This is a Swedish movie released in 2008, sold as a romantic horror, film directed by Tomas Alfredson and based on a novel from 2004 with the same title. It stars Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar, Ika Nord, and Peter Carlberg. This again is well liked by the critics IMDb gave this one a score of 7.8 out of 10 and just like the last movie Rotten Tomatoes almost gave it a perfect score by giving it 98%. Produced on a budget of $4.5m it went on to make a return of $11.2m at the box office. It is worth noting that this movie won many awards best cinematography best director best International Film best horror film even the British Academy Awards gave this the best non English speaking film which leads me neatly into my own list of subtitled movies, where this one is sixth in the countdown. This also continued a trend of American film makers remaking foreign films into English where I have to admit there's one I particularly enjoyed but I think that's more to do with the story being almost identical to the original one, in this case and pretty much from here on in I'm going back to the originals and I will “suffer” with subtitles to enjoy the original film. Maybe this is something that I've learnt over time but as I spouted very early on in this whole blog the original movies should be respected, well based on that, it should go with non-English films as well. If they were good enough before, they are good enough now, because the twists and changes that are made from supposedly turning films from whatever language to English dissolves a lot of the film and a lot of the story to the point where it's not the same and I will get to that, with my number one in the subtitle list, anyway I shall move on from my little rant now.
The plot follows a young boy called Oskar who is very pale with white blonde hear he lives with his mother Yvonne in a Stockholm suburb called Blackeberg in the early eighties. He is bullied by the other kids at school and spends his evening planning (or dreaming) his revenge by cutting out stories of murders from the newspapers. One evening he meets Eli who is also pale but with dark hair. She has recently moved in next door to Oskar along with an old man called Håkan. When meeting Eli tells Oskar they cannot be friends but over time their relationship grows and exchange morse code through their walls. Eli encourages Oskar to take care of himself so he enrols in weight lifting classes after school to bulk up. Meanwhile Håkan is off killing locals and now witnesses are starting to see things, he wouldn’t want them to. In fact a group of boys see him when rescuing their friend so to cover his tracks he pours acid on his face to stop being traced. Ending up in hospital he is visited by Eli and dies. Later Eli tells Oskar that they should go steady but also adds that she is not a girl. I am not going to lay out the rest of the movie for you but I think you have plenty enough to convince you to give this one a watch.
This is a steady paced story which draws you into it and the conclusion is so sinister that many will not even realise it. With many movies at this end of my list it is clever and wants to audience to work things out for itself. You can take this on face value and enjoy it but you can also dig a little deeper and realise a whole different conclusion. Based on the title you are almost asked the question yourself, who do you or who should you trust. Who is the right one to let in and what twists are coming? Or are they even coming at all. This is up to you to decide but that is what is so great about this movie. If you haven’t seen would I recommend it yes but go with an open mind be ready to read and prepare for an conclusion that may not make it to the happy ending lists.
Next up is a movie that scared the c**p out of me one evening when it was on late at night and not knowing what I was watching or what to expect. It came from nowhere.
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