Official Synopsis:
Lonely, 12 year old Oskar is regularly bullied by his stronger classmates. A new friendship develops when Eli - a pale, serious young girl who only comes out at night moves in next door. Coinciding with her arrival is a series of inexplicable disappearances and murders. As Oskar becomes more aware of Eli's tragic plight, he cannot forsake her. However, Eli knows that to continue living, she must keep relocating. But when Oskar faces his darkest hour, Eli returns to defend him the only way she can...
  
Our Take:
Wow! There are overrated movies and then there are overrated movies, and Let the Right One In, the critically acclaimed Swedish vampire film, is about as overrated a movie as they come.   

I can see why all the critics like the movie; it’s weird and creepy (but not in the right way) and dull and boring and it’s foreign and it’s… critic-y (for lack of a better word).  Unfortunately, while all of those are reasons why most critics probably adore it, they’re the same reasons I severely disliked it.  The movie is incredibly boring; at almost two hours long it feels like it’s at least twice that long, with pacing that I can only describe as glacial.  There is also an unnervingly creepy aspect to the film, but not creepy in terms of vampire scares.   The two main characters, who are about 12 years old each, appear in the movie half naked for quite a bit of the running time.  It actually made me feel very uncomfortable for large parts of the movie because I felt like there was a pedophilic kind of slant to it all.  I’m not sure what the director was going for with this but I have to say that it left me a little bit unsettled.  Not to mention that the main child actor consistently seemed to have snot running down his nose and I can’t figure out what the point of that was. It actually grossed me out way more than any of the blood or gore in the film.

Ultimately, one of the biggest problems is that the movie just never goes anywhere.  It’s incredibly slow and there’s not much of a plot beyond the development of a friendship between this young boy and this vampire girl that lives next to him. For some people that might be enough, but I’m not one of them. In another, less flawed movie, a story of friendship can be a wonderful thing, but here it’s simply dull and disturbing.  While the movie has a few moments of horror that do genuinely work, they are so few and far between and the stuff in between it is just so dreadfully dull. 

Special Features include:

* Deleted Scenes

* Behind The Scenes

* Photo Gallery

* Theatrical Poster Gallery

I know that most people have heard the critics raving about how great this movie is and they are probably going to rush right out to buy it and rent it but I do want to warn you that it is not going to be what you expect.  A lot of critics and others that I’ve talked to have really enjoyed it and for the life of me I cannot figure out why.  It does nothing to further the vampire genre, it doesn’t give us anything new or interesting in terms of filmmaking, and frankly it’s just not that well made of a movie.  Don’t Let The Right One In, despite what everyone else is telling you.

Overall Picture:
Movie: D
Extra Features: C

- Mike Spring
Editor