SIFF: Let the Right One In

No matter what genre you want to put this movie in, you're going to be wrong.  Is it a vampire movie?  Is it a coming-of-age movie?  Is it a grade school bully movie?

Well, it's all of them, really.

Let the Right One In, a Swedish import, is a little of all of them.

In a nutshell, the movie is about Oskar, a pale little child in what us American's would call Junior High.  He's the target of bullies, likely due to his pale skin, and the child of a broken home.

When a vampire moves in next door, he forms an unnatural friendship with her.  The story follows her feeding, their burgeoning adolescent romance, and his fight back against the bullies.

For a vampire movie, there wasn't a lot of gore.  Well, there was some, of course, but, the story was king.  There weren't any jump out of your seat moments.  It's a horror movie for people who don't like horror movies.  Or a adolescent coming-of-age movie for the horror fan.

While the movie is really quite good, there are a couple of issues.  First, the storyline surrounding the father could be entirely dropped.  It didn't add much to the movie.  Second, the bully was a little... well, I can't think of the right way to put it.  Stereotypical?  I mean, think of the ski jock from Better Off Dead, or Ted McGinley from Revenge of the Nerds.

My score?  5 out of 5.  You can go judge it for yourself, Saturday, May 31st at 11am.  Not the ideal time for a vampire movie, but, tickets are still available.