It’s been almost a week since I got back from Berlin and I’m still not really back on the work wagon yet. But do I really need to be? I mean, at least not until after my birthday, right?

So today’s celebratory events included: 1) brownies for breakfast, 2) dinner with friends 3) getting a freakin’ ice cream maker from Jess and 4) going downtown to see the Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In.

Now, not to turn this birthday post into an extensive film review, but I have to say that Let the Right One In was both highly enjoyable and seriously messed up. I don’t really know how to accurately describe it. In ways, it reminded me of Fargo with the bleak, icy landscapes and the gruesome black humor. Yet, it definitely takes that formula down a darker path. Maybe it’s because the movie centers on children rather than adults and completely subverts any notion of the innocence of youth. But without doubt the movie exploits the fact that sociopathic children are so much more disturbing than sociopathic adults. And that I think is what really makes the film chilling–it’s not the vampires that are frightening, but the brutal and senseless harm that the entirely human characters perform on one another. In a way, the sudden moments of intense vampiric violence in the film are a relief from the tense and twisted atmosphere that is the protagonist Oskar’s daily life.

Overall, I found the film quite enjoyable, although I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone. It definitely doesn’t into either a horror or a romance genre, as most other vampire films do. Instead, it’s an intense psychological drama punctuated by dark humor and visually stunning scenes of mayhem. Sweet.