This is a horror film. Like all good horror films it uses the machinery of the scary movie to move a tale of something universal and shed the kind of light that tension and dread can shine. In Dark Water it's the bond between parent and child threatened by an angry ghost. In The Haunting it's a lonely woman's desperate search for belonging. In Let the Right One In it's friendship. Oskar and Eli find each other in a frigid urban landscape and recognise each other's difference and ostracism. Oskar's bullied at school. Eli is ... peculiar.
Thomas Alfredson's adaptation of John Ajvide Lindquist's novel trims much from the book, producing a lean and driven story of the difficulties of friendship under pressure. But it's not just friendship. There's a figure threading through the story of a darker stripe than Eli or any of the monstrous bullyboys. An indiscretion here and a slip there and the problem he embodies breaks out .... well, like a virus.
There is suspense, ethical and emotional darkness, some gore and violent action in this film but I wonder, if you see it, will you leave the experience even thinking you've seen a horror movie.
Join me and note the new start time of 9 p.m. I'm trying that out as some of our regs have had some trouble starting at the earlier time through work commitments etc. Let me know it if works for you.
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