1982: twelve-year-old Oskar lives with his mother in a suburb of Stockholm and fantasizes about getting even with the bullies at school. A mysterious young girl, Eli, moves next door and, though first keeping her distance from Oskar, wants to help him. Though the two bond and even “go steady,” Oskar quickly learns that a relationship with Eli might be more difficult than imagined. After all, she’s a vampire. Director Tomas Alfredson’s horror/romance/coming-of-age picture downplays the usual genre conventions of a vampire movie in favor of telling a story of young love threatened by life’s more difficult moments.