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Let The Right One In and find she’s a pre-teen vampire.

When Interview with a Vampire came out, I found it an interesting take on a vampire story.  The part of the film that made me give pause were the scenes with the Kirsten Dunst character.  The idea of a child vampire is intriguing. Her mind would keep growing but her physical being would still be a state of arrested development.  It is this concept that drives the spooky story Let The Right One In.
 
The tale opens with a shirtless 12 year-old Oskar (Kare Hedebrant) looking out the window waiting for something.  In just one opening shot it is conveyed the feelings of loneliness and rejection.  This slight child is bullied by a group of kids at school and has fantasies of destruction of his enemies.  In his room is a scrapbook collection of dastardly deeds from the newspaper.  He practices knife thrusts in the courtyard of his apartment complex. 

One day a new neighbor moves next door.  She is a mysterious young girl who never seems phased by the bitter cold of the winter.  She encourages Oskar to stand up to his tormentors.  At the same time, a series of deaths occur in the neighborhood.  Oskar, who is fascinated by the macabre, figures out that his female friend is a vampire.  The rest of the story of Let The Right One In is a young love story where two very different individuals have to learn to rely on each other in ways they never expected.

The performances of the two young actors are perfect.  Lina Leandersson as our pre-teen vampire beings a feeling of sad pathos to what could have been a contrived role.  When she says that she is twelve but has been twelve for a long time, one truly believes her statement.  She has the saddest eyes and downtrodden disposition that turns into cinematic belief.  When she does kill, it seems to break her heart.  She does it not because she wants to but because she has to and that little fact weighs heavy on her heart.

Kare Hedebrant has a much harder role.  He is our surrogate eyes, taking in all the mysterious goings on and putting them into a believable context.  We feel his pains of isolation as well as his newfound feelings of love.  It is a first love that like most first loves is more of a doomed circumstance.  There is serious heartbreak in this film. 

Director Thomas Alfredson doesn’t pull back from either the violence or the uncomfortable sexuality that the material demands.  This film earns its R rating on just about every level.  But the film works well in the smallest moments, when the two young protagonists are letting down their guards and letting each other come into their respective worlds.  The scenes of vampire attack are both brutal in effort but poetic in cinematic license. 

The writer of the book John Ajvide penned the screenplay so he knows his characters.  He keeps most of the vampire legends intact yet still can keep the proceedings fresh.  The victim who turns into a vampire is a classic moment. 

There are more occasions where the film does drag and it is need of a tighter edit, but for the most part Let The Right One In works as a genre flick and as a treatise on young star crossed love.  If you don’t mind the subtitles, this is a great little film to sink your teeth into.

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