I’ve been watching vampire movies for most of my life. Starting with Bela Lugosi’s Dracula on late night creature-feature TV, along with turns by John Carradine and Lon Chaney Jr. (not a high point for the Count), and then on to the theater with Christopher Lee, William Marshall (the awesome Blacula!), Frank Langella, and Gary Oldman. There are certainly more vampire movies than those with Dracula in them, though. There’s the underrated, campy, and amusing Fright Night, the grim vampires-as-homicidal-vagrants Near Dark, the droll/grotesque vampires-as-strippers Dawn to Dusk, the funny and entertaining vampires-as-high-school-dropouts The Lost Boys, and now we have another vampire movie to contemplate. No, not the anemic vampire-as-metaphor-for-sex, drugs, & rock n’ roll-abstinence Twilight, but the truly excellent and moving Let the Right One In.
Let the Right One In is a Swedish film from director Tomas Alfredson starring Kåre Hedebrant as Oskar and Lina Leandersson as Eli. Oskar is a 12 year old boy who is being bullied and tormented at school. His parents are divorced and neither one pay much attention to him or notice his problems. Eli is a young girl who moves next door to Oskar. They meet one night as Oskar is repeatedly stabbing a tree with a knife, while he’s fantasizing about how he will deal with his tormentors. Of course, it turns out that Eli is a vampire forever stuck at 12 years old. They turn to each other for friendship, companionship, love, and ultimately protection.
This film is completely anchored in the themes and social problems of today. Without mentioning Columbine, this film draws comparisons and similarities between that horrific occurrence and the boy Oskar. It’s about alienation, isolation, and feelings of powerlessness. The story is so solid that you could easily subtract the vampire elements and still have a wonderful and moving story about growing up and coping with life. To be sure, this Swedish film is quite different from most horror movies of today—the gore and violence is seldom directly shown, dialog and characterization are handled as a priority, and special effects (with two notable exceptions involving cats and one extreme sunburn) are practically nonexistent. Though this film is obviously a low-budget project, no expense was spared on imagination and passion. Let the Right One In is filled with characters that are fully realized and I was hooked from the opening credits. The characters and the story continue to haunt me. Not only is this one of the very best vampire movies ever made, but it was one of the best movies I’ve seen this year. If it comes to your city, see it. When it comes out on DVD, rent it or buy it.
