So I watched Let the Right One In a couple nights ago and it’s been riding my consciousness like warm guilt ever since. Helmed by veteran director Tomas Alfredson, and based on the book by John Ajvide Lindqvist (who also penned the script), the film centers around Oskar — a bullied and wan schoolboy withering away from loneliness in a small Swedish town. Soon he makes a friend, Eli, an ophan-like girl who only appears at night. Although the movie is marketed as a vampire flick, it certainly cannot be described as such. In fact, the storyline is more reminiscent of ET or Old Yeller than Lost Boys, and is 1000x more effective and powerful than the latest wave of hackneyed material looking to humanize vampires (I’m looking in your direction True Blood, Twilight, Vampire Diaries, etc).The story is told with an hypnotic, slow brush that only European films tend to employ, taking 5 minutes to create a mood that an American film would knock out with 12 seconds of dialogue. Stark empty Swedish landscapes are filmed like supporting actors by cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema, and you find yourself almost lulled into a dreamstate by the slow, falling-snow-like pacing. In fact, if there’s any weakness to this movie is that it moves slowly…perhaps too slowly. If you’re looking for a screamfest or cheap hacker flick thrills, do yourself a favor and look elsewhere — this is not a movie for you. But the moments of note are so beautiful and powerfully filmed that by the time the final credits rolled, I was dumbstruck at the pure resonance of this film. Truly, this movie has more to do with coming-of-age friendship bleeding into love than fangs, garlic and vampires. Mesmerizing.

Check out the trailer below (or see the Apple trailer HERE), but stop the video at the 1:22 mark or bare witness to some of the most dull-brained film reviewing in modern history…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYcBSQokyBU[/youtube]