Some friends and I just rented this film the other night. I'd been meaning to see it for some time now -- especially since I read a very favorable review of it in Rolling Stone. I'm very glad I finally saw it! I have never seen a Swedish film about vampires before. I also love the idea of a mortal boy falling for a female vampire -- as it is usually the other way around.

The film starts out almost like Twilight in reverse (but with much more artistic camera angles and music). Oskar is a young boy who lives with his mother in what appears to be a kind of project apartment. He is shy, awkward, and picked on at school. When a new girl named Eli moves in to the apartment next to him, he becomes fascinated with her. But of course, in true modern-day vampire fashion, she repeatedly walks up to him and cryptically tells him that she is dangerous, and that they "cannot be friends."

Luckily, the "Edwardian Vamp Dialogue" ends there. Eventually Eli relents, and the two children become friends, though it is obvious that there is something strange about her. Oskar, being a bit of a detective himself, surely cannot miss it. But what becomes interesting is the fact that he doesn't seem to care whether or not she is a killer. Under the innocent veneer of white-blond hair he has his own darkness. He is obsessed with serial killers. He cuts news stories out and puts them in a book, chronicling their exploits. He stands in front of a mirror with a knife -- practicing his "revenge" on the children that hurt him at school.

Despite the gore, there is something really beautiful and honest about the relationship between these two. Perhaps this is because of their age, and perhaps because of its very transient, ephemeral nature. My favorite lines from the movie are part of a note that Eli gives to Oskar: