2008's Vampire Movie (and I'm not talking about "Twilight")

So, even though I've been hiding under a rock for the past year and a half or so, it has still not prevented the knowledge of the Twilight film being released last summer from permeating its way into my hermited existence. Obviously, I need to find a bigger rock, or perhaps an old mine shaft in which to descend.

However, we cannot let that abomination of culture (I say culture, because, having not seen the movie firsthand, I can't in good conscience criticize it, though it is a lot of fun to ridicule the fad that has sprung up around this damsel-in-not-so-much-distress-as-pubescent-angst fable) hover like a cloud over the fact that last year also saw the release of another film, also featuring a youngster and a gorgeous vampire.

The Swedish film Let the Right One In, which I had the pleasure of viewing today ex gratis* Netflix, is doubtless the most unusual vampire flick I have ever seen, and I think I'd be hard pressed to find one anywhere that comes close to comparison. It is also a masterpiece of horror and romance. Perhaps it tried to achieve what Twilight did, only it actually succeeded with flying colors - I don't know. But it is a gem.

The Scandinavian winter in which the tale takes place sets the perfect tone, with an opening shot of heavy snow falling around a streetlamp emitting a cold, bluish light. Oskar, a twelve-year-old boy who is bullied at school and obsessed with following the gruesome murders taking place in his town, meets Eli one night in the snow in front of their apartment complex. Eli, it quickly transpires, is a vampire who has apparently hired someone to murder and provide her with fresh blood; there is an unforgettable sequence in which a man is hung upside-down and his throat slit, allowing the blood to drain through a funnel into a large plastic container. When the police catch up with him, Eli is forced to find sustenance on her own.

The film contains many classic elements of the macabre, but its gore is not excessive: there's a balance being struck here, between the adolescent pangs of Oskar, the close bond between the two young protagonists, and Eli's conflict between her monstrous instincts and her affection for Oskar. While the film hovers on each of these themes in turn, and ponders them, the ultimate emotion it exudes is tenderness. Unlike the girl in Twilight, Oskar has his own reservations, and his own moments of true fear and perhaps loathing for what Eli is.

The film's overwhelming empathy is what ultimately won my heart, along with the ending's lingering feeling of unease and unresolvedness despite its satisfaction for the characters. This is certainly a genre-transcending film if ever there was one. It's also one of the absolute best films of 2008 I've yet seen.

(*Dear Latin scholars: ex gratis may be completely wrong. If that is the case, please forgive me. I have never taken Latin. My lexicon just happens to have chosen tonight to short-circuit, and I need to replace the fuses in my brain by sleeping another fourteen hours and perhaps eating more Oreos. Gomen-nosai)