"Let The Right One In" Film Review

     So I finally got around to watching the Swedish version of one of my favorite movies, Let Me In. It seems like everyone who saw Let The Right One In was praising it as being one of the best films ever made, and therefore I was excited to finally sit down and watch it. And what did I think of it?

   To put it bluntly, I have mixed feelings.

   Now, before everyone sends out the film critic lynch mob, let me start off with what the movie does well. The cinematography is interesting, and unlike Let Me In, it comes off as being more artistic than average misè-en-scene. You can tell that the director was willing to take risks with regards to framing his shots, and this did make the movie stand out. The placement of different elements within the shots provide for some pretty unique sequences, which is why the cinematography in this film is superior to Let Me In. Also, the pacing in this film was well done and it flowed pretty seamlessly, except for only a few parts here and there. In terms of the onscreen chemistry between the two leads, I believe it was decently established and was interesting enough to give the movie some context. 

    But of course, I did have a few minor problems with this film. The biggest one was the absence of the film's tone. While I understand that the bleak and quiet atmosphere was intentional, nothing about it really said "horror film" and I had a hard time seeing Eli as scary. The chemistry between her and Oskar is acceptable, but sometimes it's also overshadowed too greatly by the minor characters who are given a good, yet mostly unnecessary, amount of screentime. Another issue I had was that there was literally no soundtrack in this film except for maybe one or two parts in the whole movie. I mean, it's a horror movie, so music is kind of required for establishing the emotional context. The film seemed to have problems with deciding what exactly it was, and it kind of shows. Even with that aside, some of the lighting was kind of innapropriate in some areas (like, someone is really going to slit someone else's throat in the middle of a brightly-lit area? C'mon…). I did think that it would have helped the cinematography if some of the lighting lent itself to be believable, but luckily the cinematography usually covers up these mistakes and is still able to maintain consistency. 

   In terms of whether or not I prefer this version over Let Me In, I'll have to say that I am still sticking with the American version (yes, I know. Sue me). My reasoning is that the chemistry was more maturely developed, the lighting was consistent with the tone, and the soundtrack helped give the film a coherent identity. 

   All in all, I was slightly disappointed in this film, but it did prove interesting enough to be satisfying in its own way.

   Overall rating: 7/10