12 Foreign Films That Show Hollywood How A Genre Film Should Be Done
2. Let The Right One In
Country: Sweden
Genre: Horror
Plot: A 12 year-old vampire girl and a bullied schoolboy strike up a unique friendship which turns into a romance of sorts.
Just because it's a horror film, there's no reason to follow convention. The real key to this film's staggering success is that it's a film about a friendship/romance and it just so happens that one of the kids involved is a vampire. It's all about the characters and the themes of childhood, loneliness, innocence, darkness and romance.
The vampire aspect is used to explore these themes, not as the main focus. Horror films are supposed to use frightening ideas to explore the darker aspects of the human experience, and since this does that so well, it is a reminder of what all horror films should be.
Let the Right One In is a true original and a modern classic. It showcases some of the most effective story-telling in recent memory, and the way in which it transcends all the cliches is stunning. Director Tomas Alfredson's beautiful direction and two great child actor performances further enhance the film's bleak, brilliant power.
Remake?
Yes, and in record time (2 years). This case is an anomaly, as the American remake Let Me In, starring Chloe Grace Moretz, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Richard Jenkins and written and directed by Matt Reeves, is actually pretty excellent. Still, it's a bit weaker than the original and with fewer unanswered questions and more horror conventions, it succumbs to Hollywood mistakes a little.