Swedish Vampirism

Just watched the Swedish film "Let The Right One In" on Blue-Ray. It's a pretty interesting movie. I wish I had thought of changing the settings from the overdubbing to sub-titles. Dubbing is always more distracting to me than subtitles.

Oskar is a friendless boy 12 years old who is almost a willing victim for three school bullies. Oskar "never fights back" but dreams of getting his revenge. Ali is a 12 year old girl who moves in next door. She is a vampire who is feeding on the neighborhood. They become friends because they have their isolation and loneliness in common. They both grow to genuinely care for each other. There is a twist that is revealed in the book the movie was made from, but was still somewhat ambiguous in the film. It was for me anyway.

The violence and gore have more of a melancholy feel than horror. It's disturbing but not frightening and not done just to shock. This is a movie about friendship and how you can always count on a real friend. There is the traditional vampire lore and homage to the classic Dracula films and for the first time I found out why vampires cannot enter a room without being invited to come in. What makes "Let the Right One In" an above average movie is that the vampire lore isn't over the top or romanticized like the silly "Twilight". I give this film 3 and a half out of 4 stars.