Ben here, with this week’s Watching Hour preview/review. This week’s selection is 2008’s Swedish vampire love story Let the Right One In. The American remake, Let Me In, comes out next week, so see the original at the Watching Hour and be the first of your friends to stick your nose up at stupid Americans who refuse to read subtitles!
Ugh. Don’t you hate it when external circumstances effect your enjoyment of a movie? Let the Right One In first appeared in Denver on the crest of a wave of critical adulation, opening at one of our local Landmark theaters. Those Landmark guys seem to keep even the most obscure indie mumble-dramas around for what seems like three months, so when I was busy the week it came out I figured no sweat, I’ll see it next week. The following Saturday I planned a date with my girlfriend and everything, only to discover that Let the Right One In closed after one measly week. Frustration! Then, in a move that only added to my admiration of the Starz Film Center, those guys picked the movie up after Landmark dropped it. So Beth and I got all bundled up on a cold December evening… and got stuck in downtown Christmas parade traffic for 2 hours, missing the last showing by a long shot. I finally watched Let the Right One In in my living room, drinking beers with friends. And it’s not that it’s a bad movie. Far from it. It’s just that after all the stress I went through trying to watch the damn thing, it was just so… subdued! Thankfully, Let the Right One In is coming back to Starz as this week’s Watching Hour selection. This is the first of six straight weeks of horror at the Watching Hour in honor of the best holiday, Halloween. This will be the perfect time and place to rewatch this strange, haunting movie, or see it for the first time if you haven’t had the chance yet.
Blackeberg, the suburb of Stockholm where Let the Right One In is set, is frigid and at times eerily silent. Oskar, a young boy living in a small apartment with his mother, uncannily mirrors the setting. He is small, meek, and almost albino-pale. He’s the kind of kid who seems like he has a cold even when he doesn’t. The kind of kid for whom the effort of speaking might just break him. Naturally, he’s an easy target for bullies at school. There are moments early on that hint that Oskar is not just an innocent victim, though. He’s a weird little dude. He collects newspaper clippings about serial murders and stuff.
A young girl named Eli, apparently about Oskar’s age, moves in next door. She is cared for by an old man who is not her father, and the exact nature of their relationship doesn’t become apparent until much later. A slow, awkward courtship begins between Oskar and Eli. She encourages Oskar to stand up for himself, and he fawns over her in his uncomfortable way. To say that the pair has chemistry is not exactly the right way to describe it. But Eli awakens something in Oskar. As the true extent of her abilities is revealed, Oskar is given power over his circumstances in a way that would be impossible to achieve on his own. But Oskar is not a heroic figure. Watching him come out of his shell is an uncomfortable experience. As he comes into his own, I’m not entirely sure I like what I see. He's petty and cruel.
Maybe that’s the point of making a vampire movie with child protagonists. A kid vampire is in a state of emotional arrested development, but simultaneously develops physical power beyond that of the strongest adult. Most of us learn to temper physical power with emotional and moral control over the ‘normal’ course of human development. When Oskar, who hasn’t yet developed control, is given that power, the results are ugly and selfish. He’s the kind of kid who – had he not befriended a vampire – would have joined a black metal band and burned down some churches because his mommy had to work a day job while he was growing up. For such a meek and pathetic dude, he’s not very likable.
Do I like Let the Right One In or not? Yeah, but it is what it is, take it or leave it. It’s not going to meet you halfway. But go in with an open mind – more open than my grossly unrealistic and stressed expectations when I first saw it – and you will find a lot here to enjoy. It’s a visual beauty. The tone is enchanting and hypnotic. This is a movie that doesn’t expect its characters to be better than they are, for better or worse. Okay, probably for worse.
Magic Moment: CGI cat attack!!!!!!
-Ben
The Watching Hour is a weekly film series at the Starz Film Center, highlighting new and old cult, genre, or otherwise bizarro movies. Quite simply, The Watching Hour is usually the best thing to do in Denver on a Friday or Saturday night. From Giallo to schlock, Blaxploitation to Aussiesploitation, zombies to martial arts to who-knows-what, and everywhere in between. This is good ol’ rock and roll cinema spectacle. Not to be missed. (See the schedule, buy tickets, get directions, etc. here.)