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LET THE RIGHT ONE IN [2008] review

January 9, 2009 · Print This Article

Have you ever seen a vampire movie that did not show fangs once?  After you watch the quietly hypnotic LET THE RIGHT ONE IN you will have.  This movie is a true original.  It’s also truly smart with no hack dialogue, really not any more dialogue than is truly necessary.  It is also a very sweet movie, without being heavy handed or manipulative in any way.  Make no mistakes though, this movie is also very dark.

While watching LET THE RIGHT ONE IN I almost felt like what I was seeing was by accident.  Like this wasn’t a movie, but more like I was spying on two kids going through the difficulties of their daily lives.  Lina Leandersson as the 12-year old vampire girl, Eli, is especially good.  I would vote for her as best actress if the Academy gave me a vote.  She plays the role note perfectly.  She befriends Oskar, a skinny boy with the palest skin I’ve ever seen.  He gets bullied at school.  

Little by little we learn the vampire canon this movie plays by.  Eli has breath, but doesn’t seem to need to breath, she doesn’t get cold, she has a reflection, but she can’t enter homes without permission.  And as I stated in the opening of this review, you never see her fangs, if she even has any.  This stroke of originality is an example of what sets this movie apart.  Recall how original FARGO was for featuring a pregnant woman as the lead character but having no birth scene.  That’s the level of originality we get in LET THE RIGHT ONE IN.  What also makes it so original is the canon and backstory on Eli they do not explain.  

As these are 12-year old kids, or at least one actual 12-year old and another that has been “12 for a long time,” their budding romance stays true to reality in that the intimacies they share are extremely subtle and lie in the realm of written notes and having their own secret code for tapping out messages to each other.  

The movie is set in a small town in Sweden (set in 1981).  It looks really cold there.  The movie takes you right into the cold and the darkness, but also takes the time to warm you up, but in a most peculiar way.  

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Written by Jason Collin · Filed Under Movie Reviews, Recommended 
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Comments

2 Responses to “LET THE RIGHT ONE IN [2008] review”

  1. Ben
    on January 9th, 2009 8:54 AM

    After watching HBO’s True Blood, I wonder how this will compare? Granted that was a mini-series and this is a movie, and the plots are altogether different. After reading your review though, I’m interested in taking a look.

    Reply

    Jason Collin Reply:
    January 9th, 2009 at 11:50 AM

    Ben I watched TRUE BLOOD also and LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is very, very different. The only thing they have in common is a main character as a vampire. They are different in vampire canon and in the fact that vampires are still secret in LET THE RIGHT ONE IN.

    That said, they are both good in their own way. I would definitely recommend you give LET THE RIGHT ONE IN a try.

    I reviewed one ep of TRUE BLOOD here:

    http://jasoncollin.org/2008/10/03/true-blood-episode-04-escape-from-dragon-house/

    Reply

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