so i went to see the Swedish vampire flick Let The Right One In last night. i can’t recommend it as a feel-good date movie of the year, to be sure, but it held up under my test of a good piece of art – which is to say that shreds of it were still haunting me the next morning.

it was a quirky (but not funny quirky) mixture of classic foreign art-house flick – lots of long, softly-focused up close shots of not-beautiful people, a profound emphasis on stillness, beautiful cinematography, a moody coming-of-age story about a lonely 12-year-old boy – layered over the top of a story about vampires, complete with classic vampire-movie-camp: demons bursting into flame, severed limbs, splatters of blood across the camera lens. what was troubling was that the mood and esthetic of the film was so solidly art-house foreign-drama that it never gave the audience permission (or a break) to scream at the bits of horror. really unsettling. i think my first words post film were, “great! now I’m grossed out AND depressed,” tho i didn’t dislike it as much as that makes it sound. it was really interesting. and the young heroine-vampire is styled beautifully, with big disney eyes and these strange little animal sounds that seem to resonate from her chest. shiver. overall, i’d recommend it, but not if you’re looking for a holiday blockbuster feel-good sort of movie.

but then again, i hear the new James Bond flick is kind of a downer, too.