Let The Right One In

Copyright 2008, Magnet Pictures

What a shame it is that more people aren't going to see the Swedish-language vampire film Let The Right One In, a truly shocking and profoundly disturbing story that transcends its genre and, like a recent foreign fantasy, Pan's Labyrinth, surprises at every turn, frequently turning its plot in unthought-of ways. No, instead, people will flock to Twilight, a movie whose makers don't trust that its audience has an IQ above 75. No, people will avoid the subtitles, because they can't be asked to read and think at the same time. Multi-tasking is bad, right? What a shame.

But what a film is this, dear reader, what a film is this. At turns violent and tender, Let The Right One In tells the story of Oskar, an ostracized 12-year old in a rundown suburb of Stockholm, Sweden. Oskar is bullied at his school and at home, retreating with a love of knives and a dream of violent revenge. One night, he's spied upon by a new tenant in his apartment building, Eli, a strange girl who excites and inflames Oskar, even after he finds out that she's a vampire. Oskar, with his bullied lifestyle and divorced and distant parents, has a story interesting on a solely realistic level, but Eli, who's originally accompanied by Hakan, a middle-aged man whose job is to kill so his young charge may survive, has a truly fascinating life, even if we're never sure exactly how long she's been twelve years old.

Eli and Oskar grow as friends and Oskar still loves this girl even after he sees what she's capable of. Of course, by this point, we've seen what Eli is capable of, from climbing up buildings and trees to inciting a subtle passion in Hakan to sucking the blood of the other tenants in the apartment building. It's this knowledge that adds to the thrill of Let The Right One In, a movie where we are given more knowledge than the main character. It's that knowledge that lends a heavy amount of eerie chilliness, heighted by the cinematography by Hoyte van Hoytema and the steady direction of Tomas Alfredson. Lengthy passages, including a sunlit sequence at an ice rink and a subplot involving the fatal consequences Eli has on the people she doesn't even kill, are fluidly perfect and haunting.

Yet there are even depths to these characters that aren't plumbed in this adaptation of the 2004 novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist. How long has Eli been alive? How long has she had Hakan at her side, a man who, while dedicated to his duty, seems to make more mistakes in his murders of Swedish locals? How long will it be until Oskar is Eli's new murderer? We see the beginnings of this at the end, as Eli begs Oskar to be her for a while, to kill for necessity instead of perverse pleasure. What is the meaning of Eli's scar? As unanswered as these questions are, it adds to the fascination this film affords the viewer.

Though most vampire movies are specifically interested in bloodshed and lots of it, this movie doesn't feel the need to simply give its audience the grotesquerie it expects. Yes, there is blood here, but Alfredson manages to make us sympathize enough with Oskar and Eli that, when the climactic scene in a local pool finally comes, a scene we've been expecting for a while, not only is there an incredible amount of suspense but we're rooting for Oskar's bullies to be dispatched of, we're rooting for Oskar and Eli to make out like bandits. Apparently, in only a year, there will be an English-language remake of Let The Right One In, and I can only imagine how quickly the blood will spatter, heads will roll, and the ideas fueling this story are shoved aside. If more people are encouraged to see this film, though, as opposed to what will likely be a bastardized American version, more the better, because this really is one of the best films of the past year.

Four stars out of four