Let Me In (2010)

THIS IS A REVIEW, NOT A SPOILER!
(If you haven't seen the movie, this won't hurt you)


LET ME IN (2010) is an English version adaptation of the 2004 novel LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, written by Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist. It was first adapted to the big screens in 2008, with the same tittle.

While most reviewers here seem to prefer the Swedish version, I honestly prefer the "American" adaptation for a few reasons. I'm considering style, what kind of crowd it wants to attract and time of its release: It is early October, LET ME IN is out just in time for Halloween. It is a horror movie. And as a horror movie, it achieves much more than the Swedish version.

Considering that the book Let the Right One In is a contemporary vampire fiction, it takes elements from Gothic Literature. Both movies involve the same features: terror, isolation, death, darkness, and, last but not least, vampires. However, LET ME IN succeeds by far in many respects when it comes to those elements, and I'll talk about some of them in detail.

TERROR: is usually described as the feeling of dread and anticipation that precedes the horrifying experience. LET ME IN creates terror from its opening scene. You know something bad has happened, you just wait to see what it was. The way the movie starts with its inverted chronology was a great idea and I personally think it works better (for terror) than the linear timeline of the Swedish version.

ISOLATION: the characters in LET ME IN are presented much more isolated and lonely than in LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. In the American version, the boy seems hopeless and unprotected in every way: not only is he bullied at school, he also has a hard time at home. There is a feeling of abandonment (by his father), not a real connection with the mother and unfriendliness from neighbors. In the Swedish version, the boy is pretty close to his mother, even his father is somehow present (apparently, his parents' divorce hasn't affected him) and although the bullies' acts at school are basically the same, the Swedish actors do not convince in cruelty and suffering. When it comes to the girl, both movies portrait her basically in the same way.

CINEMATOGRAPHY: The cinematography of both movies are completely different. LET THE RIGHT ONE IN looks like a Lady Gaga video. Its lighting is bright throughout the entire movie - a fluorescent white light, the kind they use in supermarkets. That doesn't help translating the movie's mood. On the other hand, LET ME IN has a very low light throughout the movie, it definitely increases the story's dark
atmosphere.

There are only two things I could do without in the English version: the use of CGI in a few scenes and its timeline advising cards: "two weeks earlier" was completely unnecessary. It's time for movie makers in America to let the audience understand what happens in a movie on their own.

I also consider LET ME IN more of an adaptation of the Swedish movie than an adaptation of the novel. And it melancholically outshines the first motion picture.


Gus Braga.


LET ME IN (2010):



LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (2008):