Let The Right One In

Some movies come along and make you realize how shitty other movies are shot. Let The Right One In (2008) comes from a director (Tomas Alfredson) with an eye for wonderful compositions. Count how many doors/frames you see in this film. Symmetry is at work here. Many shots have small inklings of red, little cues to satiate your thirst until the actual juice starts flowing. A good horror movie (this is a theory) makes you really start to panic whenever the camera starts a slow, tracking shot. There is a scene in particular when a man is in a room he should not be in; he walks into a bathroom and the camera trails slowly behind him, as if it's afraid to follow.

Needless to say, this is an excellent movie. The horror derives not from scares or visceral blood splatters, but from a realism that festers within these haunted and pathetic creatures. Oskar lives a lonely life, trudging through frost-bitten playgrounds with no one to really look for guidance. No parents for this boy. No friends. Just bullies and a knife to talk to at night. Eli arrives on the scene and we see her (him) elevated above Oskar slightly, spying on him like a curious bird of prey. The fascinating thing about Eli as a character is that she is indeed a vampire, but she is not evil. She kills not out of malice, but of literal starvation. One of the minor notes of brilliance in this film is the animalistic sounds we hear of the characters. Quiet whisps of breath that chill against the frigid air, the rumbling of a stomach, the growl of a defensive animal, the smacking of a tongue against splattered blood. Eli maims her victims and then looks at them in horror for what she has taken from them. I wonder if this vampire has a soul. What is Eli? Is she an animal or a person still?

And a better question, what gender is Eli? That name is typically male, I think, and Eli says she's not a girl. We see what looks like her vagina, but is it really? A strong homosexual current runs through this movie. The motifs of penetrating barriers, "letting the right one in", male bullying/dominance, the use of the knife (phallus), the bloody kissing on the lips. What a warm invitation this movie gives off.

Suck it, Twilight.