Film Review: Let the Right One In (2008)
Let the Right One In is a fantastic and extremely strange film to say the least and after watching it for the second time on Blu-ray, my thoughts about it are even stranger: If I identify it as a "cruel" film, that leaves me vulnerable to being accused of giving the film an uncharitably "cruel" reading. On the other hand, if I say that the film is one of my favorites, I might have to explain why I like it in order to escape being called a misanthrope. I'm even tempted to say, moreover, that one either likes this film, or one detests it—but if I said this I would be wrong: according to IMDb's user ratings, which I regard as fairly accurate in gauging how well "liked" a movie is among a general audience, the film has scored an 8.0 out of 10.0 among the site's users and is ranked as the 233rd (of the "Top 250") most popular film ever made. Rather surprising, considering how discomforting the film is, how it forces the viewer to think about things that people tend to avoid thinking about (it isn't exactly a “feel-good” film); but then I remember that this is in fact a vampire movie, and, after all, vampire movies are expected to deliver, well, frightening blood-sucking vampires.
This is the type of schizophrenic inquiry that the film is meant to engender in its audience. It exists in the boundaries between dichotomies—between psychology and society, childhood and adulthood, fantasy and reality; but more importantly, the viewer is compelled to ask these questions in the first place because in the final analysis, the movie is profoundly human.
Everyone remembers how dramatic it was to be on the cusp of adolescence (it's probably the most dramatic period of our lives), and this is a pre-adolescent's story; it is told from a preadolescent’s perspective, which concomitantly (1) enables the audience to identify with his psychology and (2) makes the film effective on a purely dramatic level. He's bullied at school, alienated at home, he is without remorse in his fantasies of killing those who torment him, and his only intimate connection with another is with the nonhuman (too-good-to-be-human) girl next door. Here, Sigmund Freud immediately springs to mind: in an essay written in response to the extreme violence occurring during World War I, titled "Thoughts for the Times on War and Death," he argued that human beings have natural urges that are either buried or transmogrified by the external influence of the community when the person fully develops as an adult. Budding on adulthood, Oskar (the main character) sees a community—from his perspective—that does not care about the motives behind "good" behavior, only that you are obedient to it; and thus his only recourse is to escape the community in what can be interpreted as either a "happy" or a "tragic" ending (as articulated by the director in the Behind the Scenes featurette on the Bluray), hinging on the viewer's own disposition.
On another level, the film exists in the boundary between fantasy and a very personal reality—it is a vampire film that plays out in precisely the way I would imagine it would if a vampire existed in my life. Director Tomas Alfredson and screenwriter (and author of the novel on which the film is based) John Ajvideo Lindqvist have a dream of the horror movie as high art and means of self-expression; and in fact their vampire version is so earnest, that it can only be read as a reactionary gesture, attempting to pick up the traditional horror conception pioneered by Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, but without losing the provocative mythos that has burgeoned in the vampire subgenre since, the most mysterious of which—the necessity of inviting the "vamp" "in"—comes to the forefront in Let the Right One In wherein the main character finds true love and intimacy in a vampire "outside." The filmmakers have distilled the disparity between reality and fantasy by juxtaposing this most elusive of vampire rules with its veristic consequences—Eli cannot enter Oskar's apartment unless she is invited, but if she does, she'll die in an extremely gruesome and realistic way (literally turning her body inside out), rather than bursting into a cloud of dust to be neatly and easily swept up and discarded (as they do when exposed to sunlight in Nosferatu and also the recently produced Fright Night remake starring Colin Farrel as the vampire, which—in its defense—I thought was rather overlooked as far as fun vampire-comedies go). No, every fantastic element in this movie has very caustic, real-world consequences.
Finally, while I think this movie could easily be called misanthropic, upon closer inspection, it is actually very humane. It’s basically a love story between two persons, who, through their own agency, are able to change their situation, underscoring their humanity and thus affirming life rather than denying it.
One last thing I'd like to point out is an instance of intertextuality in the film that some have written about: the appropriation of dialogue from the movie Deliverance, the early 70s classic. "Squeal, squeal like a pig"—the line everyone remembers from Deliverance when one of the characters is sodomized by a backwoodsman—are the first spoken words of the film (spoken by Oskar) but I'm not quite sure if he is simply repeating what he saw in John Boorman's 1972 film, or if that infamous scene is something the bullies at school have actually recreated in real life, with Oskar as the "pig." His bullies have in fact nicknamed him "piggy" and debase him with pig squeals and the onomatopoeic "oink," and judging from the last scene in the movie, rape does not seem like something they are incapable of. Moreover, who knows how long his character has had to suffer at the hands of his schoolmates; for all we know, this could be something he's had to endure his entire life. But this is only speculation.
I recommend this flick without hesitation. Definitely check it out even if you aren't interested in horror films. And if you are, you're probably in for a treat. But with so many home-video formats to choose from, how does the Blu-ray option stand up? Answers below.
The Blu-ray: Visuals
This transfer looks great. The film itself has a very desaturated look (although I never saw it theatrically); lots of static shots and minimal camera movement, so it's easy to concentrate on all of the objects within the frame; I would call Tomas Alfredson a very painterly director, very interested in composition and mise-en-scène. The film is presented in the original aspect ratio, 2.35:1, and I must say that the filmmakers did a great job filling in the wide frame and I couldn't find a single shot that wasn't complete in terms of a foreground, midground and background.
The Blu-ray: Audio
Both the original Swedish-language and English Dub are included in 5.1 DTS-HD. The sound in the film is generally very low-key, but it sounds great nonetheless. I watched the film with surround-sound headphones and it was very immersive. Kudos to composer Johan Söderqvist
and sound supervisor Per Sundström; I don't think sound designers get enough credit anyhow.
The Blu-ray: Special Features
My only gripe with this disc is the lack of quality special features. The “Behind the Scenes…” featurette is spliced together with promotional interviews and is very cursory; and there are some deleted scenes (including an amusing “Virginia Vomits” scene), and a gallery of on-set photos and theatrical posters. This disc would be definitive if only it included the audio commentary track with director Tomas Alfredson and screenwriter John Ajvide Lindqvist that was originally recorded for the R2 DVDs and has been included on all of the European Blu-ray editions. If you don’t live in Europe or are unable to import the movie from Europe, there is a transcription of that audio commentary track here, which also includes a link to a .srt file (containing a transcription of the audio commentary track) that is compatible with most video-playing softwares like VLC, that you can import and play along with the Blu-ray on the fly (if you're interested).
Conclusion:
This is a good disc, especially if you like the film. Like I said above, I only wish the disc had the audio commentary track. Also, be warned that there exists a version (Magnolia’s first pressing) of this Blu-ray that has English subtitles that have been severely altered from the original theatrical subtitle track. Magnolia have subsequently reissued the Blu-ray with the original theatrical subtitles, which are identifiable on the back of the DVD box as "SUBTITLES: ENGLISH (Theatrical), SPANISH.” More information can be found here.
