Set in the pitch dark cold of a silent Scandinavian winter, the lauded Swedish film, “Let The Right One In” (Låt den rätte komma”) is much more thoughtful and meditative than your average vampire film. Characterized by an atmospheric elegance, a sensitive touch and a contemplative tone largely absent in bloodsucker cinema, Tomas Alfredson’s fourth feature tender film is a unique spin on the commonalities we’ve come to expect and injects, ahem, new blood into the genre by adding a caring, friendship bond to the mix.
Seen through the eyes of a (creepy-looking) 12-year-old boy Oskar (first-time actor Kåre Hedebrant), this outsider child lives a lonely existence. Suffering from a broken homelife, the only kids who talk to him at school are the ones that bully him with insults and revel in finding innovative ways to abuse him. He discovers a new friend in his new next door neighbor Eli (another non-professional Lina Leandersson), who despite her constant need to blood-sated, never threatens Oskar, and instead, searching for her own connection in life, befriends him, ultimately serving as his protector.
One could call it a “love story,” but unrequited blood lust tales have become another vampire cliché, and the ‘Right One’ tender bonds have many more textures than that simple definition.
Introspective, and nicely thematically layered, what prevents ‘Right One’ from becoming a spellbinding film rather than simply a very good one (you may have heard some over-the-top hype), are tentative steps in balancing its vampire truisms with its more humanistic contours of friendship, affection and remorse. While the notes are mostly seamless, Alfredson’s strength lies in the introspective, almost poetic moments of snowy silence and human frailties. The strongest and most poignant scenes in the film are the affectionate, almost sad sequences when Oskar teaches Eli what its really like to be a little girl.
Almost grating in context to these perceptive scenes are the near kitschy moments when the director almost seems obligated to deliver Dracula-like tenets and guidelines. Bare in mind the violence works, but it’s the smaller Vampirisms that prove problematic at times. When remaining ambiguous they work – Eli suddenly becomes old in a disconcerting unexplained flash– however one particularly ill-conceived and poorly executed scene with attacking CGI-cats take us right out of the Alfredson’s understated zone.
But these are mostly minor quibbles as ‘Right One’ admittedly is crafted with a thoughtful and compassionate eye towards characters. There’s a terrific scene where the two tweens lie in bed coming to grips with their sexuality (or lack of it in the sexless vampire’s case) that could be cut from the cloth of any coming of age tale.
Unlike almost all modern horror directors Alfredson realizes that the real horror is in what we don’t see and he visually keeps us wanting more by teasing with quick flashes of jarring and unexplained visuals.
For our taste, he could have reigned in the vampiric elements all the more and achieved a super subtle level of anxiety, but it still mostly works. Oskar’s inner-strength soon begins to mirror her violent desires and the two create a bond resilient enough to last what soon foreshadows to seem like a lifetime together. If this is the direction in which horror is moving, we’re all for it. [B+]
The Inevitable U.S. Remake
Naturally, whenever a foreign export makes waves, U.S. studios are right there to pounce on it and suck the flavor right out of it. Case in point, this contemplative film is now going to be remade by Matt Reeves, the director behind the decidedly incurious, “Cloverfield.” Afredson is not involved and is not happy about the news either. “[Remakes should be made of movies that aren’t very good, that gives you the chance to fix whatever has gone wrong. I’m very proud of my movie and think it’s great, but the Americans might be of another opinion. The saddest thing for me would be to see that beautiful story made into something mainstream.” Indeed.