Magnet Screws Over Let The Right One In Buyers

It’s no secret that everyone here at ScreenGeeks absolutely adores the Swedish vampire movie Let the Right One In.  We even devoted an episode to this gem of a film.  I was absolutely psyched to see it at WalMart for $15 on DVD.  I haven’t picked it up yet, and it looks like that’s a good thing.

Icons Of Fright just recently posted that the subtitles for the US DVD release of Let the Right One In are significantly different from what was seen in the theatrical cut.  Specifically, the subtitles are dumbed down to the point that humor and depth was lost so people with a low IQ can keep up with the film.  Seeing some of the changes, it’s entirely appropriate that many around the web are calling these “Twilight subtitles”.  The move has been dumbed down just for people who actually thought that Twilight was an insightful movie and a unique take on the vampire genre.  Essentially, the theatrical cut is Robert De Niro in Awakenings when the chemicals work, and the DVD cut is De Niro in his catatonic state.

Yesterday, Bill Hunt over at The Digital Bits did a little more digging and found out more news that is equally satisfying and frustrating.  DVD distributor Magnet had heard the film geek outcry and will be releasing the DVD with the theatrical subtitles intact.  You’ll be able to tell as on the back of the case, the subtitles will be labeled “English (Theatrical)”.

I’m sure that those who bought the crappy version are wondering how to go about exchanging for the version that should have been release in the first place.  Well, this is where the frustrating part comes into play.  To quote Magnet in the Digital Bits column, “There are no exchanges”.  Yeah, thanks for nothing, tools.  Essentially, Magnet has screwed over the people who wanted to support this movie from the beginning to show that there’s an audience for this kind of intelligent film in the US.  They’re saying that you need to buy it again.  Oh, and the subtitle issue is on the BluRay version, too.

Seeing the niche films that Magnet releases, this just doesn’t make sense.  Why in the world would you ever want to enrage your customer base?  At this point, I really think that people who bought the original release should wait until a good rip is made available with the correct subtitles at various BitTorrent sites, and just download it that way.  Those of you who purchased this dvd in good faith that this would be what was released are being milked.  There’s no reason to give these jokers another dime of your money.

Should you have purchased the dvd and want to share your displeasure with this situation, you can e-mail them at dvd@magpictures.com.

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Dave Minkus

Dave is located in Denver, CO and can also be found occasionally sullying various podcasts who don't know better than to invite him on.

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