Country: Sweden
Genre: Horror/Art
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Year: 2008

Rating:

TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE

From Sweden, the land of cerebral Ingmar Bergman flicks, comes a vampire movie. Say what?

Well, Let The Right One In is both a horror movie and an art movie. Most of the violence is obliquely referenced, either shot at mid-distance, or slightly offscreen. That’s one way to get around the obvious budgetary limitations. I’ve got to say though, this hybrid of art cinema and horror works quite nicely, aside from being a conveniently economical solution.

Since director Tomas Alfredson doesn’t have the resources to use CGI, wirework, and all the other tools that Hollywood takes for granted, he uses methods that force the audience to use their brains and imagination. Most modern films treat their audiences like idiots, leaving a trail of exposition so that even people with double digit IQs can follow the action. On the other hand, Let The Right One In gives us almost all the information we need visually, in the form of mini-mysteries.

For example, a man is testing out a gas mask, which he then loads into a small valise about the size of a flugelhorn case. What for? Is he sick? Is the gas mask intended for someone else? We find out in the next scene. When we first meet the hero of our story, Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant), he’s alone in his living room, dressed only in his underwear, jabbing in the air with a knife and muttering about pigs. What’s that about? Soon enough, we find out that he’s being bullied by a bunch of other kids.

Watching Let The Right One In took me back to my own childhood, how I felt like I was the only one like myself in the world. Screenwriter John Ajvide Lindqvist, adapting from his own novel, uses the vampire genre to talk about the loneliness and alienation many children feel, especially sensitive, intelligent, imaginative children like Oskar. When Eli (Lina Leandersson), a vampire in the body of a 12-year-old girl, sees Oskar playacting at vengeance on his tormentors, she senses a kindred spirit, and the two outcasts tentatively reach out to each other in friendship.

What good can possibly come of this? Eli writes to Oskar early on that “Flight is life; to linger is death.” If Eli stays too long in one place, the corpse count will eventually draw unwanted attention to her. And will Eli be able to resist the tasty morsel that is Oskar? It seems that their friendship is doomed, one way or another.

Screenwriter John Ajvide Lindqvist comes up with satisfying answers to all of these narrative dilemmas.

Okay, we’ve established that Let The Right One In works as a metaphor for childhood alienation and loneliness, but does it deliver the horror goods? Oddly enough, yes.

Director Tomas Alfredson takes the conventions of the vampire mythology and gives them a subtle twist. Fittingly, considering the themes of friendship and trust that come into play, the convention Alfredson uses the most is the requirement that a potential victim must invite a vampire to come in before the vampire can actually enter a dwelling.

Alfredson films the violence in such a way as to allow the viewer to supply most of the details of the bloodletting from his or her imagination, but gives us just enough witty carnage to slake our thirst for blood.

The pacing is arty and most of the visuals lean towards realism, so if you hate art films, you probably won’t like Let The Right One In, but if you’re willing to meet it halfway, it rewards your patience.

I just thought of something. At the beginning of Let The Right One In, Eli is traveling with a man who appears to be her father. How did they hook up in the first place, and what does the older man get out of the arrangement? The ending of the movie answers that question. Think about it after you’ve seen Let The Right One In.

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