Song of the day: “When the Levee Breaks” by Led Zeppelin

Let the Right One In

Director: Tomas Alfredson
Genre: Horror/Drama/Romance/Thriller
Year: 2008

Let’s start with the bad news: You will likely never see this film in theaters, unless you already saw its minimalistic 2008 release  in a handful of Landmark Theaters in less than a handful of cities. The rights to the ‘American Remake’ have been purchased by Hammer Films and Spitfire Pictures for a reported seven figures (according to /film) and you know what this means, this movie is well en-route to be watered down and stupefied for the American public. At best, you can expect what Quarantine was for [REC], at worse…well, chances are that, given our record at remaking foreign films, that it is going to suck. This leaves you with the upcoming DVD release which, if you like horror, or vampires, or romance, or thrillers, you MUST purchase!

I have decided this is my favorite vampire film ever. Yes, I did put it on top of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and after much deliberation I also decided I like it better than Interview with a Vampire. Those of you that know me are aware of the fact that I am a huge werewolf fan, not so much a vampire fan and a conversation with Todd Hamilton yesterday sort of guided me to the root of that. Much of what I appreciate about werewolves is missing when it comes to vampires. The duplicity, the inner conflict, the contrast between humanity and beast; and the significance of that symbolism I find extremely powerful, something that is glossed in glamor when it comes to vampires. Though Dracula, Interview with a Vampire, Nosferatu (the former probably best of all) do try to capture the horror of being an undead, blood sucking, vampire; culturally speaking we still glorify vampires.

One needs to only ask themselves how many films have you watched where vampires are THE thing to be? Ask anybody and chances are, if you gave them the option to be a vamp or a werewolf, they will more often answer vamp than not. Nobody wants to be caught being this beast and that is because Anne Rice, among others have made this goth, beautiful, intelligent, complex and unrealistically powerful creatures out of something that was supposed to be a curse. In my eyes, that lost its believability, while simultaneously ignoring the weaknesses or altogether circumventing them. It’s really sort of sickening and unfortunately, the few films that do try to portray vampires as beasts, go too far. Take I Am Legend which, while it was a good adaptation (discounting the end) of the mood of the book, does an extremely poor job at capturing the complexity of the vampires; or 30 Days of Darkness, which I have not seen but I hear does a terrible job adapting from the graphic novel. Most of what stands out there is Underworld, Interview with the Vampire, etc…which make an attempt at trying to incite pity, but in the end, we all probably can agree that you leave with a strong feeling of ‘it would be cool to be a vampire’.

For the first time, I truly feel somebody got it right, and that somebody was Tomas Alfredson as a director and John Ajvide Lindqvist with a tremendous screenplay regarding Oskar a 12 year old boy, constantly picked on and bullied at school by a handful of kids and Eli, a seemingly equally young girl that is cursed to be a vampire and happens to be his temporary neighbor. I think Todd described it best when he called this story a coming of age story and ultimately the movie keeps Oskar on the driver’s seat of the plot with a nearly brutal honesty that is as insightful as it is raw in the way Gus Van Sant’s Elephant portrayed the lost youth. Few minutes into this film you can sense the hatred that festers inside Oskar, driving him towards what looks like an unavoidable spiral into violence, something his timid nature tries to contain. Ironic then, that it should be a vampire that should come to his rescue, primarily by offering Oskar what nobody else will; what results is a very intricate, significant relationship between two children under unique circumstances.

While not a slasher, this film keeps enough of the horror up front to maintain a sense of thrill and suspense throughout the film, providing some unforgettable images and powerful scenes that will haunt for a long while. It helps that the two main characters, while being young adolescents, play their parts superbly. The directing, the rich cinematography, the timely editing, and a great script all work in tandem to put together a film that I truly doubt the American remake will be able to match. That is not to mention the fact that there is something about the particular setting in Sweden that enriches the film with its cultural uniqueness.

Rating:
Comments: Its a horror film, expect some violence, intense situations and disturbing imagery. There is also a brief, frontal nudity shot of the girl, it might be a dummy (I did not take the time to study the shot) but be aware that that is in there. Language: Swedish with English subtitles.