Magnolia Lets the Right One In

Let the Right One In was recently released on DVD. Horror Web site Fright.com recently brought to light a surprising dilemma: Magnolia/Magnet switched out the theatrical subtitles for ones they commissioned on their own.

This would be a non-issue if the company did not mar the meaning of the film in its translation. Fright.com brings up numerous examples of scenes that are completely ruined because they either simplify the lines or change them completely.

Let the Right One In is a Swedish horror film that received a limited theatrical release last October. It is about a little boy in 1980s Stockholm who meets his neighbor one cold night, a little girl who just happens to be a vampire.

The movie was the counterpoint to another vampire film released around the same time, Twilight. The difference was that Let the Right One In was not targeted toward teenage girls and did not earn nearly $200 million domestically. Nor should it or would it; not only is it a foreign film, an immediate handicap to domestic dollars, but it was marketed as genre fare: a classy horror film.

Let the Right One In is an example of great filmmaking; it is poignant, introspective and beautiful. It asks the viewers questions that there are no clear answers to. It forces them to come to conclusions that not only reflect the viewer's own moral position, but can possibly even make it clearer.

So you can understand the necessity of the film's words to be as clear and true as possible. The film's DVD release avoids this path and chooses concision and dumbs down scenes.

One example: in the theatrical release, when the boy, Oskar, meets the girl vampire, Eli, she seemingly appears from nowhere. Oskar asks her where she is from. Eli responds that she lives in the jungle gym she is standing upon. This exchange is cut and slimmed down to simply, "I live here."

While the difference is insignificant in its face value, it is vast in its context. It morphs the scene from one filled with humor, thus engaging the audience more fully, to one that expresses nothing.

A worse example presented by Fright is when the subtitles replace a line completely. When Eli's caretaker, Hakan, is caught and about to make a huge sacrifice, Hakan says, "I'm trapped," in the DVD's subtitles. The problem is that he actually says the girl's name, "Eli." This means there can be no confusion; it is too obvious that he is not saying, "I'm trapped."By dumbing down this scene and interpreting the actions on screen, you are talking down to the audience and saying they are stupid. Not the greatest method to charm an audience.

Web site Digital Bits contacted Magnolia/Magnet with these legitimate concerns and what the distributor replied was music to fanboys' ears everywhere: "We are going to make an alternate version available however. For those that wish to purchase a version with the theatrical subtitles, it will be called out in the tech specs box at the back/bottom of the package where it will list SUBTITLES: ENGLISH (Theatrical), SPANISH."

This act is something simple but so endearing to fans of the film; by listening to the fans, Magnolia has done right by them. This is the right decision considering that they focus on independent films. They rely more heavily on the viewers and word of mouth than a huge studio like 20th Century Fox, who does whatever they want to beloved franchises knowing they will still make money because they pander to the lowest denominator.

As one of the best films of 2008 and one of my favorite films of all time, I had plans to buy this DVD. Yet, when I found out about the discrepancy, I dropped the idea until they would fix it. Little did I know that I didn't even have to wait a month before the big guy listened to the little guys and gave them what they want.