Let the Right One In (2008)

aka: Låt den Rätte Komma In (Sweden)
Directed by Tomas Alfredson
Written by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Rated R for some bloody violence including disturbing images, brief nudity and language.

"Let the Right One In" is without a doubt a new landmark in the vampire genre. Swedish director Tomas Alfredson's imdb.com page lists him as having 29 film-related awards and 6 nominations. It's no surprise that the majority of these are for one film, "Let the Right One In".

This is clearly Alfredson's masterpiece, a dark and melancholic post-modern coming-of-age story in which Oskar, a young boy plagued by bullies, meets and falls for Eli, a young girl who has moved into the apartment next door. There is a strong love story here, but not a remotely traditional one. Eli is a vampire. Though she inhabits the body of an twelve-year-old girl, as she tells Oskar "I've been twelve for a long time."

In spite of being a story that centers around two twelve-year-olds, "LtROI" is a more adult film than one might initially suspect. Eli is a vampire. Not one of these new-age glampire sparkly freaks, but an old-fashioned creature of the night. She needs to feed, and does so several times throughout the film. The gore is mostly suggested, and the few images of death we are shown are tasteful and well-done enough not to offend most viewers' sensibilities. Eli is an apologetic vampire. She has to eat, but she doesn't hate people. In Oskar, she finds someone who can love her in spite of her condition.

Oskar is not without his own violent tendencies. When Eli first meets him, he's stabbing a tree in the courtyard of his apartment complex at night, telling it to "Squeal like a pig!" Though clearly a good enough kid, Oskar's obsession with death and violence is apparent from very early in the film. Perhaps it is this obsession that allows him to overlook Eli's murderous nature. Oskar doesn't come easily to peace with Eli's vampirism, but gradually comes to see that she is more human than most of the humans in his life.

Speaking of other humans, the ones with the most screen-time are the group of bullies that torture Oskar at school. Not since "The Karate Kid" have grade-school bullies been so mean. Luckily, the bullies here are portrayed a bit more realistically than in "The Karate Kid". One boy is the de facto "leader" of the bully troop, and three meeker boys do his evil bidding. The meeker boys inspire almost as much sympathy as Oskar. One of the boys even cries to himself while whipping Oskar with a stick. It was nice to see movie bullies with depth and remorse.

The love story develops quickly into an adult one, however asexual. Eli sneaks in Oskar's bedroom window at night and lies next to him, naked in bed. Though a child, Oskar clearly has a sense of what it means to be a man in the modern world, and what it means to love a woman. His modesty in the face of Eli's openness is adorable, and makes the couple all the more sympathetic.

I rate "Let the Right One In" a 10/10. The cinematography is top-notch throughout and effectively showcases the snowy, desolate suburbs of Sweden as the film's picturesque backdrop. The acting, visuals, music and dialogue are all very well done. Most importantly, this film pushes the limits of what's been done before with vampires. Vampire-human love stories are a dime a dozen, but this one seems somehow timeless. I recently re-watched this one with some friends, and it stands up well to a second viewing. I strongly reccomend this film to anyone with eyes to see, a heart to feel, and a neck to bite!

I also recommend:















***!!!SPOILERS BELOW, CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!***





As I was writing this review, I realized something about the film that I hadn't before. At the start of the movie, Eli has a caretaker, an old man who kills people in order to bring back blood for her. He scars his face with acid to hide his identity when he's captured by police trying to drain someone, and is ultimately killed by Eli to end his misery.

At the end of the film, Oskar is travelling on a train with Eli, presumably to start some kind of a life together somewhere.

Eli's caretaker's relationship to her is unknown. On first viewing, I suspected he was her human father, but after watching it again and thinking about it, I suspect that he was a love interest that Eli became attached to when he was young, perhaps as young as Oskar. This would imply that Eli operates cyclically, cohabiting with a human caretaker for the course of their human lifespan, and then grooming a new one as a replacement when the old one dies or gets captured. Not only does this explain more about Eli's strange, strained relationship with her old caretaker, it suggests what Oskar and Eli's relationship will become as he grows old and she remains a child. I need to watch the film again with this in mind, but this reading seems to add a lot of depth to the story. I would raise my rating of this film to reflect this new discovery, but a 10/10 is already a perfect score. Bravo!