Let The Right One In
Let the Right One In is a film I’d been hearing about for months now, with glowing reviews coming out of every film festival it’s played, as well as winning Best Narrative Film at the Tribeca Film Festival and a few other choice awards at some other festivals this year. Everything I’d read about the flick sounded like it was right up my alley, and I was fortunate enough to catch an early screening at Cinema Tuesdays at the Montalban theater in Hollywood. Every now and then, a heavily buzzed about film actually lives up to the hype, and this is one of those rare times. Directed by Swedish director Tomas Alfredson, the movie is based on the popular novel of the same name that came out in 2004. The title is also a reference to the Morrissey song “Let the right one slip in” which I didn’t find out till after I saw the movie, but only helps in making me like this movie even more.
The movie is set in a working class suburb of Stockholm Sweden, sometime in the 1980’s. There are no direct references to dates, but there are enough small visual cues (a Rubik’s Cube here, a Smurfs toy there ) to suggest that it is. The entire movie is set in the dead of winter, with a thick layer of snow covering everything, giving the film a beautiful, almost fairy tale quality look throughout. Our main character is a 12 year old boy named Oskar, who lives with his mother in a somewhat run down apartment building. Oskar is skinny, nerdy, quiet, and doesn’t have any friends to speak of (he also looks kind of albino-ish, but maybe that’s how Swedish people look? Ok, ok, maybe not ALL Swedish people. ) Everyday at school, the same pack of bullies pick on him, tormenting him for no other reason other than he’s weird and different. Since you are reading this review on a site called Geekscape, I’ll bet there’s a good chance you can relate to Oskar’s predicament.
Oskar is soon smitten with another child, a young raven haired girl named Eli (pronounced Ellie ) who moves in next door with an elderly man named Håkan, the person whom we are to assume is her father. At first, Eli assures young Oskar that she’s not there to make new friends, but of course they ending up striking up a friendship anyway, and young Oskar ends up getting quite a serious crush on her. Eli tries to remain cool and aloof, but it’s clear that Oskar is winning her over too. It’s a lot like Arnold and Winnie Cooper from The Wonder Years. Except this time, Winnie is a bloodthirsty vampire.
That’s right. Young Eli is a creature of the night, and a rather ruthless one at that. She first has her human servant, the man posing as her father, go out into town and kill people for her and collect their blood. But after he bungles a few of these kills, either from a conscious desire to end the killing or simply because he’s just getting older and sloppy, she realizes if she wants something done right she’d better do it herself. The body count begins to rise in town, causing a panic amongst the residents, and all the while the special bond between Oskar and his unique next door neighbor continues to grow. She inspires him to man up and stand up to the bullies who make his life a living hell every day. He in turn gives her a connection to another person her own age, although, unlike Oskar, Eli has been 12 years old “for a long time now” by her own admission.
It’s never really made clear just how long Eli has been a vampire, although it’s heavily implied that the man who has been posing as her father has been more or less her willing slave since maybe he was child as well, and has spent most of his life taking care of the young vampire girl he fell in love with when he was maybe the same age as Oskar. The man who plays Håkan (Per Ragnar) gives a great understated and heartbreaking performance, one where we can actually sympathize with this man who is killing not out of need or fear, but for some sad sense of obligation to this child who is not really a child at all. The real breakout stars here though, are Kåre Hedebrant as Oskar and especially Lina Leandersson as Eli. She goes from moody misfit kid to vicious vampire all in a matter of moments, and plays both sides of her character with an ease not seen in too many American child actors.
I really don’t want to spoil too much more of the plot, as you owe it to yourself to check this movie out when it goes into limited release (it hits Los Angeles and New York on October 24th, and rolls out in some other cities throughout the month of November). While it does indeed transcend it’s genre, it’s also a totally solid horror film as well, certainly better than any of the horror films being released by the major studios lately. In fact, the other great horror flick that came recently was the Spanish film The Orphanage, proving that either Americans have lost their touch for telling a good horror story or the studios just don’t want to bother trying to market something original.
It seems that aside from 90’s holdovers like Buffy and Blade, the vampire genre was kind of sitting this decade out. That was until this year, when the vamps came back with a vengeance, first with HBO’s True Blood and soon with the teenage girl sensation Twilight, and finally with Let The Right One In. Sadly, due to this being a foreign film, few people will see it and will wait for the no doubt inferior American remake starring some kids from the Disney Channel or something. And yes, an American remake is already in the works, before this film has even had the chance to build up it’s reputation. So if you’re a genre fan, or just a fan of good movies in general, go support this one when it hits your local theater. Yes, I know it has subtitles, but if you sat through them for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon you can at least extend the same courtesy to this movie. Plus, I can almost guarantee you that it’s better than whatever Saw V is going to end up being.
