I have decided that I need to read source books before I see the movies from which they are based. With the exception of Jurassic Park, which I enjoyed both the book and film respectively, I have been disappointed with the source material, especially in this case as the book of Let The Right One In is nowhere near as enthralling or beautiful as its film counterpart.
The Swedish movie is subtle and poignant and rightfully leaves much of its narrative open to suggestion. The book, however, goes places that are not only more full on, but also much darker. Considering how much I love the movie (it was my favourite film of 2009 by a country mile) this disappointed me greatly. The deaths are more splatter-tastic and certain character motivations are just nasty. I also had issues with it's style. It appears to be all over the place borrowing all over from other established horror writers. There were moments of Stephen King, Clive Barker and even, bizarrely, echoes of William Peter Blatty. As a consequence, it seems less assured than other popular authors in the genre. It is entirely possible that this could be an effect of the book being translated from Swedish but, even so, I found it difficult to get into.
Let The Right One In, the book, was a huge let down. Another case of putting it down before I'd reached the end. Like Shutter Island, I felt watching the movie had hindered my enjoyment in that the differences in the narrative as a whole are generally minimal. I knew what would happen. From now on, I intend to read the source before watching the film as much as possible.
2.5/5
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