In Let the Right One In, Oskar, a young boy who is mercilessly bullied at school, makes friends with Eli, a young girl who just happens to be a vampire.  Of course, having a vampire as your best friend when you’re being bullied is really advantageous, but this Swedish import avoids being a simple case of revenge porn; instead, it offers up a surprisingly tender look at innocence, trust, love and the sacrifices we make for it.

There are a lot of life lessons to be had in Let the Right One In, but  those life lessons are punctuated by scenes of gore and violence.   And that’s the most surprising thing of all about this film: it balances those two extremes in a perfect, sublime,  and truly endearing way.