The movie

Oskar is a fragile teenager living on the edge of society, totally left to his own devices. Trying to escape boredom, he is up to no good in the snowy yard of his building. There he imagines scenes of revenge against the boys who bully him at school. When Eli and her father move in next door, Oskar finally finds someone to befriend. The young girl, who only comes out at night and scantily dressed in a shirt despite the freezing cold, intrigues him. When a series of bloody murders takes place in the area, Oskar’s imagination runs wild : Eli is a vampire. Their friendship does not suffer from these suspicions, and it even becomes a reason for their survival. With the help of Eli, Oskar succeeds in gaining the respect of his classmates. Plunging the audience into the sterile coldness of Sweden, Tomas Alfredson surprisingly joins the codes of horror and vampire movies with a highly intimate setting. One is led to ask if Bergman has got into bed with Tobe Hooper, or Polanski has become friendly with Gus Van Sant. In any case, the contrast is violent and astonishing, but ultimately satisfying.