Let the Right One In review
Has Let the Right One In reinvented the horror genre? That’s pushing it a bit, but in a genre that has become a bit of a joke, so full of crap, sloppy films, a demonstration of genuinely high quality filmmaking is unusual. Both the vampire aspect and the lonely child / friendship / revenge aspects are nothing amazingly original and given its overwhelmingly positive critical reception this is a slight, but unreasonable, disappointment; the film still feels fresh and exudes class.
A lot of acclaim has been heaped on director Tomas Alfredson and it is deserved; the film is atmospheric, the acting performances are impressive, and all of the elements fit together in a concise and smooth manner, pushing all of the right buttons in all of the right places. But it is helped in no small part by John Ajvide Lindqvist, author of both the screenplay and the original novel. It’s nice to see this connection to the original and even nicer to find that the author can handle book and script.
13th Apr 2009
