Let the Right One In DVD: A Public Service Announcement

If you bothered to set aside like 4 hours of your valuable time to read my Anti-Oscar posts you know that LET THE RIGHT ONE IN was easily one of my favorite films of last year. I’ve felt somewhat bad because I have not yet purchased the DVD since it came out. After discovering the inexcusable tragedy that has befallen this great work of art, I assure you this DVD will in no way grace my collection… at least not yet.

One of the websites I read on a daily basis, The Digital Bits, just linked to a story on the site Icons of Fright in which they dissect the DVD version of the film, more specifically the subtitles of the DVD version of the film. Apparently Magnet, the makers of the DVD decided the theatrical subtitles weren’t good enough so they opted to go with a dumbed down, ham-fisted, Akiva Goldsman version instead. They have multiple examples on the website and all of the grace, humor and subtlety has been removed from the film and instead been replaced with words you’d expect to hear in a badly dubbed kung-fu movie.

Sometimes these things can get a bit over blown and not be nearly as big of a deal as people make them out to be but that’s not the case here. The DVD company came out and admitted what they did. Apparently they’ve gotten so many complaints they are going to go back and remanufacture the DVD’s, this time with the correct, theatrical subtitles. Obviously it will be at least a few weeks before these new versions hit the shelves so if you haven’t seen this movie yet PLEASE WAIT! This is a film that deserves to be seen by movie lovers around the world and it deserves to be seen the way the film makers intended.

Normally this sort of careless, idiotic behavior would make me boycott a particular product or company all together but LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is such a good film there’s no way I can’t own it. I’ll just wait until it’s actually released on DVD. Consider yourselves warned.