Turn Me On, Dammit (2011)

What originally starts out as the Anti-Hollywood teen sex film ends in a cop out when 15-year-old Alma gives up her self-respect and *MILD SPOILER* gets together with a loser. This development strains credulity, not to mention the message is appalling -- if you can't find a suitable boyfriend, girls, remember ... it's better to be with a d**k than to be alone.

   Alma (Helene Bergsholm) copes with her small-town ennui by engaging in an active fantasy life, where everyone she encounters is a potential mate. Yes, Alma has hormones that would put the cast of "American Pie" to shame, but that's where the "Pie..." similarities end.

   Alma's troubles really start when a boy she likes, Arter (Matias Myren) rubs his d**k against her at a party, then denies it when she excitedly tells her friends. Queen b**ch Ingrid (Beate Støfring,) who wants Arter for herself, turns Alma's classmates against her and almost overnight Alma goes from well-liked student to school outcast.

Let the Right One In (2008)

 
 It's no secret that "Let the Right One In" is my second favorite movie of all time, and was, in my opinion, in no need of a remake. The experience of watching this movie is akin to that of reading a great book -- afterwards you want to recommend it to everyone, in hopes that they will feel the way you did watching it for the first time.

   Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant), an unhappy twelve-year-old boy, is bullied by his peers and fantasizes about making them pay, though for the time being the violence stays within the confines of his imagination. While outside his apartment complex at night, he meets Eli (Lina Leandersson), a strange twelve-year-old who offers him, for the first time, a chance to dream of a different life.

Repost of an Old Favorite: Wild Strawberries

Old people are the joke of Hollywood. How often does one see sensitive, well rounded portrayals of elders? There was Simon Rumley's abstract indie The Living and the Dead, with the beleaguered Roger Lloyd-Pack attempting to care for his sick wife and deranged son. There was The Savages and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. Or you could go back further, to Ingmar Bergman's 1957 art film Wild Strawberries.

    Doctor Isak Borg (Victor Sjöström) has been called many things. Cold. Hard-hearted. Cruel. In the midst of a late-life crisis, he questions all he is and has been, and faces mortality through a series of dreams.

Film Review: The Seventh Seal

A knight and his squire return from the crusades to find the Black Plague decimating the population. The knight, Antonious Block (Max von Sydow) struggles with questions about death, suffering, and the nature of God as he challenges Death to a game of chess.

Harbor by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Domaro, an isolated little island in a Swedish archipelago, is home to a handful of local families -- the descendants of fishermen -- and an ever-returning group of summer folk. On the shores of Domaro, a young boy and girl begin to fall in love as they contemplate the enormity of the sea, which has been gradually reclaiming its islands -- bit by bit -- since the Ice Age.

Years later, on a winter afternoon, Anders and Cecilia take their six-year-old daughter Maja across the ice to visit the lighthouse in the middle of the frozen channel. While the couple explores the lighthouse, Maja disappears -- seemingly into thin air -- leaving not even a footprint in the snow. 

Two years later, Anders returns to the island, shattered and dependent on alcohol to get through the day. He reconnects with his grandmother, Anna-Greta, a native of Domaro, and her lover Simon. Odd things begin to happen in the house Anders once shared with his wife and daughter, and he senses Maja's presence. Then other strange things begin to happen, and some of them are reminiscent of ugly secrets from Anders's adolescence.

Anna-Greta and the other inhabitants of the island are hiding secrets of their own, including a dark secret that's centuries old. As more and more strange, tragic things take place, she must share these secrets with Simon and Anders so they can survive and Anders can try to find Maja and bring her back.

This novel seized my interest from the first few pages. First and foremost, Lindqvist is a master at exploring human psychology. Everything -- from the tender, budding feelings of a 13-year-old boy falling in love for the first time to the raw, crippling grief of a bereaved father -- felt vibrantly real. Lindqvist is also brilliant at creating fear and guilt, including guilt triggered by the ambivalence some parents feel toward their own children. This is largely what drew me in, eager to be part of the characters' lives, and what made this story work on a visceral level.

I was intrigued by the cast of quirky characters. This included a widowed young mother who survived through trading with World War II soldiers and occasional bootlegging, a professional magician, and a lighthouse keeper with an endless thirst for solitude who studies the Bible and greets visitors with the word of God -- because nothing drives people away as quickly as preaching at them.

I especially enjoyed the relationship between octogenarians Anna-Greta and Simon. It's rare -- at least in our culture -- to read about an intimate romance between two older people. I found this believable, interesting, and refreshing.

Lindqvist also captivated me with his elegant use of language and lovely imagery and the way he uses language and imagery to create an eerie mood. 

     The trees felled by the storm lay there like long-necked, thirsty dinosaurs, stretching out all the way to the water's edge ...

... the fallen fir trees were still there, dark, gloomy tree trunks lying across the rocks, with the odd branch sticking up out of the water here and there like the arms of skeletons pleading for help, ignored and rejected by one and all.

     The moon had begun to tire and shrink, balancing helplessly on the branches of the few firs still standing. Veils of cloud drifted past, and as Anders drew closer Kattholmen was bathed in a light with no luminosity, like aged aluminum. He rounded the northern point where a concrete buoy marked a shipping lane that was no longer used, and continued along the rocky shore on the eastern side of the island. (p. 448)

The only thing that disappointed me was the ending. Most of the novel moved rather slowly, with great attention to detail. I appreciated this, because it allowed time to develop the various threads of the story. But after all that, I expected a richly satisfying conclusion. However, the novel ended abruptly. The supernatural threads of the story were never completely woven together, and I was pushed quickly out of this world, without time to gain closure with the characters with whom I'd lived for 500 pages. Perhaps the author intended to leave us with a sense of mystery and unanswered questions? I don't know, but it didn't work for me.

Overall, this was an absorbing novel, and in some ways it was even richer than the author's previous books: Let the Right One In and Handling the Undead. The thing Lindqvist does best, seamlessly blending psychological and supernatural horror, is what really shines here. This created characters and scenes that will be hard for me to forget.

Read More Review of this Novel: Mad Bibliophile; Book Banter; Killin' Time Reading;

Rating: 4

5- Cherished Favorite	4 - Keep in My Library	3 - Good Read	2 - Meh	1 - Definitely Not For Me

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

In a suburb of Stockholm, Sweden, 12-year-old Oskar is cruelly bullied by some of his schoolmates. Lacking the strength to stand up to his tormenters, he fantasizes about murdering them. He even compiles a scrapbook of news clippings about homicides. As he gleefully collects these gruesome snippets, he keeps this hobby a secret from his affectionate but somewhat fragile single mom.

Are you creeped out yet? Well, it gets better. Oskar meets Eli, a mysterious girl who lives with her "father" in a neighboring apartment. They form an intense bond of friendship and affection, and Eli inspires Oskar to build up his physical strength and face the bullies. Eventually, he learns that Eli is a vampire, crystallized in a child's body since medieval times. Her "father,"Hakan," is a pedophile with whom she cohabitates. They have an eerie symbiotic relationship. In return for her chaste companionship, which he hopes will develop into something else, Hakan becomes a murderer to help Eli procure human blood.

Oskar and Eli are surrounded by a wide array of supporting characters. These include a small gang of adolescents -- disconnected from their families and community -- who hang out at their apartment building and a loose-knit group of alcoholics who meet at a local bar. This novel is as much social commentary as it is paranormal horror. It gives readers a glimpse of the anomie in a suburban community and of the alienation many people feel, even when surrounded by neighbors and companions.

If you like vampires in their raw form, not morally correct ones who avoid devouring human blood and not vampires who shimmer in the sunlight -- and if you have a strong stomach for violence and disturbing sexual content -- this novel might be for you.

Despite my own squeamishness, I enjoyed this book. The author has a knack for creating intriguing, three-dimensional characters who, while they may seem wholly unlikeable at first, end up drawing you in and inspiring interest, sympathy, admiration, or at least pity. And while the raw brutality might make you cringe, or even turn your stomach, you can't look away. This author also knows how to build tension and suspense. In these respects, he reminds me of Stephen King at his best.

This writer also has a gift for sensory detail. I could feel the bitter Swedish winter and the crunch of snow under my feet, and I could see the imagery, which was sometimes bloody and brutal. I could also feel what it was like to gradually become a vampire.

So while I didn't fall in love with this book, it did hold my attention, and the characters, events, and imagery will probably stick with me for a while. I recommend this for horror lovers who want a slightly different twist on vampire folklore.

Rating: 4

5- Cherished Favorite	4 - Keep in My Library	3 - Good Read	2 - Meh	1 - Definitely Not For Me