When you’re a Swedish horror fan, you come to accept that the ‘great’ films of your country will almost always be either Ingmar Bergman, a tribute to Ingmar Bergman, or the occasional story about teen angst and total isolation (see Fucking Åmål). You can ever have the occasional comedy get some love at the little festivals. The one thing that you don’t seem to get at any point is a good Swedish Horror Film. They have been virtually non-existant. We still to this day take credit for producing Max von Sydow and therefore making the Exorcist what it was, but a home-grown horror, that’s a myth. Until now.

As of today, Swedish horror has at least one film on one map (albeit, perhaps, a small one). Yes, we are the proud winners of the Tribeca Film Festival award for Best Narrative. The Tribeca Film Festival is a festival which was founded by Robert De Niro himself, and takes place in New York. Originally founded after the events of September 11th, 2001, The Tribeca Film Festival has a certain amount of prestige to it, and now it has added a Swedish horror film to its list of winners over the years. Yes, Go Sweden.

So what is it that has won, you ask? Well, let me tell you. The winner for Best Narrative was Låt Den Rätta Komma In (Let the Right One In). Of course, despite my best intentions, I wasn’t invited to todays screening of the film, so I can’t summarise any better than the IMDb page can do, but it is a film about a young boy (Oskar) who is being bullied. I know what you’re thinking, so far it sounds like your typical angsty teen film from Sweden. Here’s the kicker, the ‘twist’ that makes it a little more ‘horror’-ific. Oskar discovers and falls in love with a beautiful girl named Eli. She is a peculiar kid who can’t stand sunlight or food, but has a certain penchance for blood. She helps to become an instrument for his revenge, but at what cost?

The film itself has numerous complete unknowns in the lead roles, including both the lead characters acting in their first film ever. The director, Tomas Alfredsson, is also no prolific star of the directing stage, with about 14 films under his belt. Yet this little crew from an unrewarded country has managed a film which got the international stage’s attention. I have no real frame of reference for this movie as it won’t be out in cinemas for a little while yet, but when it does come out, I’ll be the first to try and see it, and I hope some of you will too. It’s a historic first, both for small-film horror getting rewarded at a major festival, and more importantly, for Sweden.