[HEADING=2]Let the Right One In[/HEADING]
It's hard to keep a genre interesting when it's own cliches are chrushing it into the ground like an anvil. And we as an audience will ultimatly accept the campiness, because for all we know there's no other way to tell the story. And none suffer as much from this as the vampire story.
In this day and age it's near impossible to make a vampire movie in wich every concept hasn't already been thoroughly run through the wringer. And no matter how many times Hollywood tries to reimagine or reboot the genre, it always steps into the same campy puttles. Maybe there lies the fault. Maybe we're trying to hard. Maybe that's why Let the Right One In feels so fresh and interesting.
Let the Right One In is a Swedish movie based on the similarly titled book and tells the story of the two 12-year olds Oskar and Eli. Oskar lives alone with his mother and is frequently bullied at school by three classmates. He's quiet, keeps to himself and spends a certain amount of time fantasizing about exacting revenge on his tormentors. During one of his power fantasies, while he's stabbing a knife in a tree, he meets Eli. Eli just moved into town and lives in the apartment next to Oskar with her caretaker Hakan. The two bond and become close friends. But we all know that the closer we get to eachother the more the ugly details rise to the surface wich is most certainly the case with Eli.
The title of the movie ofcourse refers to the vampire foklore that a vampire cannot enter a home unless one of it's tennants invites it in. But this is not the usual vampire movie. Wich is funny since all the cliched common knowledge about vampires is present: Requiring an invite in order to enter a home, becoming a vampire once bitten, combusting in the sunlight etc. But where most movies try to explain their take on the vampire mythos and become a textbook, Let the Right One In simply tells a story and drops a few subtle hints here and there. The movie never really rolls out the red carpet interms of vampire money shots, but it feels all the more powerfull because of it. This way of presentation isn't just there to work well with the cold and bleak winter surroundings. Everytime Eli reveals a little vampire quirk it's a spine chilling sensation. This same subtle approach works well with Eli's caretaker Hakan and the way he goes out at night to collect blood for her. One scene in particular where Hakan has an unconscience man strung up upside down from a tree gets amusingly interrupted. Not everything is played down though. Blood flows on a regular basis and there's some dismemberment and beheading along the way.
Let the Right One In doesn't break the mold or revitalize the genre in any way, nor does it make an original statement concerning vampires. And there in lies it's charm: It doesn't stare itself blind on the vampire concept by disregarding the characters. It simply tells a sweet story about the puppy love between two kids of whom one happens to be a vampire.
