My summer holiday began today. I was thinking what it felt like, when you were ten and your summer holiday began. When did it stop feeling like that...? Well, this year, that rain might have something to do with it. Blah. Enough already! Though this weather is excellent for guilt-free movie watching!
Låt den rätte komma in - Let the right one in (2008)
Directed by Tomas Alfredson. Starring Kåre Hedebrant, Lin Leandersson, Per Ragnar.
Long story short: Oskar is a bullied, overlooked boy, whose life changes when a peculiar girl called Eli moves in next door. She happens to be a vampire.
One more reason to be jealous of the Swedes. The have ABBA, Stellan Skarsgård, Spotify, Ikea, Tre Krunor, and apparently they make great vampire films, too. Heja Sverige, good for you. I'm not bitter. At all.
Låt den rätta komma in is #206 on IMDb's Top 250 list, and that's how it caught my attention. I tried to watch it in English first, but it felt weird, original is almost always the best choice. I was rather nice to watch a Swedish film. I mean, the language isn't so bad, is it? Time to time it sounds almost beautiful. Why have I let myself forget the language? Jag måste börja skriva på Svenska. Eller inte. Dear oh dear. I bet I made some mistakes there. Ojdå. Better stick with English. Because I can't never make no mistakes when I write in English! (That was sarcasm, alright.)
Seriously speaking, I liked this one. It was very peculiar little film, but there was something very fascinating about it... The atmosphere, and how they had made a normal, wintery neighbourhood look so... peculiar. I know this is the third time I use that word, but it just descripes this film very well. Peculiar. Everything is quite peculiar about this film and it's not a bad thing at all!
The leading character is a 12-year-old Oskar, who is played by a remarkably Swedish-looking boy. Oskar is bullied by this very American-looking boy and his gang. Oskar handles it pretty well, but is thinking about ways to revenge when no one's looking. Then she meets Eli, who is - guess what? - peculiar. And we very soon learn that she's in fact a vampire.
This is a new, refreshing take on vampires. This little vampire doesn't sparkle, thank god. (Sorry, couldn't resist.) From the outside she's a sweet, though a little peculiar strange girl and you only really want to think good of her, because she's so sweet towards Oskar. But then again, she's 200 years old and kills people in daily basis. Shame. But somehow, you can't think of her as a monster. The actress is excellent, though I read that her voice was dubbed to make her voice deeper and less like a little girl's voice. Worked very well!
The film is very creepy and bloody at times, but can't be categorized as horror, no. I guess I'll put this under fantasy, though it would be quite as accurate to call it drama or thriller, too. Because I think this film isn't about vampires, initially. One of the main characters just happens to be one.
The film is based on a novel, and I think reading it would help to understand the film better. One more title on this summer's reading list, I guess... (Right... It's summer now. I forget that all the time.)
"Att fly är livet, att dröjä döden."
7 comments:
I'd love to see this one! I almost borrowed the book some time ago, now I wish I had. I hope I can get someone to watch this with me, I'm way too scared to watch it by myself ;) I've read so many reviews about this and still I don't really know what the films about. I'm glad though, I want to be surprised!
It's not exactly scary, just a bit... bloody. :D And I was a bit surprised, it wasn't what I expected, which was a good thing! And I need to check if the library has a copy, I hope so...
I think that this was one of the scariest movies I've ever seen. Not because of the vampire girl though.
Atmosphere was...peculiar, yeah and moody. And that story gives me goose bumps. I'll never go near swedish apartment house neighborhoods after this film. But the story was quite touching too. Those young actors were great.
This review made me laugh, great post.
Yeah, well, it's not scary in the way you'd expect a vampire film to be, but yes, the story is very dark and creepy. And the ending might seem somewhat happy, but when you think about it... Pretty dark stuff. But well, the best vampire film I've seen. Damn those Swedes.
I love this little movie. Even though I consider myself as little too much sensitive type for movies categorised as "horror", this one I did see alone in the movie theatre and did not feel bad at all. I agree with Eeva that it is a bit strange to label this under horror as it's more drama after all.
Brilliant movie by Swedes, and I also recommend it warmly to everyone!
Nothing to say about the movie (:D), but recently I thought exactly that same summerholiday-feeling thing...where's all that jumbo joy? :S don't wanna get old...
Paivi: I'm not a big consumer of horror, either, but I glad I made this exception, as it turned out to be not very... horror-like? Yes. The poster and the title kind of misguide you to expect a typical horror/vampire film.
Pia: I know! It sucks! I've thought the same thing about Christmas Eves... Where's the euphoria? Sometimes it would be awesome to be five again!
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