Marcus: Let The Right One In (2008)

            Just when I think I’ve become jaded to the point where no new movie can impress me, one comes along that does exactly that. It’s a natural cycle that I always seem to run through from year to year. On a similar note, I’m always blown away by the outstanding quality of most foreign films I come across, the amount of which being ashamedly much less than I’d like to admit. And as you may have guessed by now, I’m a sucker for a good horror film. And yet to call “Let The Right One In” merely a horror film is like calling Al Capone merely a troublemaker. This beautiful Swedish movie has so much going for it I’m surprised it doesn’t have it’s own entourage.

            The story focuses on Oskar, a lonely boy who doesn’t feel a true connection to anyone as his parents have had a divorce, and are emotionally distant, and he is regularly bullied at school. He eventually finds friendship, in Eli, a new girl in his apartment complex, who tries to keep her distance from him as she harbors a dark secret, that being she is a vampire.

            I’m going to now disarm a thought that I know has come to your mind by now. This movie is not like “Twilight.” True, the stories both focus around the growing romance between two kids who are tempting fate by being together because one of them is a vampire, they’re both based off of a book and both of these movies made me cringe but this is not like “Twilight,” ok? First of all, only one of these films actually tells the story of a vampire in love while still using the mythology that qualifies it as a vampire. Here is a list of basic vampire mythos that appears in “Let The Right One In”:

1. Vampires must drink the blood of humans to survive.

2. If a human survives a vampire bite, they too become a vampire.

3. Vampires are immortal.

4. Sunlight kills vampires.

5. Vampires must be invited into a building where they do not live or else they can not physically enter.

6. Vampires demonstrate superhuman abilities (e.g. flying, scaling walls, monstrous strength and agility).

7. Cats can sense when someone’s a vampire.

8. Vampires are fucking scary!

            The infamous Edward Cullen barely satisfies half of this list, especially when you consider that, while the sun affects him, it only does so to the same degree that the flattering figure of a shiny sequined blouse on a young, confused boy “affects” his sexuality. It certainly doesn’t pose any threat to him as it so badassly does in “Let The Right One In.”

            Some of you might think that “Let the Right One In” is just trying to copy “Twilight,” but this is also not true. Both movies came out in the same year and as for the original books, “Twilight” came out a year later. And finally, while both movies did make me cringe, one did so with its shitty dialogue and acting, while the other did so by depicting a child’s head being ripped off, a girl bleeding from her eyes and a half-mangled face effect better than the one on Two-Face in “The Dark Knight.”

            Some elements that stuck out to me in this film were the setting, and the performances. This film takes place outside of Stockholm in the early 80’s, and as such, I can confidently put “Outside Stockholm in the early 80’s” as #1 on my list of the bleakest places in the world. It accentuates the theme of loneliness perfectly, which is good, because there is a LOT of loneliness in this film. You see it in Oskar when he is driven from human contact by his distant parents and the bullies who beat him up at school. You see it in Eli, who, other than her guardian, must avoid all human contact as a necessity, except when she must feed. You even see it appear in the side plot that develops, wherein a woman who survived an attack by Eli becomes "sick" and no longer knows how to interact with those she knew, eventually deciding on suicide via HOLY SHIT SHE JUST BLEW UP! All of these lonely, lonely Swedes just seem all the more isolated when seen trudging through the thick, crunchy snow, with no noise but the howling wind and sad piano music. Tonally, the movie is perfect.

            The acting in this film is far stronger than it has any right to be, considering all the main characters are children and this is the film debut of the two leads. There’s no question that they are able to drive the plot and they make it more interesting to watch than most of the child stars you see in Hollywood could. One particular detail I loved was the casting of the bullies, because they aren’t your stereotypically, tough and obviously menacing bully. They look like regular kids, in fact, were this any other movie, they look like they’d all be Oskar’s friends, playing second banana to his antics. But they are ruthless and relentless and ultimately, cowardly.

It’s wonderful to see a movie that is written so elegantly that it can cover a wide range of material without becoming muddied and convoluted. I highly recommend this film to any and all who would see it. And if after seeing this movie you say to yourself, “that was like ‘Twilight,’” I want you to order yourself a piece of electronic equipment and swallow the silica gel packet that comes in the box with it.