This Week in the Mercury
Monday, December 1, 2008
Film Vampires, Swedes, and Snow (or, How the Best Teenage Vampire Movie is Definitelty Not Twilight)
Posted by Ezra Caraeff on Mon, Dec 1 at 9:28 AM
Mormon vampires--with their high cheekbones and bedroom eyes--don't have a goddamn thing on the Swedish undead in Let the Right One In. Lost in the art house cinema shuffle, the gorgeous film (currently at the Hollywood Theater) seems to be drifting off the pop culture radar, eclipsed by the more popular fan-fic vehicle Twilight, and harmed by an odd premise that is more coming-of-age story and less a chomp-chomp-on-the-neck Vampire tale.
Much like Wall-E, Let the Right One In is an unlikely love story that is heart-breakingly sad--it does, after all, partially share a title with a Morrissey song with the vampire-friendly line "I'd say you were within your rights to bite"--and absolutely sincere, as it focuses on a pair of emotionally numb 12-year-olds, left to bond late at night in an uninspiring backdrop of a deep Swedish winter. One of the kids "feeds on blood" (the "V" word is only mentioned one time in the film), while the other is a defeated and vulnerable target for bullies. Both are pale, sad, and absolutely sweet when together, somehow making the film one of the more intriguing love stories in years (right up there with the aforementioned Wall-E). The real tormentor of both characters is not the schoolyard bullies, or sunlight, garlic, and a slayer named Buffy, but the crippling loneliness that haunts them both.
And much like some of the best horror movies, the violence in Let the Right One In is deliberately sparse, instead director Tomas Alfredson focuses more on the overlying creepiness that blankets the film, much like the mountains of snow the characters constantly trudge their way through. But when the violence does occur, it's completely brutal, if not a bit over-the-top. This is not a spoiler alert, but when people die in this film, they really die.
It's been 48 hours since I exited the theater, but Let the Right One In is all I can think about. Running through the characters in my head over and over, and becoming obsessed with how this unlikely story about two subjects I'm completely indifferent to--teenagers and vampires--became the best film I have seen this year.
You can watch the trailer here.
Showing 1-3 of 3
newsweek, people, and literally everyone else was all over this a solid month ago.
I agree, it's gotten a fair amount of ink, but to date the film has grossed a whopping $836,837. That is depressing, especially when compared to the $121 million Twilight has made domestically.
And, A Cat, you would be very happy to know that felines play a VERY important role in this movie. Not going to give it away, but cats get a lot of on-screen time.
Oh, I saw it. It's a hell of a movie, prolly my favorite swedish movie since Songs From the Second Floor, and that saying a lot. I like swedes. And cats.
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