skjam

Let the Right One In (2008) dir. Tomas Alfredson

Oskar, like a lot of twelve year olds, has problems. His parents are divorced (and Dad has a drinking problem), and he's being bullied at school. Having a strong interest in serial killers, Oskar has taken to carrying a knife and fantasizing about solving his problems with stabbing. But he knows he doesn't have the guts to do it. The one bright spot in Oskar's life is Eli (pronounced "Ellie") the rather strange girl who's moved in next door. For all her eccentricity, Eli's nicer to him than anyone else. It's a pity that there's bodies piling up.

This 2008 Swedish horror film was based on a 2004 novel by John Lindqvist, who also wrote the screenplay. The story takes place near Stockholm in the early 1980s, with a brief mention of Brezhnev.

The early part of the film has some humor as Eli's "caretaker" is spectacularly inept at gathering blood for his vampiric ward, but he's soon out of the picture as the stakes escalate.

Good: Oskar and Eli are portrayed by child actors of the appropriate age, making the film seem more realistic and less Hollywood. There's good suspense, and the "romantic" scenes are appropriately creepy.

Less good: The trimming of extraneous background material is a little too thorough in places, making it necessary to turn to external sources to determine (for example) that Oskar's father is not supposed to be gay, just too willing to have a drink or ten with his buddy when he should be paying attention to his son.

Content note: In addition to the bullying scenes and gory violence, there's a brief moment of unsettling nudity.

Sadly, my DVD would not play the Swedish soundtrack, and I had to settle for the English dub, which comes across a little tinny in places.

Recommended to vampire movie fans, especially if you can get the Swedish soundtrack for the authentic experience.

Until Thy Wrath Be Past by Åsa Larsson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Disclaimer: I received this as a prize in a Goodreads giveaway, and am reviewing it on that basis. Also, this was an advance proof copy, and minor changes may occur between my reading copy and the final product.



Scandinavian mystery/thriller fiction appears to be "hot" right now. This one is from Sweden, and falls more towards the latter than the former. The story is narrated by the ghost of a murder victim, who can sometimes read people's thoughts. This takes quite a bit of the mystery out of the proceedings. There's some nice descriptive bits, but the story could quite easily be rewritten to eliminate said ghost and leave certain occurences vague as to their origin.



A lot of the characters are "broken" one way or another, and two of them bonding about their brokeness is crucial to the climax of the story.



The northern Swedish setting seemed homey to me with its resemblance to the hinterlands of Minnesota, though the place names sometimes threw me.



The fact that it was not a finished product showed in some missing spaces, almost all near proper names. I hope that will be fixed in the published version. Less likely to be altered are some ill-timed transitions between third and first person.



I should also mention a couple horrific scenes of domestic violence, for those who are triggery about that.



Overall, a good read, but I'd go with borrowing it from the library rather than buying.



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