By: Cläudio “Inte en vampyr” Cortés 

If you were a vampire it would make perfect sense to live in a place that experiences long periods of sunlessness on a scheduleable timetable, such as the northern hemisphere. Continuing with this exercise, it would also help if it remains cold, as I would imagine that vampires, being animate corpses would fair better at least smell-wise in the colder temperatures, slows down the decomposition.

Today’s film pick takes place in exactly this perfect setting for vampirism…Sweden. Låt den rätte komma in or Let the right one in (for those of us who aren’t sverigefones) tells the story of a timid bullied young man and his unlikely new neighbor turn best friend, on its surface. As I have challenged you all to do this month, I ask that we dig past that cutesy surface story and see this through an alternative lens. After watching this and its remake a few times one begins to see that this is not  about the sad little boy, this is about a parasite grooming it’s next victim, this is an ancient evil smelling weakness, preying and perpetuating its own cycle of trauma, it is a snake eating its own tail, to put it in norse context, it is a reimagining of the Jörmungandr. The circle of trauma continues because the parasite has an inherent need to inflict its own pain on others. 

You can watch Let the right one in,  study of the circular nature of trauma …but with vampires on Hulu. If you do not have a password of your own or a friend who will lend you one, I believe that you can sign up for a free trial. 

Today’s musical accompaniment is an ethereal track called Frontier by goth music pioneers Dead Can Dance. The album that contains Frontier, the eponymous Dead Can Dance is a fantastic end to end listen, the soundscapes created by this duo in their debut are unrivaled, it conjures images and memories from times long past featuring moody teens smoking clove cigarettes while wearing all black and scrawling introspective and angry poetry into their person journals. Beyond the atmosphere of darkness that this album paints it also makes one long for travel to the far corners of the earth, a dangerous thought exercise in our particularly isolated times, maybe that also adds to the gothic vibes.

Keep up with the playlist as it builds Here

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