Let the Right One In (2008, Swedish)

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit how much vampire fiction I’ve been consuming in the last few weeks (something hinted at in the entry below, I’m sure). However, perhaps this fact will lend credence to my claim that Let the Right One In is one of the best vampire stories I’ve come across in some time. Oskar is a quiet young boy living in an apartment complex outside of Stockholm, spending much of his time on his own when he’s not being tortured by bullies. One night, he meets Eli, a strange girl who just moved in next door and doesn’t appear to be bothered by Sweden’s below-freezing winter temperatures. It’s obvious almost immediately that Eli is a vampire, though I don’t think the word is mentioned until near the end of the film, once Oskar, who isn’t privy to some of the same evidence the audience sees, finally gets it.

One of the best things about Right One is the world of childhood that it invokes. I particularly liked how Oskar’s bullies interact with him – in one of the earlier sequences, the look captured on one of the boys' faces is incredible, a mixture of loathing and fear that perfectly captures the complex interactions between bullies and their prey. That Eli is not the most vicious creature around is a canny take on the need to feed versus the desire to inflict pain. Eli may in fact be the perfect friend to Oskar, as she cautiously advises him in the principles of schoolyard defense while in the meantime causing chaos in the world of adults around them. (That's another nice thing - adults rarely factor in here, existing primarily to push the plot forward. It's a child's world.)

Right One is also that rare genre movie that carefully swings between horror, to romance, to a childhood coming-of-age narrative. It's gorgeously shot in cool blue and grey tones, amid a snowy landscape that makes everyone look like a vampire (I think there may be two, possibly three sunlight scenes). In all, it's a carefully constructed film, and the cumulative effect is spellbinding.