I Want to Go Steady With a Vampire

Romance buds between a boy and a vampire his own age in Let the Right One In, a sweet/suspenseful tale directed by Tomas Alfredson from a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist. Oskar (Kare Hedebrant) is a bookish twelve-year-old misfit whose high I.Q. angers Conny (Patrik Rydmark), the class bully. Conny doesn’t look much like a bully, sporting a slight frame and angelic face, but he’s as ruthless as they come, the leader of a pack who initiates a lashing session one day after school. Oskar receives the lashes like a seasoned POW, including the last and most vicious one, which lands across his face. It appears Oskar is all alone in a not-so-wonderful world, with no defense mechanism against the brutalities he suffers at school. He lives with his mom and visits his dad, but also has forged an intimate relationship with a knife he owns.  He wields that knife, thrusting it into a tree outside his apartment; the tree is a stand-in for Conny and the rest who act as his tormentors. 

 

By this time, Oskar has been introduced to new next-door neighbor Eli (Lina Leandersson), an oddball brunette immune to Sweden's freezing temperatures and intrigued by Oskar's encounter with the aforementioned tree. Their first meeting goes pretty well, even though Eli warns she can’t be his friend because “that’s just the way it is.” Oskar, not overly shy about things, has his own opinion: “You smell funny,” he says. Why can’t Eli be Oskar’s friend, and why does she smell funny? Well, she’s a vampire. Her daddy (Per Ragnar) is one, too, having caused a stir in the town by murdering a local in the woods, hanging him headfirst by a tree to steal away his blood; the poor victim won’t be the last to succumb to halothane gas prior to receiving the upside down treatment. What a loony daddy, huh? Well, Eli is a daughter no better, it turns out, only she goes straight for the jugular, bypassing the hanging business altogether. During a date with Eli, Oskar slits his own hand in a friendship gesture, stating, “We’re going to mix;” as his blood drips to the ground he sees firsthand that the girl next-door has a mighty weird fixation with the hot red stuff. Will their friendship be strong enough to overcome the ghastly horrors of vampire life? Or will random murders of the locals be too gory and get in the way of things.

 

It may come as a surprise that a pairing of twelve-year-olds successfully translates as romance on film, but it works in this case.  Oskar and Eli are a unique combination, to be sure, and this is revealed when a Rubik’s Cube figures into their initial meeting. The object is unfamiliar to Eli; Oskar offers to share it with her as a way to break the ice. It’s one of several examples that illustrates the subtle kindnesses exchanged between the two. Another is when Oskar asks Eli if she would like to go steady, this after she flies into his room and under his bedcovers after a gruesome last encounter with her father at the hospital.   Their courtship evolves slowly, directed with utmost care by Alfredson, who gleans much from his performers with a spare, nuanced style. Though Eli is a cold-blooded killer who swoops down on the innocent with hungry fangs unfurled, we know her heart belongs to Oskar; she would never hurt the blonde boy for whom she is so fond, and even helps him to stand up to his enemies at school, saying he must “hit back hard.” But can a soul mate be found in a soulless vampire? And can a vampire enter humanity’s realm without sucking the life from her beloved’s veins? These are the challenges the film embraces. Any vampire story must have its requisite elements of horror, and Let the Right One In is no exception, but there’s much more than horror happening here. Above all, this happens to be a love story, less about blood and more about  matters of the heart.

 

Oskar and Eli make for a mature twosome. They don’t suffer temper tantrums, teasing fits, and don't watch cartoons. Theirs is a dead serious friendship en route to much, much more. No matter that others are dying around them and the town is perplexed and on edge – comfort and shelter are only a heartbeat away. The film captures Oskar and Eli’s compatibility – and patents it.  If a vampire story that oozes more than blood is something you might be interested in, then give this film a look.

 

In Swedish with English subtitles, Let the Right One In is Rated R for violence and language and is currently showing at the Ritz at the Bourse, Philadelphia.