Headline, January24, 2014

''' SWEDISH MASTER VAMPIRE FILM :

 ''' LET THE RIGHT ONE IN '''

The setting is frozen suburb of Stockholm, a new town of modular brutalist-modernist buildings, populated by drunkards and divorcees, hemmed in by snow and deep forest.

Oskar (Kare Hedebrant) lives with his mother in a squat apartment block. A man and a girl have moved in next door and blacked out their windows, but no one can say why   -not least since the only communal space for the residents is a courtyard  ''playground'' consisting of one stark metal climbing frame.

It's there, after dark, that Oskar likes to unsheathe a scouting knife and play-act a revenge on his tormentors.

One night he is startled to find himself observed by Eli   {Lina Leanersson}, the new girl next door, bare-armed but unfazed by the cold. There is a visual poetry in their contrasted looks:

Oskar as pale and frail as a calla lily, Eli dark as a crow. She is self-possessed, pugnacious, rather odd-smelling. But Oskar is smitten. Their playground meetings become a nightly ritual. He owns up his sufferings at school and Eli urges him to hit back as hard as he can.

We appreciate that Eli is no stranger to violence, since we've already seen what her gloomy henchman Hakan  (Per Nagnar) gets up at night  -the grim business of anaesthetising strangers with halothane, inverting them:And slashing their jugular veins to drain off their blood into a plastic jerry can 

But Hakan is so often disturbed about his work  -a source of mordant humour-  that Eli is forced to forage herself the blood she needs to live, luring hapless passers-by into feral assaults that are staged by director Alfredson in dread-inducing long-shot.

Half an hour in, with the grisly mood and proletarian milieu firmly established, one might be forgiven for thinking one is watching a commendably low-budget Scandinavian deconstruction of the vampire myth. But Alfredson has a special gift for shifting the stylistic register from sparseness to exravagance.

His first great visual coup de theatre is another long shot in which Eli scrabbles up the facade of a hospital building in much the same manner as Stoker's Dracula descended down his castle walls  =''with considerable speed, just as a Lizard's-.

From this point on, all the FX shots you'd want from a classic vampire flick duly follow, and Alfredson duly executes them with huge huge panache.

John Ajvide Lindqvist's source novel is actually a good deal darker than the film, with disturbing elements of pederasty and and androgyny, yet the author focused his screenplay on the theme of two lonely souls ''lifted out of darkness by love''.

In Eli, Oskar finds not merely an ally but a girlfriend; there is a delicate fledgling intimacy between the two children.

Nevertheless, she is not a regular girl       -far from it, she's a savage killer.............and the distinction poses problems, both for the lovers and for us as viewers.

At heart, we know that the very best fairy tales are not about underage wish-fulfillment but, rather, the getting of wisdom : the sorcerer's  apprentice makes a devil's pact, and there's a price to pay for a wish to come true.

When Oskar eventually takes Eli's advice and bites back at his bullies, he feels a kind of rupture  =one that makes him cocky and leads him to the ghastly error of proposing   ''blood bond''   with Eli.

In doing so, he finds out precisely what kind of girlfriend he has got himself. But then this is the kind of love that conquers all, and Eli will excuse Oskar his gaucheness just as will forgive her murderous little ways.

Let The Right One In makes none of this very palatable, yet one can only admire the great verve and elegance with which it goes about its bloody business.

So, Demonic Vampire as a Romantic Hero? All Set and Go.....................

Hahaha!

With respectful dedication to all the Students, Professors and Teachers of Sweden. See Ya on !WOW! -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' Hurry! Don't Miss It '''

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless