August 31, 2010

Let The Right One In (2008)

1/5

Let The Right One In is described as a Swedish romantic horror movie about a young boy (Hedebrant) who is the victim of bullying and his vampire love interest (Leandersson) who cannot enter residences without being invited in (thus the unnecessarily unrelated title). The movie is paced slowly, full of dark atmospheric locations where nothing happens and artsy shots of objects that resemble still-life paintings more than film. Much of the plot is inferred with silence and "knowing looks," which depends heavily on social conventions and can make the movie confusing for US audiences. The characters are bland and uninteresting--the director/writer presumably think it is "interesting" to imagine vampires realistically with the same problems that non-vampires have. The acting was anywhere from adequate to poor, depending on how nice you're feeling. The computer graphics are atrocious to the point where it hurt the mood of the film. (All those fake cats were laughably bad, and you're not scared if you're laughing.) All in all, this movie takes a potentially fascinating concept and turns it into a dull, boring, confusing mess. Avoid at all costs.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1139797/