The Other, Better Vampire Movie You Should See
Categories: Film
Photo: Magnolia Pictures
Not that it's a big secret or anything, but Twilight totally sucks. And if there are adults out there who insist on reading YA books (that's young adult, in trade parlance), like the Harry Potter series, it's time to move on. Instead, for serious, grown-up vampire movie lovers, the superior Swedish alternative is Let the Right One In, which continues at the Varsity this week. (It also played SIFF this spring.) Our recent review, frankly, was a bit dry. (See the NYT write-up here from former SW contributor Manohla Dargis.)
Even as the big-budget Hollywood Oscar contenders line up to open in the next two weeks, I can tell you that Let the Right One In is one of the best movies of the year. (As of this writing, Wall-E still tops my list.) Based on a 2004 Swedish novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, the film is set in a snowy Stockholm suburb circa 1982. It's February, and the sun almost never shines at that northern latitude. This is a good thing for visiting young vampire Eli (Lina Leandersson), who meets lonely 12-year-old Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) at night in an empty, snow-covered playground in the middle of a cheap apartment complex where he lives with his divorced mother.
The less you read in advance about Let the Right One, the better. So no spoilers, and no more plot summary.
Though I laughed a few times, there's very little black comedy in this white winterscape. Eli and Oskar are serious in a way that all preteens are serious--no longer children, not sure they want to join the adult world. All the hokey old clichés of vampire movies--the bats, the evening dress, the Bela Lugosi "I vant to drink your blood," the Ann Rice vampire-industrial complex--have been stripped away here. It's not only the freshest vampire movie in ages, it's one of the most vital movies of 2008, a small treasure buried in the snow.
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