Saturday night I went out to see this Swedish vampire pick. The buzz was rather good and I think it held up well. I’m not normally a horror fan so part of the appeal when I see horror movies is the relative novelty, sort of like why I’m a big fan of the relatively rare Mr. Pibb.
The story focuses on Oskar, a twelve year old boy who is troubled by bullies, and Eli who appears to be a twelve year old girl. I’m not sure how usual this is for horror, but it follows the perspective of the ‘monsters’ for a good portion of the film, although Oskar is generally the viewpoint character. With some key exceptions, the setting, Sweden in the winter of 1982, is fairly dour. Generally speaking, the most fleshed out and interesting characters are the two kids, the adults aren’t generic, but don’t get developed that deeply. That seems to fit fairly well with the child-centric perspective, that said, this film is appropriately rated R.
What I liked most about the movie was the craft, the special effects are sparse but consistently pack a punch, there are also a lot of small sweet or funny moments, although typically with dark overtones. It isn’t too graphic as horror goes, although there are people murdered on screen.
Finally, I think the vampire mythos is implemented extremely well. They’ve got a handy set of powers but also vulnerabilities such requiring an invite (see the title), the need to avoid sunlight, and the hatred of natural creatures (notably cats). They aren’t especially broody and do seem to specifically need human blood to survive. Finally, there’s a savage edge that’s particularly creepy and mainly shown through good sound work.
So check out the the trailer if this seems like your sort of thing, you probably won’t be disappointed. We’ll likely be seeing more of the actress that plays Eli, she seems really talented. Brief spoiler-y discussion after the cut, only really of interest to those that have seen the film.
So I fairly strongly believe that Eli’s guardian was probably another Oskar-type all grown up. I think that probably explains why the guardian wants her to stop seeing him. Also, there’s no real hints that she’s mind controlling him.
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