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How is this categorized as a horror film?

posted 9 years ago by Kelondir
6 replies | jump to latest

Hi
I have seen this film due to it being on several lists for great modern horrors, but I have had an incredibly hard time understanding why. To me it is more akin to the genre magical realism, and fits better in with the typical Scandinavian social realistic drama.

I consider myself a horror fan and like a broad selection of horror genres, so its not that I was left craving jump scares and gore, but rather a terrifying situation, concept or atmosphere. I recognize that "Let the right one in" had a unique and engaging well told story, with a lot of elements I really liked. I just don't feel that it belongs in the horror genre, and yet I keep seeing it on lists crowning it one of the best films in the genre.

Was anyone genuinely scared by this film and why?

[–] drakkar 9 years ago

The film was originally labelled a drama/thriller, so it wasn't intended to be horror. And neither do I.
However, many foreign distributors relabelled it a horror film.

For the heart life is simple. It beats as long as it can.

[–] SloppyJ30 9 years ago

Seriously? I have an incredibly hard time understanding why anyone would have an incredibly hard time understanding why this is a horror film. I wasn't "genuinely scared," but at age 43 and having watched a ton of movies, not much really scares me.

Your personal reaction to a movie doesn't define what genre it belongs in. I have no intention of watching "Meet the Spartans" and have little doubt it would more likely elicit open weeping than laughter if I did, but that doesn't mean it's not a comedy. With Let the Right One In, one of the two protagonists of the story is a vampire who kills several people brutally in the film. And, right there, voila! Horror movie!

That doesn't mean it's necessarily just a horror movie, but 99 people out of a hundred, when watching the film or just reading the premise, would surmise "Oh, so it's a horror film." Nobody knows what the hey "magical realism" is. You might be getting a little too fine with your classifications, like those dudes who divide techno music up into 25 different sub-sub-genre labels. After a point it becomes an academic exercise that few will have any use for.

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I have meddled with the primal forces of nature and I will atone.

[–] MartenBroadcloak 9 years ago

I would say it's not that isn't scary, but that it's not intended to be. To me that's a big distinction.

But I would call it horror for lack of a better term given that drama is pretty vague.

[–] dongregg-953-168798 9 years ago

I've asked a small sample of my friends and colleagues to classify LTROI. Half said horror and half said drama. Fights broke out. (No, they didn't, but each side was mildly combative about their classification.)

Me? I say it's an existential film. It's about limitations and about choices Oskar and Eli make within those limitations. Eli comes back. Not obvious that she would. They "run away" together (kids do that). That's a choice.

Were they good choices? We'll never know, just as IRL we don't really know if our own choices are the right ones. They're just our choices.

[–] jidici 9 years ago

I say its a drama dressed as a horror so to me its both. Im so diplomatic

[–] greenflowerk 9 years ago

Maybe cuz the vampires?

I don't consider it a horror movie. I think it's more of a "vampire romance" movie.