Let the Right One In

This Swedish vampire flick was masterful at using indirection to create imagined horror. Everything about it was muted, from the silent opening titles to the subtle revelations of the vampire mythology. Slow motion falling snow, white-out landscapes lulled you into a quiet haven ripe for blood and horror, lust and love. The depth of field was so shallow, no matter how close or far away the shot, something was always out of focus. It felt claustrophobic, to be always confined within the frame by the focus of the image. People were rarely shown talking, they were either out of focus or off-screen and characters were frequently shown in profile. All these techniques helped us feel as out of place as Oskar (and consequently, the Vampire child).

The 12-year-old boy/girl was mesmerizing in the most disturbing way. You never saw fangs, just blood on the mouth and face, or blood from the eyes when she entered the house without being invited. The attacks took place in long shot and the animal like movements and sound effects were all we had to go on as to the possible power of this child, using its innocence to prey. Half way through the film she flew up the side of a building only to bite and drop out the window her paternal-esque caregiver. She was once a he, but that was hardly the focus of the love story. Disturbing, yet utterly fascinating, it draws you in. So young and so violent, revenge is paralleled with survival, both boy and vampire use murder or thoughts of murder for strength. The end was poetic. Floating underwater we hear muffled sounds, a flash of feet break the surface and skim backward. A severed head and arm plunge into the calm and sink to the bottom. Cut to the biggest, most captivating 12-year-old eyes ever filmed, the smiling, bloody vampire-child to the rescue. Cut to a brief wide shot of the carnage. Our imagination of what happened is so much worse than anything they could have filmed. And now both boy and vampire are on a train and the cycle begins again. This was a perfectly paced, understated vampire film that gives you just enough horror to let your imagination run free.