Vampire Musings

 Let the Right One In

Initial Thoughts?

Vera Bradley: Mona and I were ready to watch a critically acclaimed vampire film after the many middling movies we’ve watched, and this one received a solid recommendation from my film-bro brother in blood, Solomon Vampire (for more from him, check out our review of Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust). It was a good film, the acting was great, some good vampire stuff in there, but it did just lack that special something that makes me love a vampire movie.

Mona Bloodstick: This is a FILM. This is not a “movie”. It was good. I would read a great newspaper article about it. Would I watch it again? Probably not. But yes, it was critical.

1: How did this movie handle classic vampire tropes?

MB: This movie had a very interesting interpretation of vampire tropes. I really liked how the vampire child was an immortal child. That is a nice trope we often see. Apparently there’s a book which delves more into specific tropes which were not as visible in the film, as it would otherwise have become very long. 

VB: I loved the insight this movie gave to the “no coming in without an invite” trope; our protagonist asks the vampire to show him what happens if she comes in without an invite, leading to one of the cooler scenes in the movie, where she begins to spout blood from every orifice. Nice. There is also a good scene where a recent convert kills herself by opening the windows, and goes up in a very impressive bout of flames.

2: Any good kills?

VB: It’s hard being a vampire in the suburbs! This movie takes an interesting angle to the routine murder vampires need for survival, showing us how hard it actually is to kill so many people. Neighbors are nosy, and teenagers are harder to lure to their death than you might imagine. One thing that kind of perplexed me throughout the movie, however, was how careless and incompetent both our vampire and her familiar are when it comes to murder. I was actually convinced until very late in the movie that this must be a brand-new vampire who hadn’t gotten the hang of things yet, but this was not the case! Her familiar is hanging victims up to bleed out on commonly used jogging paths and tying high schoolers up in the gym while their friends wait outside?? Just baffling.

MB: I kinda did like the kills, I thought they were alright. One of the dead bodies was found in the ice weeks later which was cool. The deaths that happened felt very real in a way other vampire movies don’t truly achieve, and their full impact is felt as it plays out in the community over time. Also very gruesome. 

3: How does this movie deal with the curse of eternal existence?

VB: With a nuanced complexity that someone a little more invested in this movie than I would no doubt have many thoughts on.

MB: I really liked the ending scene, where both child characters go on a train together. On one hand, you could see it as “true friendship/love” as they escape into the world together, but on the other hand, it seems as though the main vampire has just recruited this human boy to become her new familiar, resigning him to the same fate as the older familiar she had in the beginning of the movie.

4: Sex appeal?

MB: There was a very uncomfortable scene in this movie which did not necessarily need to be in it in order to further the plot. 

VB: The main characters are kids (“kid” in the case of our vampire), but apparently in the book this movie was based on, the child-sized vampire was in a sexual relationship with her pedophilic older familiar. I really wish Mona hadn’t looked that one up.

5: Would I want to be a vampire in this universe?

MB: Meh… probably not. I really need a vampire community to be happy, and that does not seem like it is really happening here.

VB: As mentioned earlier, this movie really serves to show how much it sucks (ha) to be a vampire in the suburbs. No thank you also I don’t want to live in Sweden.

Final thoughts?

MB: That scene where the father has a man show up with some vodka and his son got really sad, and American audiences assumed the boy was homophobic and his dad was gay but in Sweden it just read as run of the mill alcoholism….. Lol. Also we had a real Swedish man give us his thoughts here and confirm that yes it was absolutely meant to indicate his dad was an alcoholic. Just thinking about that.

VB: It’s objectively a good film. And it is about vampires. But idk, there was nothing about this that I LOVED.