SmartShanghai | DVD Sunday: Let the Right One In

DVD Sunday: Let the Right One In

By Joe Schaefer, Mar 22nd, 2009 | In Community

The vampire has always been open to a wider range of interpretations that it's comparatively one-note undead brethren, the zombie. From the homoerotic foppery of Interview with the Vampire, to the action packed camp of John Carpenter's Vampires, to the visceral bloodshed of 30 Days of Night, to the powerful sucking vampires of Eddie Murphy's Vampire in Brooklyn, it seems there are as many varieties of vampire as there are vampire movies.

Tomas Alfredson's Let the Right One In is the newest entry into the vampire canon, bringing with it a fresh take on the material and a new emphasis on real relationships, three dimensional characters, and a slow-burning story arc. All the vampire rules you know and love still apply, but instead of the usual nocturnal chicanery, we get an atmospheric adolescent love story that is much more concerned with the nuances of its characters than wooden stakes and cloves of garlic.

This narrative revolves around a 12-year-old kid named Oskar, who spends his morose existence avoiding bullies and pouring over his collection of morbid photos and newspaper clippings. A friend and soul mate arrives in the form of Eli, a mysterious girl-next-door, who only appears at night outside their apartment. She also enjoys feasting on the occasional towns person. Let the Right One In is content to spend much of its time focused on the quiet interactions between Oskar and Eli, whose attempts to go steady are constantly hindered by her insatiable hunger for human blood.

Make no mistake, this is a real slow burner, but the pitch-perfect atmosphere and eerie verisimilitude give the few action scenes that much more impact; it's the sort of self-reflective, poetic film making that elevates its material to "serious art", while at the same time delivering on the macabre thrill of it's subject matter.

Like the scene where the little girl jumps from the tree and rips a dude's head off.

Let the Right One In is evocative of Lasse Hallström's My Life as a Dog, not just because it's in Swedish, but because it also depends so much on the performances of child actors. Kåre Hedebrant is outstanding as Oskar, and really sells his portrayal of an awkward junior high kid courting a bloodthirsty creature of the night (that can't be an easy role). This caliber of acting from a tween has been sorely lacking as of late in American film, where youngsters are either overlty cutsie Disney channel refugees, or precocious "outcasts" with an unending supply of witty quips.

The vampire canon has been waiting for an addition this original for a long time. Unfortunately this masterfully crafted film snuck onto the scene late last year virtually unnoticed thanks to the spotlight-hogging antics of its lobotomized twin, Twilight.

Dodge the hype, and go seek this art house gem at your local DVD store.

Grade: A-

Tagged: DVD Sunday