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THRILL SCALE 1-10
8.5
HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?
Yes, for both, but I saw the American version (Let Me In) before I saw the Swedish original (Let the Right One In)
BEST SEQUENCE
The pool scene, with preference given to the Swedish version (I especially like how brightly it's lit)
BEST LINE
"I'm twelve. But I've been twelve for a long time"
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE
98% (Swedish) and 88% (American)
ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS
"Let the Right One In reinvigorates the seemingly tired vampire genre by effectively mixing scares with intelligent storytelling."
and
"Similar to the original in all the right ways -- but with enough changes to stand on its own -- Let Me In is the rare Hollywood remake that doesn't add insult to inspiration."
IMDB SYNOPSIS
"A bullied boy forms a unique friendship with his new neighbor, who is a vampire."
DIRECTOR
Tomas Alfredson
and
Matt Reeves
MAIN CAST
Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar
and
Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloë Grace Moretz, Richard Jenkins
THOUGHTS
- Doing things a little differently with this one and reviewing two movies at the same time, the Swedish original and the American remake. They are indeed very similar and equally thrilling, but I do give the edge to the filmmaking in the Swedish one, while I think the acting is slightly better in the American version. The Swedish movie has main characters named Oskar and Eli, and the American counterparts are Owen and Abby, so I'll refer to them as Oskar/Owen and Eli/Abby from now on
- I really like these movies, so much so that I was tempted to give them a higher score than 8.5, but the Thrill Scale must be respected. I will say, however, that these are my favourite vampire movies (and incidentally, it's not meant to be a surprise. It's made clear pretty early on that Eli/Abby is a vampire)
- I love the tenderness and the vulnerability we see while the relationship starts to form between Oskar/Owen and Eli/Abby, and this goes both ways, like when Eli/Abby eats candy, even though she knows it will make her violently sick, just to spare Oskar/Owen's feelings. There's a more cynical way to read this, that this is all just a manipulative ploy by Eli/Abby to gain a new servant, but that's honestly not how I see it. Despite the fact that Eli/Abby has been alive for centuries, I believe that she still has the thoughts and feelings of a 12-year-old girl, and she feels just as nervous and excited as Oskar/Owen
- I wasn't quite sure when to mention this, but I feel like now's a good time to say that while Abby, from Let Me In, is female, Eli, from Let the Right One In, was castrated centuries before. I'm going to keep using she/her pronouns for Abby/Eli, as other pronouns aren't established in the movie, and if anyone has any thoughts about the significance of this reveal, I'd love to hear them
- I also think it's incredibly poignant to realize that Eli/Abby's servant at the beginning of the movie, who at this point is an old man, likely started a relationship with Eli/Abby decades ago, in much the same way that we see happening with Oskar/Owen. This could also be seen as evidence that Eli/Abby is more cunning than she comes across, though, if this is a repeated pattern for her
- I realize that I haven't said much about these movies being thrilling, but they definitely are. There are sudden and shocking moments of violence, made even more effective by how clumsy and blunt they are. Eli/Abby's vampire attacks aren't graceful, they're brutal and animalistic. Perhaps even more terrifying, however, are the un-supernatural parts, the moments of human-on-human violence like the servant's botched attempts at gathering blood for Eli/Abby, or when we realize the extremes to which Oskar/Owen's bullies are wiling to go
- Although, the less said about the cat scene in Let the Right One In, the better
- Finally, I said something similar four years ago when I reviewed John Carpenter's The Thing - if you're anything like me, you've been suffering through the summer heat for the last few weeks. As a remedy, I recommend the snowy settings of these films, especially Let the Right One In. A stark, white background for these tales of young love and horrific violence, guaranteed to lower your temperature by at least a few degrees
Up next: The most recent movie on the Readers' Choice list, and a Best Picture winner to boot, it's Parasite from 2019
