Review: ‘Let The Right One In’ redux

Let The Right One In
Horror as a Strange Kind of Poetry†¦

By Nick Day

I looked forward to this film for the better part of the year and now that I have seen it I give it my highest recommendation. It won Best Narrative Feature at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival and has continued to win praises throughout the year.  Genre master Guillermo Del Toro thinks it is  “as delicate, haunting and poetic a film as you’re ever bound to see… a chilling fairy tale.”   That’s no small praise from the man who brought audiences films like “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “The Devil’s Backbone”.

The title “Là ¥t den rà ¤tte komma in† is translated “Let The Right One In†. The film is based on a book of the same name, and the screenplay has the benefit of being written by the author of the source material, John Ajvide Lindqvist, a former stand-up comedian, magician and television writer. Since its publication in Sweden in 2004, the book has been translated and sold in 12 different countries. It is known in the USA as “Let Me In”.
Director Tomas Alfredson has turned this popular book into a masterful film. His work, as well as cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema’s, raises the film above and beyond its genre trappings by crafting a formidable drama concerning vulnerability and manipulation, innocence and experience.

Alfredson was in Los Angeles recently to talk about this remarkable film:

Why set the film in 1982?
Alfredson’s answer is at first a little disconcerting. “It’s autobiographical,† he says and with a grin he adds, “except for the vampire stuff.†

are-you-a-vampire-clip

The story unfolds in Sweden, circa 1982, in a Stockholm suburb. Everything is snow, ice and frozen breath. Oskar (KÃ ¥re Hedebrant) is twelve years old. He is bullied relentlessly and has violent revenge fantasies. New neighbors move in, an older gentleman and a girl, Eli (Lina Leandersson), that appears to be Oskar’s age, though appearances are deceiving. The filmmakers waste no time revealing their bloody business.
Lot’s of people identify with the pains of adolescence and we’ve all known a bully or two but what would draw a forty-year-old filmmaker to a love story between two children, one whose vampirism belies her true age and another a budding sociopath?
Alfredson admits to knowing “nothing† about vampire fiction in folklore or film and relied only on what the author, Lindqvist, supplied him. So, what drew him to the material was not the more exploitative elements but the fact that the material was “an unsentimental attack on complicated themes.†

fight-back-clip

Vampires in fiction have been largely neutered. The clichà © is to paint them in glorious, gothic trappings and so it is this approach, this matter-of-fact mentality, which separates the film from your typical genre offerings. For example, there is nothing sensational about Eli or her lifestyle. There is a chilling detachment regarding her murders, not because of an insensitivity to the act but because it is such a natural part of Eli’s existence.
Instead of turning to classic films or books, Alfredson sought inspiration elsewhere.
“I studied Renaissance painters,† he says, specifically “when it comes to lighting and colors.† He cited, among others, Hans Holbein as a key to his film’s visual motif.
What about the “cold† look of the cinematography?

climbing-the-building-clip

“It is very hard to capture cold on film,† Alfredson admits. So they went north where cold was in abundance. “We filmed in temperatures of 30 Celsius [-22 Fahrenheit],† he says, “cameras were stopping†¦I got frostbite in two fingers.†

Alfredson has no regrets concerning the extreme temperatures during the shoot and he caught that elusive look he was after.
“It’s a strange kind of poetry,† he said, “the light is like knives.† It’s an appropriate metaphor considering the film’s subject matter. The images in this movie can cut right through you.
Response to the film has been resoundingly positive and it’s proving to be a success, so naturally there will be a sequel, right?
“I’m not a sequel kind of guy,† Alfredson reassures us.

Let The Right One In opens…

10/24/2008
Irvine, CA: University Town Center 6 Cinemas
Pasadena, CA: Playhouse 7 Cinemas
West Hollywood, CA: Sunset 5
New York, NY: Angelika Film Center

10/31/2008
Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa, Bijou Theater

11/7/2008
San Diego, CA: Hillcrest Cinemas
Washington, DC: E Street Cinema
Huntington, NY: Cinema Arts Centre

11/14/2008
San Francisco, CA: Embarcadero Center Cinema
Chicago, IL: Landmark’s Century Centre Cinema
Cambridge, MA: Kendall Square Cinema
Baltimore, MD: Charles Theatre
Minneapolis, MN: Lagoon Cinema
Philadelphia, PA: Ritz at the Bourse
Nashville, TN: Belcourt Theatre
Seattle, WA: Varsity Theatre

11/21/2008
Denver, CO: Mayan Theatre
Providence, RI: Avon Cinema

11/28/2008
Santa Fe, NM: The Screen

12/12/2008
Hartford, CT: Real Art Ways Cinema

[rating: 4.5/5]