I'd say you were within your rights to bite the right one

December 15, 2008 1:51 AM

"A classical vampire story in many ways, though it possesses none of the opulence or hedonism that are such a mainstay of vampire mythology," says one critic of the Swedish film Let the Right One In, based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist. In a lengthy interview the author gave recently, he says: "I wanted to approach my subject completely seriously and absolutely reject all sort of ”romanticized” notions about vampires, or what we’ve seen earlier of vampires, and just concentrate on the question: If a child was stuck forever like, in a 12-year-old existence and had to walk around killing other people and drink their blood to live – what would that child’s existance really be like?" (Props to Bageena)

The growing popularity of this and the other vampire movie might spur a resurgence in vampyre culture. Vampires and vampyres are not the same.

Vampyres refer to real people; vampires are fiction (although not everyone agrees).

Sanguinarian vampyres feel a strong craving to meet their energy needs by consuming blood. Psychic vampyres are able to draw life force (a.k.a. pranic, chi, ley, psychic or spiritual energy) from another person directly without consuming their blood. And then there are those who are neither vampires nor vampyres, but are sometimes confused with either: they might be hematolagniac (blood fetishists), or suffer from porphyria, a rare condition wherein skin exposed to sunlight may burn, blister or scar.

posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing (85 comments total)

I think the whole "vampyre/vampire" thing is bullshit, really, but I have to say, the movie is very good. Not perfect, certainly, but the best vampire movie I've seen in ages.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 2:00 AM on December 15, 2008 [3 favorites]

Just saw the film and really enjoyed it. Amazing performances by kiddie-actors, which is always quite the risk for a film-maker.

How's the novel? I want to track down a copy.

"a resurgence in vampyre culture"

Nitpick: Vampires have been huge over the past few decades. In high school and college in the 90's the gals were all reading Anne Rice and my nerd-brethren all wanted to play Vampire: The Masquerade rather than that hideous, stoopid Dungeons and Dragons.
posted by bardic at 2:04 AM on December 15, 2008

I've read Let The Right One In; it was pretty good, and I'm not particularly a fan of vampire novels (I read one Anne Rice book once, and found it fairly average).

I wonder whether they'll keep the film set in Sweden or Americanise it. Perhaps they'll choose a middle ground, move it to depressed, early-80s Northern England and saturate the soundtrack with Joy Division and (obviously) The Smiths.
posted by acb at 2:04 AM on December 15, 2008 [2 favorites]

Apparently politically conservative times coincide with zombie movies and liberal times with vampire movies.
posted by acb at 2:05 AM on December 15, 2008 [3 favorites]

The recent South Park episode The Ungroundable pretty much says it all re: "Vampyres".

warning: do not click if allergic to awesome
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:33 AM on December 15, 2008 [5 favorites]

I saw the movie last week and liked it. Definitely recommend it.
posted by Nattie at 2:44 AM on December 15, 2008

If 'Twilight' Was 10 Times Shorter and 100 Times More Honest
posted by amuseDetachment at 2:56 AM on December 15, 2008 [24 favorites]

A very beautiful movie. For anyone who likes the mood and overall style of taking youth seriously, I'd recommend Fucking Åmål, another Morrissey-inspired swedish piece.
posted by Free word order! at 3:05 AM on December 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

Pope Guilty is right, both about the episode and vampire culture, IMO. Poor, poor Butters.
posted by JHarris at 3:24 AM on December 15, 2008

Man, do people really take this shit seriously? "Psychic vampire" is a metaphor, a term for someone who drains your energy, like a shitty friend or a bad relationship. Not someone literally sucking your energy!

What next? Fiscal vampires? Or would that be "Fiscal vampyres"?

Seriously, just throw a 'y' or two anywhere you want. It makes it look Old Englysh and shit. It's fucking awesome and olde tymey.
posted by explosion at 3:59 AM on December 15, 2008 [11 favorites]

Perhaps they'll choose a middle ground, move it to depressed, early-80s Northern England and saturate the soundtrack with Joy Division and (obviously) The Smiths.

I do hope someone read that and is typing furiously - a rain-sodden, Manchester-set vampire movie in the style of Anton Corbijn with Atmosphere on the soundtrack... oh yes.
posted by Grangousier at 4:09 AM on December 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

I was desperate to find a theater playing this in my neck of the woods, but for some reason the AMC isn't too keen on Swedish cinema. Bastards.
posted by 1adam12 at 4:13 AM on December 15, 2008

I wonder whether they'll keep the film set in Sweden or Americanise it.

This Swedish news article states that the script for the American version will be completely rewritten based on the book. I haven't read the book yet but those who have say that the book is more bombastic and frequently goes over the top and the Swedish screen adaption is more held back and low key. So there's limitless possibilities for a radically different (worse I fear) interpretation.

Needless to say the director of the Swedish film is not to happy. But I think that much of the movie's qualities is about a certain mood created by incorporating very hard to translate themes and sentiments in a subtle way. So a remake/rewrite would probably do much better over there.

And possibly, that's just me being ignorant and emo. No one understands us! *slams the door*
posted by mnsc at 4:35 AM on December 15, 2008

Or just read what Matt Reeves has to say himself.
posted by mnsc at 4:38 AM on December 15, 2008

Ahhh, my first IRC memory is finding #vampyres and being a real jerk. Good times.
posted by not_on_display at 4:42 AM on December 15, 2008

I've been wanting to see this one, I'll probably have to catch it on DVD.

On a side note, people that believe that they are vampires/vampyres . . . whatever really grate on my nerves. There really isn't anything higher on the poseur/attention whore scale IMHO
posted by anansi at 4:42 AM on December 15, 2008

I disagree, anansi. I've met more than a few self-proclaimed vampires who are actually pretty cool people. The total jerks you have to avoid are the self-proclaimed dragons.
posted by Faint of Butt at 5:03 AM on December 15, 2008

Which people, exactly, believe that they are vamp*res, and what gives them this idea? Do they exist solely on blood? Bite people and suck out their blood for sustenance?
posted by pracowity at 5:20 AM on December 15, 2008

Enjoyed the film and the book, I'd say the book is more explicit than the film in portraying the characters and their motivations (particularly the relationship between Eli the vampire child and Håkan, the 'Renfield' of sorts as well as the motivation of the 'bullies' for the attack at the swimming pool)

What I thought was interesting about the film as an adaptation is there are several things that are straight out of the book in the film (for example Eli's physical state) that are still included in the film but simply not explained at all. This worked well in the film, hinting at more, without feeling the need to further explain things.

Both are worth a look.
posted by drill_here_fore_seismics at 5:21 AM on December 15, 2008

I wonder, did they put the book's backstory twist about Eli into the film? And if they did, will it appear in the remake? I won't hold my breath though.
posted by kolophon at 5:27 AM on December 15, 2008

If a child was stuck forever like, in a 12-year-old existence and had to walk around killing other people and drink their blood to live – what would that child’s existance really be like?"

They would probably sparkle.
posted by Flunkie at 5:38 AM on December 15, 2008 [6 favorites]

I loved this film. The Swedish filmmakers seem to be very good at making stories about childhood (Fanny and Alexander, My Life as a Dog...) I'm not even a big fan of the vampire sub-genre, too tired and every attempt to revitalize it always seem to make it worse (True Blood). I wouldn't hold my breath for the American version as I can't imagine the filmmakers would be brave enough to go as far as the original.

Oh, that dreadful scar!
posted by cazoo at 5:50 AM on December 15, 2008

I certainly believe in people who have an uncanny ability to sap one's energy--and even will to live--through mere exposure.

I've always thought such people were merely self-centered, unpleasant, and needy. Vampyres, though?
posted by Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America at 5:58 AM on December 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

> what would that child’s existance really be like? If you disregard all the romanticized
> clichés. And then it struck me when I wrote the book that it would be an absolutely
> horrible existence. Miserable, gross and lonely.

When astronomers drone on about the possibilities of "life as we know it" out there I long to find one willing to talk about the possibilities of life as we DON'T know it. Say, professor, what about energy beings who live in the cores of stars? What about velocity ghosts--you know, the self-aware ones?

Miserable, gross, lonely 12-year-old vampires? That's Life As We Know It, only with a mcguffin to drive the plot. But if there were reallyo-trulyo vampires, that would mean curses are real, hence magic is real, hence the supernatural is real. Which opens a, um, can of worms, to say the least, and presents the possibility (nay, the near certainty) that the experienced life of a 12 year old vampire is no more like Life As We Know It than the experienced life of the Krebs tricarboxylic acid cycle would be if it achieved self-awareness. Point us, please, to the vampire novel writer of genius with the balls to tackle Life As We Don't Know It.

Oh, and BTW the notion that a child vampire would be miserable, gross, and lonely (forever--being, y'know, immortal) is presented in a biggish way in Interview with the Vampire. Anybody have the relative publication dates right to hand?
posted by jfuller at 6:00 AM on December 15, 2008 [3 favorites]

Ok. How about Terry Pratchett?
posted by sneebler at 6:30 AM on December 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

jfuller: Peter Watts, Blindsight. Vampires with hard science backing and contemplation of truly alien life (self-awareness, why?). Feel free to read.
posted by Free word order! at 6:37 AM on December 15, 2008

The film is very good, I loved it, it has a very real quality to it, plus it's really funny in some parts, just enough to appropriately break through the melancholy.
posted by biscotti at 6:38 AM on December 15, 2008

A congregation of the stupid and mentally ill is is not a "culture".
posted by 0xdeadc0de at 6:38 AM on December 15, 2008

A congregation of the stupid and mentally ill is is not a "culture".

So much for MetaFilter, then.
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:48 AM on December 15, 2008 [18 favorites]

Two things. First, I don't trust Swedish horror movies since I saw Fanny and Alexander. I was watching it thinking it would be a typical 7 hour Bergman film into the nature of our existence and somewhere around the 3 hour mark it turns into a scary horror film. To this day I'm afraid a protestant bishop will kidnap and torture me.

But, where's the Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Scared, Blood of the Damned love? It had vampires and "Da Vinci Code" down way before anyone could say Harry Potter. When you start seeing trend setters wear fake mustaches made of tape and cat hair, remember this thread.
posted by geoff. at 6:50 AM on December 15, 2008 [2 favorites]

I went into this with impossibly high expectations, due to the rapturous reviews, the subject matter (I'm a sucker for good coming of age films), etc. It's a respectable film -- I wish it no harm and do not think less of its fans. However, the unnecessarily glacial pacing and the episodic structure prevented me from enjoying it as much as I'd hoped and expected. (The reviews around here kept citing Val Lewton as a point of departure, which also probably did me in a bit -- I was expecting something more in line with Curse of the Cat People, and this had more in common with George Romero's Martin. The local critics might have made this point on the basis of the scene with the cat hoarder, which seemed like the scene in the pet store in Cat People gone horribly wrong.)

The two kids were incredible, though, especially the little girl who played Eli. And the scene in the swimming pool was a doozy.
posted by pxe2000 at 7:00 AM on December 15, 2008

I did not love this movie -- the good things about it were very beautiful and original, though.
posted by hermitosis at 7:02 AM on December 15, 2008

Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Scared, Blood of the Damned

Geoff. You just triggered the most POWERFUL flashback to sitting in the den and cursing All Sound Cards Everywhere.

Most, if not all, popular Vampire Narratives always try to gloss-over or remove the whole "Hey, you know your boyfriend murders people in order to exist, right?". How could you fall for someone who stalks and eats people for kicks. Not metaphorically eating, not the threat of violence, but actually totally slaughtering people all the time. How do you stay with that without turning into a creepy serial-killer couple?

Also, lady vampires get no love. Are older women still too taboo?
posted by The Whelk at 7:51 AM on December 15, 2008

Thanks, Marisa. Saw it last week and loved the beautifully chilly mood and slow, eerie pacing. There was more than enough tension and bloody bursts of horror to keep it captivating, and the acting by the two leads is much better than what you usually see from kids (the U.S. version will have to leave out the naked scenes, I'm sure).

It's not the greatest vampire movie ever, but it's in my top 10, for sure, and definitely the best vampire movie to come down the road in the last 10 years. Seriously. I'm trying to find a better one since 1998 on this list and coming up very empty.
posted by mediareport at 8:00 AM on December 15, 2008

Piggybacking on Free word order!, if you're a geek who appreciates deadpan humour and reasonably plausible scientificating, don't just read Watts' novels, but set aside 33 minutes to see this Flash slideshow. I (double) posted a link to this a couple of years ago, and damn it, I'll point to it again because it's just that great.

The mythical corporation FizerPharm ("Trust. Profit. Deniability.") share their detailed research into the evolution and possible commercial applications of Homo sapiens whedonum. You will learn: How and why the "crucifix glitch" came about. Why you should run from a blushing vampire. How many kilograms of human are needed to make one kilogram of vampire. How vampires resemble two year old humans, domestic shorthaired cats, and lungfish. And why "survival of the fittest" should be reconceptualized as "survival of the least inadequate".
posted by maudlin at 8:01 AM on December 15, 2008 [2 favorites]

I saw this literally the day before Bageena's comment mentioned in the fpp and really quite liked it. It's often arthouse slow, but not intolerably so compared to some I could mention, and it's not arthouse incomprehensible, which was why I was surprised to see that two of the three bad reviews it got on rotten tomatoes (97% fresh) were by people who failed to pick up on some rather blatant plot points.

The author seems quite happy to let the Cloverfield guy try an american version, but then he wrote the screenplay for the swedish one, and the storyline hasn't been through the hollywood-multiple-writers-good-stuff-removal process yet (can we make the girl vampire a curvy, cheerleader type?). We will see. Hopefully Reeves can demand some autonomy.
posted by Sparx at 8:23 AM on December 15, 2008

did they put the book's backstory twist about Eli into the film?

There's a brief visual nod to it, but it goes by so fast it's hard to realize what it was. I walked away thinking something completely different about her. Seems there's a lot more to the book - plenty of stuff the American version can pull out that wasn't in the Swedish film. I'll bet they do more with Håkan.
posted by mediareport at 8:37 AM on December 15, 2008

If a child was stuck forever like, in a 12-year-old existence and had to walk around killing other people and drink their blood to live – what would that child’s existance really be like?"

The first couple of hundred years were like Oliver Twist, except instead of saying, "Please, Sir, may I have some more," I just kept drinking until the fucking headmaster hit the floor. These last twenty years or so have been quite different, though, what with the Internet and all. On the Internet, noboody knows that you're a 230 year-old vampire in a 12 year-old body.

-MJackson
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 8:57 AM on December 15, 2008 [5 favorites]

On a side note, people that believe that they are vampires/vampyres . . . whatever really grate on my nerves. There really isn't anything higher on the poseur/attention whore scale IMHO

I disagree, anansi. I've met more than a few self-proclaimed vampires who are actually pretty cool people. The total jerks you have to avoid are the self-proclaimed dragons.

Neither have anything on those rarified individuals who claim that they (depending on the day and how interesting they think it will be at the moment) are or are possessed by demons.

There are some people I really, really don't miss knowing.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:01 AM on December 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

Most, if not all, popular Vampire Narratives always try to gloss-over or remove the whole "Hey, you know your boyfriend murders people in order to exist, right?". How could you fall for someone who stalks and eats people for kicks. Not metaphorically eating, not the threat of violence, but actually totally slaughtering people all the time. How do you stay with that without turning into a creepy serial-killer couple?

A big part of what I love about True Blood, for all that it's not exactly the best show out there, is the amount of conflict between "Hey everybody, now that there's synthetic blood and we don't have to kill anyone, let's all join society!" and the fact that pretty much every vampire who's been alive longer than the synthetic stuff's been around (two years at the time the show is set, IIRC) is a serial killer.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:04 AM on December 15, 2008

I loved the look and feel of the flim. Definitely want to pick up the book.
posted by mrbill at 9:13 AM on December 15, 2008

The climax to this movie is mind-bending. It's just a perfectly conceived horror sequence.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:24 AM on December 15, 2008

Apparently politically conservative times coincide with zombie movies and liberal times with vampire movies.

Not buying it. The author notes that Night of the Living Dead came out "a month before Republican Richard Nixon's election." True I guess, but weren't the '60s just a little bit liberal?

Then, "Zombies fell out of fashion when Democrat Jimmy Carter took the White House." Except that Dawn of the Dead, the greatest zombie film of them all, was released in 1978.
posted by stargell at 9:27 AM on December 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

What stargell said. What a classic piece of phoned-in popcult garbage that column is. It mostly ignores video games, TV and comics, then when it does notice them completely cherry-picks to make its point:

Bush-era zombies, noted Chera Kee, a University of Southern California doctoral candidate studying these cultural icons, also wandered into video games and comic books.

Riiiight. Doom had tons of zombies and was released in 1993. Resident Evil, probably *the* iconic zombie video game and the start of a hugely popular franchise, was released in 1996. But zombies happen under Republicans. Whatever.
posted by mediareport at 9:38 AM on December 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

I thought this was a fantastic film. I walked away with some questions that it sounds like the book may answer, so I suppose I'll have to pick it up.

For those who have read the book: does the story in the book go beyond where the film ends?
posted by owtytrof at 9:40 AM on December 15, 2008

A big part of what I love about True Blood, for all that it's not exactly the best show out there, is the amount of conflict between "Hey everybody, now that there's synthetic blood and we don't have to kill anyone, let's all join society!" and the fact that pretty much every vampire who's been alive longer than the synthetic stuff's been around (two years at the time the show is set, IIRC) is a serial killer.

Ah but the Syth Blood is still a way around the "But I still have to ...kill people...to live." aspect, although a clever one.

The typical route is to have the moral vampire eat only criminals or the near death, but that's always feels like a cheat unless handled very, very carefully.
posted by The Whelk at 9:43 AM on December 15, 2008

Everything I've read about Let the Right One In has been good. I'm really looking forward to it, but I'm hesitant to embrace a revitalization of vamp lore in films if Twilight is going to help set a benchmark.


...might spur a resurgence in vampyre culture....

*hides White Wolf Gangrel character loosely based on Josey Wales under stack of other papers*

No. That part of my life is passed, you will not draw me back in.

*fingers d10 sadly*
posted by quin at 9:55 AM on December 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

A congregation of the stupid and mentally ill is is not a "culture".

I always thought these supernatural archetypes were based on the real behavior disorders of real people--Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde = Bipolar Disorder, for example--I personally know some psychic vampires, and people who change into something else entirely when the moon is full.

So, like, Life-imitating-Art-imitating-Life I think explains a lot of human culture.
posted by Restless Day at 9:56 AM on December 15, 2008

I personally hated the book, and didn't finish it. I found the author a little too self-indulgent in taking pleasure in the horrible sexually-tinged deaths of young boys, and it squicked me out somewhat. I was actually appalled as I sat at the movies and realized that the movie I was watching was based on this book that I had despised. However, I felt that the movie was better than the book, though I didn't like the casting of the boy.

Did I think it was a new take on vampires? Not really. As jfuller noted above, it's not like Anne Rice didn't already do the eternally-trapped-in-childhood-little-girl-vampire back in 1976.
posted by OolooKitty at 10:00 AM on December 15, 2008

I haven't seen Let the Right One In yet, but what I hear gives me hope...hope that vampires will be returned to their proper place as scary, disturbing, twisted monsters. That we are about to drive a stake through our current tendency to romanticize vampires and diminish their tendencies as blood drinking killers so that they can be perceived as "noble", "suffering", or "brooding" love interests. I want my vampires scary.
posted by never used baby shoes at 10:08 AM on December 15, 2008

Tires refers to real tires; tyres are fiction (although not everyone agrees).
posted by chimaera at 10:17 AM on December 15, 2008 [4 favorites]

While I'll agree that the glitter-vampires of Twilight are perhaps a bit too far, it's perhaps more interesting to consider vampires as full personalities rather than monsters. Much like how you can characterize someone as "terrorist" or "resistance fighter" depending on POV, vampires can be monsters or addicts.

In most vampire mythos, vampires are humans afflicted with such an ailment, and they're not nearly so one-sided as zombies or demons. All the same, I'd like to see them occasionally portrayed as similar to junkies or crackheads instead, futilely battling the hunger. Instead, we seem doomed to having them either be brooding loners, sucking down a pint from the American Red Cross, or diabolical ancients, with a flair for anachronistic clothing, and truly relishing the pain and suffering in an over-the-top manner.
posted by explosion at 10:22 AM on December 15, 2008

"Twilight" is only the most recent example, explosion. Buffy did it too, as much as I loved the show.

Your point about vampires being able to be more fuller rounded characters is well-taken; I think I'm just jonesing for a modern vampire who knows and accepts what he/she is, doesn't brood about it (or over-indulge in the suffering caused), and embraces their nature. A more professional vampire, as it were.
posted by never used baby shoes at 10:30 AM on December 15, 2008

I think I'm just jonesing for a modern vampire who knows and accepts what he/she is, doesn't brood about it (or over-indulge in the suffering caused), and embraces their nature. A more professional vampire, as it were.

That would be Dexter. Except for the whole vampire part.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:51 AM on December 15, 2008 [3 favorites]

I saw the movie just a couple nights ago. It was amazing. I actually had chills while I was leaving the theater, and they weren't the kind of chills you can buy with a huge special effects budget and gallons of red corn syrup.

For a movie with such a fantastical concept, the approach it takes to its characters is very, very serious. There are moments where it's darkly comic, but for the most part it's just DARK.

Let The Right One In was an instant all-time favorite, for me. I clapped.
posted by AAAA at 10:56 AM on December 15, 2008

A more professional vampire, as it were.

5:30, wake up. Shower, Shave. Morning push-ups and coffee. Protein Shake with blood cubes. Remember the re-fill the ice tray and clean out the french press. it's getting sticky

6:30 Log on to review accounts and chat with business partners. The Asian markets need a lot of attention. Skype a few calls to overseas friends. Order a new Muji lamp. Make plans with Annette to meet you after work.

7:30-3: Dress, and off to work. The club isn't going to manage itself. Paperwork, tend to staff problems (there are ALWAYS problems).

3: Wind down, close out paperwork and do another pass of the club. Check if anyone is acting like an asshole with too much drink. Have the doorman manhandle him out. Make sure he's too drunk to walk. Drag into alleyway, right behind the speakers, and enjoy dinner. Remember to save some for the ice cubes.

4: Close out bar, tip out, meet Annette for late night drink and nosh (she's just off her shift at the hospital). She slumps, tired into your arms. She can stay at your place tonight. She loves the blackout curtains, she can sleep all day. Taxi home. Re-check of e-mail. Bed.


:
posted by The Whelk at 10:57 AM on December 15, 2008 [5 favorites]

I got a chance to see “Let the Right One In” in Baltimore last month. I have to say it is the best film I have seen in a very long time. This was the first movie I have seen that indirectly takes on topics like bullying, homosexuality/bisexuality, suburban malaise, first loves and coming of age and gets it right on every level. The fact a vampire is involved is almost secondary to the beautiful pacing of the film and the acting of the two leads.

I will save you the spoilers minus the perfectly executed swimming pool scene and its plays on the vampire mythos (puzzles, invites, sunlight) and just ask that you view the film from the eyes of your twelve year old self and see if it makes more sense. If for no other reason, go see it for Johan Soderqvist’s score. It is beautiful.

I fear for the American remake in light of as close to a perfect original as this was.
posted by extraheavymarcellus at 10:58 AM on December 15, 2008

Okay, that was a little too Dexter (Annette should have been a waitress). Dang.
posted by The Whelk at 10:58 AM on December 15, 2008

In most vampire mythos, vampires are humans afflicted with such an ailment, and they're not nearly so one-sided as zombies or demons. All the same, I'd like to see them occasionally portrayed as similar to junkies or crackheads instead, futilely battling the hunger.

Abel Ferrara's The Addiction gets pretty close. It's an alright movie - not exceptional, but hey, Lili Taylor and Christopher Walken.

I can certainly appreciate where you're coming from. Quite a few of my friends fell into vampyre culture, and while only one sanguinarian among them actually claimed to need human blood to live, it did get me thinking about what a vampire's life might be like: utterly miserable. Consider the pros and cons.

As a vampire, you possess superhuman strength, the ability to fly and/or climb virtually anything, the ability to make a thrall out of people, and immortality. Sounds pretty sweet. And all you have to do to keep from starving to death and maintain all these wonderful traits is, you know, kill other human beings and drink their blood.

Even if you're not much of a sunlight person anyway, you have other restrictions of movement - you can't cross running water, can't walk into a place without being verbally invited. You're an addict and have to be pretty damn clever about hiding your addiction. And worst of all, you're immortal. You will outlive everyone you ever knew. You'll have to live through humanity repeating the same mistakes over and over, instead of just reading about them. And you'll get to be alive for the environmental death of the planet, where your options will either be to get on board the colonial vessel and try to maintain your addicition on a spaceship (good luck!) or stay on earth as the planet slowly dies until you're the last person on Earth left alive, whereupon you starve to death.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 11:15 AM on December 15, 2008 [4 favorites]

> Which people, exactly, believe that they are vamp*res, and what gives them this idea?
> Do they exist solely on blood? Bite people and suck out their blood for sustenance?
> posted by pracowity at 8:20 AM on December 15 [+] [!]

It scarcely takes any objective "what" behind someone's getting an idée fixe and indulging it. Viz., people convinced they're Napoleon, or tigers, or female souls trapped in male bodies.
posted by jfuller at 11:20 AM on December 15, 2008

It scarcely takes any objective "what" behind someone's getting an idée fixe and indulging it. Viz., people convinced they're Napoleon, or tigers, or female souls trapped in male bodies.

Transphobia: the last acceptable bigotry.
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:25 AM on December 15, 2008

Just like to mention that I recommended to ALL OF YOU to go see 'Let The Right One In' in that Twilight thread. So, you know... I told you so.
I really want to read the book now because everything I've heard about it indicated it's much more twisted and dark than the movie. As for the remake, yeah, they say they'll stay true to the book, but it's an American remake and the book deals with child homosexuality AND pedophilism (from what I understand). I can't imagine a director with balls big enough to make a movie for american audiences dealing in any way with those topics. American remakes are usually terrible. Please see the original version of 'Quarantine', 'Rec'. So much better.
posted by Bageena at 11:27 AM on December 15, 2008

Transphobia: the last acceptable bigotry.

I thought the last acceptable bigotry was either sizism or the whole "white trash" thing.

So, you know... I told you so.

Yep, and I'm glad you did, that's why props were given in the FPP.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 11:49 AM on December 15, 2008

Thanks Begeena and MStPT! The husband and I are going to see this movie in a few hours. Hadn't heard about it until now.
posted by dog food sugar at 11:53 AM on December 15, 2008

I saw this movie this weekend and add me as another one who thought it was really good. I really liked the stark, cold imagery.
posted by Staggering Jack at 12:03 PM on December 15, 2008

just wanna second the suggestion about Blindsight. Interesting, chilling, alien (not from another planet--just really different from us), vampires.
posted by anansi at 12:16 PM on December 15, 2008

I thought hobophobia was the last acceptable bigotry, at least in part because hobos are actually scary.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:29 PM on December 15, 2008 [2 favorites]

There is no acceptable bigotry. The only proper civilized approach is to hate everyone as unique individuals.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:32 PM on December 15, 2008 [3 favorites]

But, where's the Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Scared, Blood of the Damned love?

I got yer Gabriel Knight 3 love right here.
posted by straight at 12:55 PM on December 15, 2008

I've only just started on that Blindsight book linked above but it's a good read so far. I've never heard of this author. Thanks for the link.
posted by Tacodog at 1:00 PM on December 15, 2008

So Lindqvist is saying His Vampires Are Different?
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 1:09 PM on December 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

I kinda wish we could take a hiatus from the entire genre for about a decade or so.
posted by tkchrist at 1:45 PM on December 15, 2008

I want to thank you for that link, DevilsAdvocate, as it introduced me to what might be the single greatest movie idea ever: Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter.

For reasons unknown to anyone in the Catholic Church, there have been a rash of attacks on lesbians by vampires, and to make matters worse, they're now immune to sunlight. There can be only one solution - to get Jesus from his hiding place, and take on the vampires, including the lesbians they've turned into more vampires. Along the way, he'll have to enlist the help of Mexican wrestler El Santos, "Apostle to the Apostles" Mary Magnum, and... learn to do a snazzy musical number

I ... don't know what to say. It's like the director read my diary or something. I have to see this.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 2:12 PM on December 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

I saw Let the Right One In after Bageena's recommendation in the Twilight thread. Thanks, Bageena, I enjoyed it immensely.
posted by lekvar at 2:23 PM on December 15, 2008

I will 3rd (4th?) Peter Watts' Blindsight. his other works are also good - although the last of the Rifters trilogy I still haven't gotten around to finishing, Starfish is glorious in describing solitary living conditions. And his short stories are even better.

Especially the one where the clouds attack.
posted by Lemurrhea at 3:22 PM on December 15, 2008

Sean Hannity on Vampires.
posted by piratebowling at 3:36 PM on December 15, 2008

The Whelk Work a little harder and you're the new Brett Easton Ellis.
posted by rodgerd at 5:04 PM on December 15, 2008

> So Lindqvist is saying His Vampires Are Different?
> posted by DevilsAdvocate at 4:09 PM on December 15 [+] [!]

You thought garlic was going to ward off the boss vampire? Sorry. You planned to kill him with that little piece of sharpened wood? Good luck. These days, you'll see vampires slapping crosses out of the way more often than shrinking in fear.

Gnaw on these, caped cruiser. mildly NSFW

Gayleague.com has the whole thing on one page, but the flikr scans are better (choose the largest size). Also (ahem) the Frank Frazetta cover.
posted by jfuller at 5:08 PM on December 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

The Whelk Work a little harder and you're the new Brett Easton Ellis.

It's half a shade of a shade there. I think. Nightclub owner or manager would be a good fit for a Vampire, or even just a bartender/waiter. I think they would end up being more moral than your typical BEE character because they have so much more to loose. Moral out of necessity is a, to me at least, unexplored path.

And I'm workshoping my Very Own Vampire story and this thread is a big help.
posted by The Whelk at 5:47 PM on December 15, 2008

Gnaw on these, caped cruiser. mildly NSFW

I'm gonna kick some ass with my own pipe wrench.
posted by flaterik at 6:18 PM on December 15, 2008

i really enjoyed this movie. i didn't find it scary. it was more spooky, atmospheric... the part i liked the best was how it depicted a time, not long-ago enough to be really distant; yet, totally different. sort of the same feeling i got from watching no country for old men.

pxe2000 - i thought of martin, too. not so much in terms of storyline but - the spooky quietness of it. and the dream-like pace. i really like that movie. has a fuckin' great soundtrack.
posted by lapolla at 8:09 PM on December 15, 2008

Great flick-- more coming-of-age than anything else.
posted by darth_tedious at 8:19 PM on December 15, 2008

I watched a rip of the DVD screener. It's genius. I notice it's playing on a local big screen so I'll go see it with my wife, who loves arty atmospheric stuff like this. Thanks for the heads up.

I expect the remake will be a bag of wet poop.
posted by fleetmouse at 8:33 AM on December 17, 2008

I expect the remake will be a bag of wet poop.

Depends whether or not you thought Cloverfield was a bag of wet poop. I didn't see it, personally. But I share your dread.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 11:24 AM on December 17, 2008

...might be the single greatest movie idea ever: Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter.

"might be" is right. I even liked Hell Comes to Frogtown, but I had to turn off JCVH after 10 minutes.
posted by benzenedream at 9:31 PM on January 9