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Tomas Alfredson's Let The Right One In is the kind of film that floats around in your head for days after viewing.
Based on the novel by Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist, it tells the story of a boy with a runny nose named Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant), in a small snow-covered town in the 1970s, who gets a new neighbor: a vampire girl named Eli (Lina Leandersson). She moves in one night with an old man who appears to be her dad, but they quickly block out the windows with cardboard, and Oskar only sees Eli at night, when she comes out to watch him playing in the snow. Eli is curious and sweet, but oddly unaffected by the cold, unfamiliar with things like a Rubik's Cube, and unable to stomach the candy he tries to buy her. Oskar hears snatches of angry conversation through the walls of their apartment building, and becomes fascinated with Eli, while strangely gruesome murders begin to occur in the town.
The film perfectly captures the dark, cold nights and the stillness of this place, of Oskar's loneliness, his longing for his separated father, and paralyzing fear of some merciless bullies at school. (As an example of the movie's clever attention to detail and minor characters, one bully seems a little fragile and likely to be driven to therapy by the others, but he still does their bidding.) The story moves at a snail's pace in the beginning, but somehow with a brilliant urgency to it that keeps the viewer fascinated; the shots are beautiful and Leandersson's Eli has the most riveting face.
The movie throws in a few subtle CGI expressions later when she is thirsting for blood, as well as some eerie, animal-like trills and growls, but the actress does an excellent job as both an innocent 12-year-old and a seductive hunter that has been around the block, oh, for 200 years or so. It seems that Eli's "dad" is actually a bumbling excuse for a provider for her, tying people up, slitting their throats and draining the blood to bring home - one of the funniest scenes in the movie (which is darkly funny in many moments) is when he attempts to drive away a giant poodle that has caught him in the act and stands its ground. The fact that it's a giant, fully groomed poodle watching him drain blood in the snow, adds so much to the absurdity of the situation.
But the dad's mishaps lead Eli to have to "take care of this herself", which results in a frightening scene where she lures a local guy under a bridge, murmuring, "Help me" from the shadows, like some evil child spirit. The movie does an incredible job of keeping Eli both likable and terrible, which is necessary to understand Oskar's continuing admiration for her, even when she loses control and gives herself away at the sight of his blood. He figures out she's a vampire, ("Are you a vampire?" just sounds better in Swedish), but she is still his only friend, and maybe even a girlfriend.
There is a pretty cool subplot about a woman who is bitten but not killed, who begins to turn into a vampire (featuring some vicious CGI cats), and of course the gradual revelation of the true story behind Eli's caretaker. There are also many awesome shots such as Eli climbing nimbly up a building in the background of a scene, which could easily have been overdone, but is dead-on. These are the things that stay with you long after you've left the theater. Let The Right One In is a must-see, certainly before they remake it over here! (And turn it into a lame action movie.) Here's the trailer:
Image courtesy of Apple Movie Trailers
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vampires are the new zombies
Vamps are NOT and never will be the new Zombies. Although...30 Days of Night was pretty friggin badass.
I saw this trailer a few weeks ago; pasty children always put a fright in me.
Er, no offense but did you proofread this after you wrote it? It seems pretty wordy for what it is.
"it tells the story of a boy with a runny nose named Oskar" His nose is named Oskar? I don't recall him sniffling once or twice having to do much with the movie.
"...one of the funniest scenes in the music" in the music?
"is actually a bumbling excuse for a provider for her" What made him bumbling? He's been doing this for years and is pretty old.