Let The Right One In Review

Let the right one in is the most human vampire story I have ever seen. Compared to the recent trend of vampire culture (Twilight, True Blood, and Vampire Diaries) Let the right one in forgoes the traditional vampire ethos of the sexual atmosphere for a heartfelt story of friendship and true love. The fact that the film is Swedish and set in Sweden adds a lot to the atmosphere of the film, with the bleak yet beautiful snowy backdrops giving the film emptiness and loneliness which the main character Oskar feels. The film involves you more into the relationship of Oskar and Eli by not having many vampiric set pieces and when there are, they are not focused on, giving the audience a very human vampire in Eli to empathise with. Also for a vampire film, there is very little focus on Eli, the main vampire character of film; she is almost not a character, but a character development tool for Oskar, she is just a catalyst for his evolution from a weak willed boy to a confident man, knowing what it is to fight, to love, and to understand the horrors of the modern world.

Tarnation Review

Tarnation is a very peculiar film, especially the first half of the film which is very avant-garde in terms of direction, effects, continuity and general style. This effect is meant to imply the psychosis that the character feels due to his mother’s mental health issues and the mental trauma he has suffered due to this and his fractures nuclear family. However this style ruins the first hour of this film since it is a documentary this cause you to struggle with empathising with the protagonist since it is such a radical change from documentary style (even from the style of a normal film). In testament to this the whole club struggled to emote with this and one member walking out. However once the film got to the half way point and the film fell into a more naturalistic documentary style the film became a lot more accessible and was a lot more engaging. Overall the film was an interesting insight into the people it was about, even if it was difficult to engage at the start.