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Thanks to the overwhelming popularity of author Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, teen vampires are all the rage these days. But while screaming teenage girls (and their mothers) flocked to see the Twilight movie, those looking for a truly chilling teen vampire movie should have seen director Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In instead.
Every day, twelve-year-old Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) endures taunting and abuse from his classmates. Then, every night, he goes home to the apartment he shares with his mother, locks himself in his room, and dreams of one day getting his revenge.
On a dark, snowy evening, while he’s playing outside by himself, Oskar meets Eli (Lina Leandersson), a strange and somber girl who lives with her father in the apartment next door. Though she warns him that they’re not supposed to be friends, they begin meeting more often, on the complex’s dark, lonely playground. Oskar’s thrilled to have someone to talk to—and Eli encourages him to stand up to the bullies at school.
Eli doesn’t tell Oskar what she is—or why he never sees her during the day. Ever since Eli and her father showed up, though, strange things have been happening—and people have been disappearing…or worse. But by the time Oskar finally discovers that his new friend is a vampire, he cares too much about her to run away.
Based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, this dark and dramatic vampire movie may sound like it could be the Swedish version of Twilight. But Let the Right One In (or Låt den Rätte Komma In) is everything that the big-screen adaptation of Twilight wasn’t. You won’t find any overdone angst or cheesy Hollywood flash and sparkle here. Instead, viewers are treated to a smart and subtle thriller that’s both beautiful and horrifying.
Set in the snowy Swedish winter, Let the Right One In feels deceptively serene and almost dreamlike. The story is uncomplicated, and it builds rather slowly. In fact, if you’re used to high-energy blood-and-gore horror movies, you’ll find it sleepy. But that sleepiness is just a part of what makes the film so haunting—and it makes the film’s violent moments feel all the more shocking.
Much more than the blood and gore, though, Let the Right One In is all about the atmosphere. It’s dark and eerie and even moody, but it’s done to dramatic and artistic perfection. It’s heavy and tragic (not to mention chilling), but it also has an unexpected innocence to it. It is, after all, the story of two lonely kids and their growing friendship. And it’s that unsettling mixture of innocence and horror, beauty and tragedy, that makes it such a striking film.
So if Twilight left you feeling indifferent and unimpressed, give Let the Right One In a try. I recommend checking out this chilling thriller now—in its original Swedish version—because I can’t make any promises about the Hollywood remake, which is scheduled to hit theaters in 2010.
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