Horror/ Romance Movie Faceoff

       VS.   

The romance horror movie genre is an interesting one because it deals with dark topics, but also gives the viewer a taste of drama and sometimes a deep love story.  Let's see which one of these two movies gets the nod..

Don't Let the Wrong One In:2008: -+:HRR/ ROM:  What surprised me about this movie was that it was hard to decide right away what was going on.  There was a twist in the movie, but you didn't have to wait until the end to see it.  I of course, won't give it away, but the setting, the mood, and the way in which it was filmed created a dark, brooding, and melancholy effect which created a great backdrop for the twist.

Since this is a Swedish movie, I didn't recognize many of the actors but they did a great job.  Especially the two lead roles, Kare Hedebrant and Lina Leandersson.  This was directed by Tomas Alfredson who took the 2004 novel into new heights. 

The love story is given a lot of power by the violence and horror elements and it makes the love more drastic.  Stand out scenes are when the girl kills the first victim in the tunnel, which the father gets the blood from the victim and when the boy gives the girl the Rubik's cube. 

Really an outstanding movie and worth a watch if you can find it.::::86%


Last Kind Words: 2012: -+: HRR/ ROM:  What I really liked about this movie was the twist, but what I didn't like was the male lead role.  He was very poorly cast and his acting range was extremely limited.  Although I did get "used" to it, it was only because the lead female role played by Alexia Fast was really good. 

This also had the actor that was in the Exorcist III, Brad Douriff and he did a great job of lending some darkness to the cast.  Spencer Daniels was, as mentioned, very flat in this role.  

There were some really violent scenes in this movie, especially when the girl turns into her true form and when she is being chased.  The scares really came from suspenseful elements rather than gratuitous violence and gore and that worked in this film.  The twist was pretty good and made for an above average ending which makes this movie passable.  Overall though, the two actors were not congruent enough to be able to compare to Let the Right One In.  ::::72%