On Friday I attended the first film screening of the 2008 Toronto After Dark Film Festival. The organizers accidentally oversold tickets, and over one thousand people showed up, which was more than the theatre could hold! The film was from Sweden, entitled “Let the Right One In”.

It is much more than the terrifying horror flick that the trailer might make it appear to be. Behind the blood, violence, and eerie characters is a dark romance and a coming-of-age story. The main characters are 12-year-old boy named Oskar and an unusual girl named Eli, who meet in the playground outside their apartment building.

Eli is never seen attending school, hangs out in the snow in her clothes, and can’t eat regular food. Oskar is bullied regularly at school, always fantasizing about fighting back but never having the courage to. Eli helps him to find it in himself to change this, and he begins to fall quickly and deeply in love with her despite her warnings that she is not who he thinks she is. He, in turn, helps her with her own, darker struggles, dealing with the life and death.

Both actors in this film were amazing and I highly recommend seeing it if you get the opportunity to. The Toronto After Dark Film Festival will be going on until Friday. Stay tuned for a blog about Home Movie.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 20th, 2008 at 9:18 pm and is filed under Film, Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.