar never sees them, as her back is to him, and a few other such instances occur, just to let you know that Eli is not so much a girl as she is an inhuman killer.
But that is perhaps the true horror of this tale, as you realize at the end, just how much Oskar and Eli's companion have in common, and whether Eli is truly Oskar's new best friend, or... not?
Good movie, bit of a slow start. I was tempted to switch off on several occasions, as I usually prefer my monster movies a bit more over the top, and this one is rather ponderous almost all the way through. Honestly, perhaps the scenes where Oskar is being bullied were a bit too close to home for me, but still, this movie came highly recommended, and I am passing along that recommendation.
The differences, for instance, of this movie and last night's movie are extreme, as they are almost total opposites. Perhaps the only thing they share is that the identity of the killers in both movies is immediately known to the audience, but whereas Piranha seeks to distract you with nudity, loud music and explosions to reach the end of the film, Let the Right One In keeps you in suspense for not only the start of the movie, but the entirety of the film, right up to the closing credits.
Definitely not a popcorn-muncher, but something i'll happily watch again in the dead of night, just to make sure i didn't miss any of the sneaky-vampire moments.
No comments:
Post a Comment