Upcoming Release: 'Let the Right One In'

By Sarah Sluis

The Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In, about two twelve-year-old neighbors, one of them a
vampire, recalls the 1970s wave of prestige horror movies.  Largely based on novels, films like Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, and The Silence of the Lambs focused on the shadings of good and evil, curiously examining their characters' motives and thoughts.  Yes, there were moments of violence and fear, but the films drew energy from the atmosphere of horror, the bleak sense of doom that never receded.

In a 1982 Sweden during winter, where the sun sets in mid-afternoon, blond, bowl-cut Oskar endures relentless tormenting from a group of boys, his somber introversion both caused by and the cause of his teasing.  He finds friendship in Eli, a dark-circled, mature companion he meets perched on a jungle gym.  As her pale complexion suggests, she is a vampire.

In the context of this friendship, an exploration of their characters unfolds.  I spent much of the film
tenuously moving Oskar and Eli's characters
back and forth from the "good" to "bad" categories.  Eli hates killing
people, but she also wants to live--she "needs" to kill people.  Oskar wants friendship, but as he grows closer to Eli he changes from a potential victim to an accomplice.  The film likes to throw little wrenches into the machinery we have constructed for the character.  We accept that Eli needs to kill to live, but later we see another vampire choose to die rather than live a life with her "infection." Suddenly, we must examine Eli's survival as a choice, and possibly a selfish
one.

The film accomplishes much with the details.  The dried traces of
blood on Eli's lips manage to convey both innocence and alluring
dshabille, bringing to mind smeared lipstick or a young child who does
not yet know how to wipe her mouth properly.  There's also a pleasure in learning the "rules" the vampire must follow.  Eli has a special set of skills, taboos, and enemies (watch out for hissing cats), and these are presented to us more as artifacts or curiosities than foreshadowing.

FJI wrote a review of the film here that prompted my own viewing.  The film opens in limited, NY/LA release this Friday, October 24th.  In true Hollywood style, Cloverfield director Matt Reeves has already announced plans to remake the film, but I can't imagine native dialogue improving my viewing experience.  The English language is not needed to experience the dazed, creeped-out sensation I felt after the screening, nor the attitude of smug satisfaction I will feel having seen "the real deal" once the remake releases.