Undead entertainment is everywhere these days. I’m not sure what it says about our shared cultural moment, but we love stories about ghouls. There are sexy vampires on HBO, dull-eyed emo-teen vampires on the screen and the New York Times bestseller list is lousy with the damned of all types. Werewolves are even getting a decent amount of shine. It’s a big moment for the accursed immortals.

It’s too bad that so much of this stuff is awful.

She may be the patron saint of Forks, Washington, but Stephanie Meyer has loosed a torrent of boring, dunderheaded vampire fiction on us. Vampires that refuse to hunt people? Vampires that fall in boring love with boring, plain teenagers? I don’t think I’ll ever forgive Meyer for the damage she’s done to the genre.

The reason we love vampire lore in the first place is that vampires is that their darkness allows us to safely experience our darkness. If you make the vamps too cuddly, they have no more cathartic value than Disney princesses.

Which brings me to “Let the Right One In.” On the surface, this Swedish take on the vampire mythos seems like it might fall into the Twilight trap. There is a vampire. There is a clueless suburban mortal who falls under the vampire’s sway. The similarities, however, end there. It’s hard to imagine an American movie with major studio backing keeping this much of its edge. There is no tormented Edward or self-righteous Bill Compton anywhere near this movie.

The story is simple. Lonely, sad-eyed Oskar gets a new neighbor. Eli is quiet, like Oskar, and he is grateful to have a friend. Terrible things begin to happen in Oskar’s quiet suburb, and he begins to wonder if these things might have some connection to Eli. The balance of terror and tenderness is exquisite. Telling you more might ruin the surprise.

This movie stayed with me for days – I recommend it to all fans of horror movies.

There’s word of an American remake. The remake will undoubtedly be worse – so see this before it’s turned into a regrettable franchise.