The Other, Better Vampire Movie You Should See
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 (KÃ¥re Hedebrant) at night in an empty, snow-covered playground in the middle of a cheap apartment complex where he lives with his divorced mother.
What follows is love story, coming-of-age tale, and horror flick that
director Tomas Alfredson presents in a remarkably calm, straightforward
manner. (The unhurried, artful cinematography is by Hoyte van Hoytem.)
The movie isn't coy about Eli's identity, or the cause for her craving,
or the blood she requires. The strangeness of her nocturnal life is presented on
par with the bullying experienced by Oskar during daytime at school.
His inching toward revenge, his fantasies of violence are balanced by
her backsliding, in a sense, toward tenderness and even love. Though she warns Oskar at first that they can't be friends, a truce is gradually negotiated between them. And then, after first bonding over a Rubik's Cube, something stronger emerges.
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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Cover Story: Pipe Schemes
Vampiro says:
I agree, this is THE best film I've seen this year. But I heard those fuckers from Cloverfield are going to make a remake of this gem. There needs to be an unwritten law in Hollywood that no film--foreign or domestic--cannot be remade until 10 years after its release.
Posted On: Friday, Dec. 5 2008 @ 6:52PM