THE CRITIC-AL LIST
Reviews by Alan Jones
5 STAR FAB - 1 STAR RUBBISH

Salt
The Expendables
The Last Airbender
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Inception
Predators
The Twilight Saga:Eclipse
Toy Story 3
Hot Tub Time Machine
Iron Man 2
Repo Men
The Collector
Clash of the Titans
Shelter
How To Train Your Dragon
Kick-Ass
Shutter Island
Alice In Wonderland
The Crazies
Case 39
The Wolfman
Legion
The Lovely Bones
Black Death
Daybreakers
Avatar
Ninja Assassin
The Descent: Part 2
Amer
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
The Box
2012
Disney's A Christmas Carol
The Horseman
Solomon Kane
Pandorum
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
District 9
An Education
G.I. Joe: The Rise Of The Cobra
Orphan
A Perfect Getaway
The Imaginarium Of
Doctor Parnassus
Up
Harry Potter
And The Half-Blood Prince
The Taking of Pelham 123
Transformers
The Revenge Of The Fallen
Antichrist
Terminator Salvation
Last House On The Left
Inglorious Basterds
Angels & Demons
Adventureland
Star Trek
Crank: High Voltage
Coraline
Dragonball Evolution
Let The Right One In
Drag Me To Hell
Race to Witch Mountain
Knowing
Monsters Vs. Aliens
Not Quite Hollywood
Lesbian Vampire Killers
Martyrs
The Children
Surveillance
Watchmen
The Unborn
The International
Friday The 13th
Franklyn
Push
Punisher:War Zone
The Good The Bad And
The Weird
Hush
Underworld
The Rise OF The Lycans
My Bloody Valentine
Bolt
Slumdog Millionaire

Directed by Tomas Alfredson. Starring Oskar Kare Hedebrant, Eli Lina Leandersson, Hakan Per Ragnar and Erik Henrik Dahl. Horror, Swe, 114 min. Web Site.

As we categorically said at FrightFest last August, the award-winning Swedish shock sensation of the year is still Tomas Alfredson’s stunningly directed juvenile vampire saga written by John Ajvide Lindquist (adapting his acclaimed novel).

Those of you attending our packed out screening will remember what a fantastic guest author Lindquist was too. Eloquent and warm on stage the fact we sold out of his book in record time, meaning a few of you raced to nearby stores to buy copies for him to autograph, showed how much you loved the delicate movie full of mirth and malice culled from it. Lindquist was an absolute joy behind the scenes as well. Because many mainstream critics currently reviewing LET THE RIGHT ONE IN have responded to its quiet poetry, and plot so resolutely focused on the core relationships rather than the actions, they have hesitated to call it a horror film. In fact Lindquist was rather taken aback by how embraced the movie had become on the world fantasy festival stage, something mirrored by the Swedish Film Industry being embarrassed to enter it up for Oscar consideration this year. I lost count of how many questions Lindquist asked about horror and the FrightFest audience in general that I eventually gave him a copy of my ‘Rough Guide to Horror Movies’ book. I was astonished that he read it in two days and was kind enough to send me a lovely email saying he felt he’d actually learnt something from it. Frankly anyone talented enough to come up with such a brilliantly slow burning screenplay loaded with shocking and haunting imagery of a truly iconic kind is perhaps better off not knowing too much about the genre he has now transformed. For you carry LET THE RIGHT ONE IN with you long after the final frame. It charts the budding friendship between bullied loner Oskar (Kare Hedebrant) and angelic Eli (Lina Leandersson), his new neighbour. But Eli requires freshly tapped human blood to survive and Oskar might just be the person to replace her ageing pedophile guardian getting sloppy in his covert murder methods. Director Alfredson (the David Lynch of Scandinavia) adopts a naturalistic approach to developing the central relationship and the duo’s parallel dramas, using long takes and static shots, combined with Hoyte van Hoytema’s gorgeous cinematography and Johan Soderqvist’s perfectly pitched score, to establish a strangely captivating mood. Adult in unsentimental tone, chilling texture, and encompassing a full spectrum of provocative emotions, Lindquist and Alfredson’s subtle masterpiece is a remarkably moving and genuinely frightening evocation of childhood terrors, fantasies and frailties. It immediately takes its place among the classics of the vampire genre.

So see it now if you haven’t done so already because the Hammer remake, no matter how good their intentions, is bound to ruin everything.

Alan Jones

© London FrightFest Ltd. 2000-2009
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