let the right one in

no. 49 Let The Right One In

Amazing, amazing. I never would have gotten that this was set in 1982, but then again, I don't live in Sweden and everything is so 1980s these days, the clothes meant nothing to me!

The story is that of a vampire and her new friend...but she's twelve and befriends a boy who very well may grow up to be the next Jeffrey Dahmer (although, not quite that obscene or bizarre. They just look alike.) Oscar gets teased and beaten at school - he dreams of all the things he wishes he could do in his own defence, hence the "serial killer scrapbook." She has to murder to live, but he would murder for revenge. Eli represents the violence he wants to see in himself, but he is too weak.

He teaches her Morse code so that they can talk through the wall at night, but at the end, we find it is also another means of communication :) During the pool scene, I wonder if he is calm, almost resigned to his own death so that he can be with her. At this point, they've had real conversation about what she is, and unfortunately, he's seen her at her worst.

Will be become her killer? (We never understood her relationship to the old man in the first place)

This wasn't gory at all. In fact, I think the "premise" might put people off, but they'd be missing one of this year's gems.