It’s difficult to fully convey the experience of watching Let the Right One In with a review. If you are anything like me, you’ve had it up to here (gesturing above my head) with the vampire crap. Film and TV shows have been on vampire overload and there is no end in sight (Daybreakers, Lost Boys 3, Dead Sucks, Twilight: Eclipse, etc.). Who would have thought a Swedish vampire flick from 2008 would stay with me for so many days, making me wonder:  Has EVERYONE seen this film? If not, run to Blockbuster or move it to priority #1 on your Netflix Queue.  The steady and calm camera movement, haunting tone, and pitch perfect acting makes this one of the best films…of the decade (more on that to come next week).  Let the Right One In is more visually beautiful than any you’ll see this year. And you’re in for a treat if you have Blu-Ray.

Let The Right One In takes all of the lame clichés of modern vampire flicks, and spins it into the real world. It focuses on a story of uncertain friendship and fragile love, of social reality and dark fantasy. Based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, director Tomas Alfredson’s film takes us deep into the heart of Sweden’s frigid suburbs.

Oskar is an outcast 12-year-old boy with no apparent friends. He’s a favorite target of bullies, and at home, where he lives with only his mother in an apartment complex that would make a sane man crazy. So pale and unimposing, he’s almost translucent. Bullied at school, he buries himself in a scrapbook of violent murders. Between his scrapbook and trusty knife, he has all the makings of a potential sociopath.  One night Eli enters Oskar’s life and changes it forever. Eli is… different. Her hair is black and matted, her face smudged with dirt. Only a thin shirt protects her against the snow. “Don’t you feel the cold?” asks Oskar. “No,” she replies. “Why not?” “I think I’ve forgotten how.”  Eli is also 12 years old — “kind of”, she says.

Eli has moved into the apartment next door, with a middle-aged man who speaks very little and has quite the black kit filled with a flashlight, plastic container, a funnel (yep), and some rope.  It’s very unclear who this man is…either her guardian or her slave.  Eli, you see, isn’t like the other girls. In fact, as she puts it, she’s not even a girl. She’s a vampire.

As it’s a vampire film, much of the film takes place at night or in the frigid cold. Each steamy breath seems to deliberately frame each characters motive. Every crunch of the snow builds the tension. The film is quiet and deliberate and by no means a horror film. Just creepy and haunting. It’s a coming of age film. The friendship between the two embattled children in their vastly different, yet similar, worlds grow as the stakes (pun intended) reach a fever pitch. The brilliant and subtle acting of both children gives the film a believable emotional core that would normally be missing in a film of this nature.

I appreciated this film tremendously for proving that horror thrills don’t have to come cheap. With the mass of horrible torture porn we’ve had to endure (the Saw franchise) in theaters, it’s refreshing to see a director take a step back. If someone told me Stanley Kubrick directed this, I’d half believe them.  The writer and director have crafted a modern fairytale that walks the fine line between fantasy and reality, darkness and light, and innocence and maturity.  Very much like Kubrick’s The Shining.

An American remake is already in the works (of course), that’s scheduled for release in 2010. Simply put, Let the Right One In does not need to be remade. This Swedish version is perfect.

**A viewing note. Change the “audio” from English to Swedish. DO NOT watch this with English dubbed voices. It’s painfully terrible. Adults are trying to do the kids voices and the emotional weight does not carry over. If you know how to read, you can handle the subtitles. Most of the film is visual anyways.

Let me know your thoughts after seeing this.  Interested to see if I’m in the minority of this brilliance.

(Thanks to Nate for the recommendation!)

Theatrical Release Date: October 24th, 2008

DVD Release Date: March 2009

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