- the best films get under your skin, and Let the Right One In certainly does a good job in that department. i'm glad i slept on it before writing this, as I like it more in retrospect--it truly warrants the phrase "hauntingly beautiful"
- Alfredson captures a cinematic world that I've never seen before. a small, middle class town in Sweden flips between the bright reflections of snow and the eerily dark woods and playground outside the leads' apartment complex.
- both the leads (Kare Hedebrant and Lina Leandersson) are wonderfully interesting, neither looking nor acting like the other children shown. the romance that ensues is handled gracefully as their "love" is never taken too seriously and yet its still enough to draw the audience in.
- horror scenes are mostly very creepy without extreme gore. the first kill is first shot from a distance, and then the subsequent gore is blocked from view. the kills do become more graphic, but Alfredson clearly is not trying to merely please bloodthirsty viewers.
- all in all the story is touching and strikingly slight, ultimately about a friendship between two children who aren't like everyone else. with some revenge thrown in there as well.
8.5/nimbly balances its coming-of-age story with horror elements to create a not soon forgotten product
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