Let The Right One In***

2008
Direncted by Tomas Alfredson,
Script by John Ajvide Lindqvist
with Kare Hedebrrant, Lina Leandersson
Seen On DVD

This came right out at the same time as the film Twilight and the comparisons are instructional. But I wont make that my entire discussion.

This is a vampire movie. The two main characters are a wisp of a boy who is not vampire, and his neighbor, a girl who only comes out at night, is of course the vampire. They fast become friends because they are about the same age - but of course they aren't, she's ancient.

They become friends and arguably fall in love. They make sacrifices for each other. Some of the bonding scenes are very touching and tender.



Spoiler Alert! Scroll down to the end if you don't want to know how it ends.

In the end, the boy runs off with the young/ancient girl. The director of the film thinks that this is a happy ending. He states some people disagree with him becasue now the boy is bound to the girl/vampire. I tend to agree with the latter opinion. In the beginning of the film, the girl arrives with a "guardian", but really he is her procurer. He procures victims so that she might feed and survive. My opinion is that this boy will take his place, and it is a nasty, violent business. This older procurer meets a violent and tortuous end. I don't think anyone would wish this boy to follow in his footsteps.

Now I know that boy and girl are romantically attached, and the first thought is that the vampire won't put the boy through what the old man went through becasue she loves him. He was just her procurer and was expendable excepting the service he provded for her. But she loves this boy. She is actually indebted to the young boy. So no - this boy won't follow in the path of the older man.

But this is my argument. How do we know that the older man him self wasn't a former lover of the girl. What else would compell him to do her grotesque bidding for her. Sure he's old now, but she's a vampire and remains eternally young. Perhaps he was young too and had grown older. In fact the old man seems to show some jealousy. Early in the movie he asks the girl not to see the boy. I thought it was to protect their identity, but I now believe that it was jealousy. As in any vampire book/film, the vampire always has her minions. I think that she just recruited her self a new one.

And it doesn't help that the boy seems to have a streak of violence in him. Perhaps because of all the bullying he endured, but even the vampire points this out to him. She saw him fantasizing killing his attackers with a knife againts the tree. This propensity for violence should come in handy when trying to procure victims for his vampire lover.

End of Spoiler Alert!

One has to compare this film to the blockbuster
Twilight because it came out at the same time and it has a similar story. Young vampire falls in love with mortal. It is slower moving and less action packed, so my daughter informed me and the people are less beautiful. But the story is so much better. And let's face it, the Twilight film has some really stupid parts and the obnoxious Hollywood formula of having obligatory knock-down, drag-out fight to near death ending. This is an intelligent film which demands a little more attention from the viewer, but it's worth the extra effort.

And here is someone else's opinion.