The XX Factor

Nina, I’m glad you brought up Grady Hendrix’s complaint that vampires aren’t doing enough blood sucking these days, because I have a bone to pick, too. Hendrix overlooks what I think is the best addition to the vampire cannon since Buffy (and this coming from a girl who can’t get enough of True Blood ): last year’s Swedish Let The Right One In . That film’s mousy, smelly, yet powerfully alluring lady vamp has a blood-smeared face in nearly every scene. It’s a beautiful thing, watching her ravage the neck of a grown man, then skulk around her apartment without deigning to wipe her mouth. And I love when, in a move suitably grandma-esque for a 200-year-old, she lays a smacker on Oskar with those blood-soaked lips. He, more smitten, I dare say, than I ever was with my over-lipsticked Grammy, doesn’t even need to wipe off the stain.

Photograph of Lina Leandersson as Eli in Let the Right One In courtesy of EFTI.