Review

It is perversely gratifying in this climate to watch a child prey on grown-ups, even if that involves ripping open jugulars and chug-a-lugging blood. Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In is a delightful mix of high and low: It’s a genuine genre vampire picture; and it’s Swedish, winter-lit, Bergmanesque. A lonely, beleaguered-by-bullies blond boy has a new neighbor in his apartment complex, a darkish girl of rather ambiguous sexuality and even more ambiguous humanity. She is also subject to deep tummy rumbles that trigger feral outbursts. In their like estrangement from the world, they bond. A gay-outsider metaphor? Maybe. Doesn’t matter. The emotional climate is authentic, while the killings are nice and splattery. Swedish vampires are such a natural I’m surprised there haven’t been more. True, everyone looks anemic, but the winter nights are long, and you gotta love the way they all say bluude. — David Edelstein