Subtitles for Dummies

Don’t buy the new DVD or Blu-ray discs for Let the Right One In unless you like all the subtlety and nuance sucked right out of your movies. The subtitles for the theatrical release, as well as those on last year’s screeners, did a fine job translating the sly attitude and dark humor intended by Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel and screenplay. But the DVD released March 10th hangs the movie upside down in a tree, slits its throat, and drains all the cleverness into a plastic jug. If you bought this DVD, you didn’t get the movie the rest of us saw last last year.

In a brilliant breakdown at Icons of Fright, you’ll find a dissection of this debacle with detailed comparisons between the good translation and the bastardized dim-wit subtitles they’re trying to sell us at Best Buy and Amazon. The new subtitles are dumbed down to the most simplistic level imaginable. They’ve done a terrific job of absolutely ruining the movie — and charged you 20 bucks for the Sesame Street edition. I’ll post an example or two after the cut, but please go check out the complete article at Icons of Fright, because they’ve done us all a great service by exposing this blunder.

Anyone who’s bothered by this can go to Amazon.com and any other retailer that allows customer feedback to give this DVD the lowest rating and explain why in the comments. That way we can warn people not to waste their money on it. You’ll find more reasons for this, and more ranting after the cut.

Here are two examples of how crude the new translation is compared to the original (you might have to click to enlarge to read the captions).

Again, I encourage you to go to Icons of Fright to see a dozen more examples.

Latest update: The distributor, Magnet, are real sorry they messed up and they promise to fix it in future editions. So you can return your screwed up DVD for a full refund right? Because you paid for a movie you didn’t get, right? Not so fast. Magnet says this:

“We’ve been made aware that there are several fans that don’t like the version of the subtitles on the DVD/BR. We had an alternate translation that we went with. Obviously a lot of fans thought we should have stuck with the original theatrical version. We are listening to the fans feedback, and going forward we will be manufacturing the discs with the subtitles from the theatrical version.”

“There are no exchanges. 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.”

In other words: “For those of you who enjoy paying for a DVD twice to get what you expected the first time, we’re offering you a chance to help us double the profits from our mistake.”

Well, you know what? Fuck that. If you bought a defective DVD of Let the Right One In, take that crap disc back to wherever you bought it, say “Hey, not only does this damn thing not play, it fried my home theater system.”

Tell them you want a full refund in addition to a brand new Blu-ray disc player. If they’re reluctant to have you stand in their store and yell all afternoon, you can negotiate and settle for your money back on the piece-of-shit disc they sold you.

Don’t buy this DVD until The Get The Right Subtitles In. And if you care about the filmmaker’s integrity, take back your defective disc if they sold you a dud.