Remember back in February, when I told you about Let the Right One In? I think I’ve watched it a dozen times since then, and I still love it every bit as much. I watched it again a few nights ago, in fact, and was struck by how right the tone felt with the sense of coming autumn that’s in the air.

In particular, there’s a scene where young Oskar drops the needle on a 60s sounding 45, trying to look cool in front of Eli, and it really conveys so much of the raw feeling of adolescence– the gawky need to appear cool without being sure what that really is; the way the feeling of rock music resonates with your rushing hormones though the content of the lyrics is still distant and indecipherable; and for me at least, the way that the bite of chilled air and dark winter nights hook into the melancholy and maladjustment of puberty. Read the rest of this entry »

You know how sometimes a new movie comes out and briefly enjoys time on IMDB’s Top 250 list? I just saw a film that was released in October of last year, but is currently #189. Låt den rätte komma in, or Let the Right One In, is a Swedish vampire film that’s being billed as a horror/romance/thriller. It’s both all and none of those, and one of the few movies I’ve seen that actually lives up to the word “refreshing.”

Lina Leandersson in Let the Right One In

I won’t tell you too many specifics, lest I spoil the fun, but I will say that one of its great strengths is its ability to provoke a variety of moods, all direct hits and many in complete contradiction to each other. It’s both sweet and gory (as all hell, actually), melancholic and funny, a bit wistful and a bit dismissive. It also won big points with me for sticking with the traditional vampiric foibles– you have to be invited in, sunlight burns you, and the unkilled become undead (unlike in some wretched recent blockbuster pieces of shit that I can name). Oh, and did I mention that it’s set in 1982, and several of the characters have Abba-styled hockeyfrillas? My only complaint, if I were to make one, would be the creepy CGI cats, but I suppose that every project has its budget.

If you’re at all a fan of the horror drama, or unconvential romances, I can’t recommend this enough, especially if you’re lucky enough to live somewhere that it’s playing in a theater. Let’s hope the book that it’s based on is anywhere near as enjoyable!