EFTI [2008] 115′
country: Sweden
director: THOMAS ALFREDSON
cast: KARE HEDEBRANT, LINA LEANDERSON,
cast: PER RAGNAR, HENRICK DAL
Magnolia Home Entertainment [2009] $34.98
region free | single layer BD25 | supplements in SD
Order this disc from AMAZON.COM
The vampire sub-genre has been in a downward spiral ever since the heyday of British horror house Hammer – Anne Rice [and subsequent filmed adaptations of her material] kept the Gothic aesthetic popularized by those original Hammer pieces but birthed the emotive and mopish blood suckers most of us have since learned to hate. Francis Ford Coppola’s imperfect but none the less intriguing DRACULA was the last film of the type to interest viewers for reasons other than its picture-perfect cast, and the days of Werner Herzog’s visionary take on Murnau’s NOSFERATU seemed long since passed by the time teen hit TWILIGHT struck box office gold while driving another rusty nail into a sub-genre already six feet under.
That’s what I thought, at least, until a good friend pointed me towards a trailer for the film covered here today. Being about as in-touch with the modern horror scene as a sea otter I’d not heard of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN prior to that, and the trailer had my interest thoroughly piqued by the time its minute and forty two seconds were up. I was a bit irritated to discover that I’d long missed any opportunity for theatrical screenings locally – but irritation quickly turned to anticipation once I realized LTROI was due for release on home video just a few short weeks later. I put the release at the top of my Netflix cue and waited – that I’ve since felt the need to pick it up for my own home video collection should give some idea of my initial reaction.
