Best of the Decade #17: Let The Right One In (2008)
From the outside, it’d be easy to judge this as just another vampire/horror movie, or worse, a foreign one. To do that though, would be to dismiss one the best finds of the decade and to overlook a remarkable film. For its originality and elegance, Let the Right One In makes it into our Best of the Decade.
This film takes the vampire genre to places that The Twilight Saga could only dream of. For starters: having the main characters be a 12-year old boy and a very old vampire stuck in the body of a 12-year old girl.
Director Tomas Alfredson shoots this film like a quiet drama; the music is low, the colour scheme is mostly white and blue with a touch of red, and the child actors are remarkably subdued. When the scenes of violence occur, it is quite terrifying and almost unexpected.
Let the Right One In is more than just a Swedish horror movie and it deserves all of the recognition that it gets.
Check out previous entries from our Top 20 Films of the ’00s.
Comments (14)
just outside my top twenty
Posted by rus in chicago on December 7th, 2009I still need to see this… Does any one know if the new subtitle version is out yet???? The one from the theaters not the piss poor one they did after.
Posted by BigHungry on December 7th, 2009the visuals in this movie were, in one word, fantastic! the direction and acting were amazing as well. the only downside that really left me underwhelmed after finishing the movie was the plot. it didn’t really go anywhere and left me wanting for more. they had all the right things going in this movie, including an unique combination of horror and drama, but in the end the plot (or the lack of it), brought this movie down a notch for me.
Posted by Napalm on December 7th, 2009First movie in this particular top twenty that deserves a top twenty place imo.
Posted by DavidM on December 7th, 2009Great pick. One of my three favourites of last year.
Posted by RaphNL on December 7th, 2009Good call. The Twilight movies should feel ashamed to even exist next to this movie.
Posted by Justice on December 7th, 2009Good pick. I loved this movie.
Posted by face on December 7th, 2009hated it, left me wanting my 2 hours back, it was more goofy than anything. highly overrated, but that just could be me. some of the visuals were cool as hell but moved so slow and went absolutely nowhere
Posted by noah on December 7th, 2009I loved the film so much that, I read the novel on which it was based on my hols. Does anyone find that this film reminds them of “Martin” a G romero non zombie film. For me they both have similar themes.
Posted by Andy on December 8th, 2009Loved the movie, minus the beaver shot.
Posted by Itchy-Finger on December 8th, 2009Thumbs up for this one!
Posted by Jim the movie freak on December 8th, 2009Love Let the Right One In. Great film:
http://film-book.com/review-let-the-right-one-in/
It was one of my Top Films of 2008:
http://film-book.com/film-book-dot-coms-top-ten-of-2008/
Posted by Film-Book dot Com on December 9th, 2009i saw the first dvd release & loved it! unless u speak Swedish or have seen the subtitled theater release (i cant & have done neither) don’t let that cause you to miss this film. i had heard about the differences and the dislikes and i almost did not see it b/c of it. i thought it was a great movie!
i agree the “private” shot is odd, considering it a 12yo. however, the book goes into details about that. the movie also gives hints throughout. i think the movie could have tried to reveal it differently though.
Posted by alpoc on December 14th, 2009This was a good flick, not sure about top 20 though.
@Itchy-Finger: That wasn’t a beaver bro.
Posted by Jeff on December 19th, 2009Leave a Reply