Let The Right One In (2008)

Also Known As: Låt den rätte komma in

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN starts with a 12 year old boy in his underwear, playing with a knife and demanding of his imaginary victim to “Squeal…squeal like a pig.” So from the get go you know you're going to be watching something…different.

The vampire genre has needed a swift kick in the ass for quite some time now. While I was never a true “Goth kid”, I did hang out with that crowd from time to time, because goth chicks are easy (“Yes, my dear, fucking me is the perfect way to get back at your Father.”), plus I dug the fashion. Ultimately, I was much too happy-go-lucky to be a full-fledge Goth. I was also really into vampire films—I mean I watched a-lot of vampire movies. From the silent era to Hammer Horror to 80’s classics like THE HUNGER and FRIGHT NIGHT, I watched them all and dug them all. I believe DRACULA 2000 may have been the straw that broke the camels back for me. By then, my Goth era was behind me and vampires bored me and DRACULA 2000 was shit. I was so done with vampire movies that I’ve still yet to see 30 DAYS OF NIGHT (a ton of bad reviews didn’t help that). Then that fucktarded movie, TWILIGHT came out and now vampires are the chic thing once again. Needless to say, when LET THE RIGHT ONE IN came out, all I needed to hear was “vampire” to make me want to take a pass—even though it got really good reviews, and was credited as being something new and…different. I figured I’d see it eventually, and looky here—I’ve seen it and yeah, it’s the kick in the ass that the vampire genre has needed for a while.

Filmed in Sweden, northern Sweden for that majestically winter wonderland look. LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is probably the most creative and original vampire movie since George Romero’s MARTIN. Directed by Tomas Alfredson (whom I’ve never heard of or seen any of his other films) and based on a novel (of which I’ve never read), I knew little to nothing about the film going in, other than what I put together from other reviews—of which I only read a few. Well, I’ll be the first to admit that I was a dumbass for avoiding this movie for so long, because it’s excellent. Not that the story adds anything new to the vampire mythos, but it adds a hell of a lot to the vampire movie genre as a whole. First of all, movies about female vampires that are not sexual in nature are a rarity—as are movies about child vampires, which are not ‘for’ kids. Also, 30 DAYS OF NIGHT is the only other vampire movie that I can think of that takes place in a snowy setting (I’m sure there may be a few others, but none that I can think of). Throw in the fact that the film is so beautifully directed, that you could feel the coldness of the stale winter air. The winter visuals in the film are so powerful that it may make you want to put on sweater when you watch—or maybe even a Snuggie—you know who you are, Snuggie people. Someone’s buying those damn things!

As I mentioned, the film starts out with a boy fighting imaginary people in his underwear. The boy in question is named, Oskar, played by Kare Hedebrant, who is more pale than the actual vampire in the film, and has a really unfortunate haircut. Oskar is a shy kid and an introvert that gets bullied at school and comes from a broken home. His angers manifest in violent fantasies, which has him carrying a knife wherever, he goes and keeping a scrapbook filled with newspaper clippings about murderers and their victims. A new family moves into the apartment next door and from the looks of things, we assume it’s a young girl and her Father. He eventually has a run in with the girl, named Eli in the courtyard of the apartment complex. The girl is not dressed for the weather, nor effected by it. She’s pale, smells bad, and tells Oskar that he and she can never be friends, but that is exactly what they become. Meanwhile, the girl's assumed, “father”, goes out and kills a man in the forest and cuts open the man’s neck to drain him for blood. He almost gets caught and runs away, without the blood. He returns home to get scolded by the young girl, letting us know their relationship is obviously not that of a father and daughter. From here we know that this is not your run-of-the-mill vampire flick. We know the girl is a vampire, but what kind? Does she have fangs? Can she be in the sunlight? These things are all answered, and as I mentioned, the film pretty much goes by the book, as far as the "rules" of vampirism go, but it’s the delivery that makes LET THE RIGHT ONE IN something special.

While laced with short-but-sweet scenes of violence, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, more than anything, is a bittersweet love story, just as many vampire stories before it, going all the way back to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. There is something very Shakespearean about vampire love stories that ultimately cannot-be, and usually ends in tragedy. LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is no different, but the fact that it’s dealing with children just entering puberty makes if something refreshing (but never crass or explicit, BTW). The bond that forms between Eli, a perpetually 12 year old vampire, and Oskar, a lonely 12 year old kid in desperate need of love, is one for the ages. They’re bonded by their loneliness, which is only intensified by the bitter cold, wintery backdrop of the film.

Lina Leandersson plays Eli, and she is (no pun intended) the lifeblood of the film. She makes the character absolutely mesmerizing. In many a scene she goes from sinister to Disney-sweet in matter of seconds. The film is not effects-heavy, but the subtle effects that are done to Eli’s face in the film are actually quite chilling. From her sometimes-huge pupils, to her aged face when she’s in need of a blood fix, to her innocent-to-not-so-innocent charm, she owns every scene’s she’s in—and for a child actor, that pretty fucking incredible. Not to take away anything from Kare Hedebrant’s, Oskar, his role demands a certain kind of naiveté and innocence, which he pulls off quite well, but make no mistake, Leandersson ‘is’ the movie.

Being a foreign film, and having that artsy-fartsy foreign film vibe, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is ripe for different interpretations. Sure, the film has a lot of subtext, and there are scenarios in the film which could be looked at as metaphors for witty intellectuals to decipher and dissect—and that’s fine. I’ve read a few places where some people interpret Eli as a figment of Oskar’s imagination, while that may be an interesting idea; it leaves too many gapping holes in the plot. The film ‘could’ be interpreted in many different ways ‘or’ it could just be looked at as a good ol’ fashioned vampire tale, told with heart and the imagination of a child. That’s really all the interpretation it needs.

**SPOILER SECTION** This is for anyone who has seen the film. My interpretation of the ending was that the old man was Eli’s former childhood lover, who had grown old and could no longer keep up with Eli’s demands. Oskar pretty much replaces the old man has Eli's keeper/ghoul/Renfield-ish type man-servant. I don’t buy the whole Eli was just a figment of Oskar’s imagination and he actually dies in the pool and that the ending shows Oskar and Eli crossing over together on the train. I’d say that interpretation is pretty weak. Anybody else interpret it a different way? **END OF SPOILERS**

Let The Right One In trailer