On My Radar: Swedish Vampire Movies That Make You Cry

Let the Right One In is a film set in the Stockholm suburb of Blackeberg in 1982. Oscar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl who turns out to be a vampire. (IMBD)

It is more than a vampire movie, more than a coming of age tale and more than a love story. It is haunting, beautiful and emotional. KÃ¥re Hedebrant is mesmorizing as a tortured boy who escapes from the world the only way he knows how. Lina Leandersson  gives a heartbreaking performance as a lonely “adolescent” vampire. She reminds me of Judith Vittet, the young actress who played Miet in City of the Lost Children. Both of the young actors make their feature film debuts in this film.

Let the Right One In satisfied my vampire film fetish while authentically evoking the harsh realities of young love, growing up in a working class neighborhood and the universal pains of adolescence. This is something that Twilight will attempt to do tomorrow but judging by all of the script and dailies info online, I doubt it will come close to Let the Right One In.

This film is smart, nuanced, funny and heartbreaking. The locations and cinematography practically transport you back to those days when acceptance on the playground was more important than anything in your universe.