The Plot
Oskar (Kare Hedebrant) is a 12-year-old boy living in the Stockholm suburbs who seems to be a prime candidate for therapy. His parents are divorced, he's tormented at school by a gang of bullies and he spends his free time in his room clipping news articles about murder and acting out fantasies of stabbing his tormenters.
One day, a 12-year-old girl named Eli (Lina Leandersson) movies into the apartment next door with a man, Hakan (Per Ragnar), who appears to be her father. She's an odd bird -- emerging only at night and seemingly oblivious to the cold -- but Oskar is intrigued. Eli is apprehensive to befriend him, but they soon bond over their childlike fascination with Rubik's Cubes (the story being set in 1982) and Morse code, the latter of which they use to communicate through their shared bedroom wall.
Their relationship grows into a symbiotic one. Eli helps Oskar with his bully problems, advising him to "hit back" (which he does), while Oskar provides Eli with a sense of humanity. He teaches her about customs like "going steady" and helps her blend in by dressing appropriately and learning to cover up her body odor. She's anxious about fitting in, going so far as to eat hard candy that Oskar gives her, even though it makes her sick.
It's during one of Oskar's customs -- making a blood oath -- that Eli's secret comes out: she's a vampire, and the deaths around town have come at the hands of her and her human companion. Initially taken aback, Oskar comes to accept Eli's "condition," and the two grow even closer. One night, Eli even sleeps naked in his bed, although it's all endearingly innocent.
Their friendship is threatened, however, when Eli is seen killing a man. One of the victim's friends decides to seek out the little girl responsible (They don't go to the police, for fear of sounding crazy.). Things go from bad to worse when Eli bites the wife of the man hunting her, turning the woman into a reluctant vampire and infuriating the hunter even further. Oskar meanwhile has his own battles to fight when the bullies he "hit back" return with a vengeance.
The End Product
Let the Right One In is sort of like the arthouse Twilight. Although there's a sweetness to the central adolescent relationship, vampirism is shown in a decidedly unromantic light. Eli is gaunt with an insatiable hunger, the kills are labor-intensive and frequently go awry and Eli and Hakan live a poor, nomadic lifestyle in a bleak apartment. The horror and gore elements are certainly present -- enough to warrant an R rating -- but they're presented in a matter-of-fact, at times semi-comedic manner, downplaying any typical horror movie sensationalism.
Oskar and Eli's bond is one of the more intriguing cinematic love stories in recent memory, one that touches upon the growing pains of adolescence, the morality of violence, the strength instilled by companionship and the desire for humanity. Although they deal with deadly serious problems, they still see the world with a childlike innocence -- Oskar from having lived only a short time and Eli from having had little interaction with people. There's actually an added dimension to their relationship, one that's discussed in detail in John Ajvide's book but is sadly only hinted at in the movie.
Tomas Alfredson, a veteran TV director from Sweden, helms the film with grace, taking advantage of the gray winter setting to portray the stark early '80s surroundings of a working class neighborhood stuck in a dreary routine that's shattered by the outbreak of violence. Let the Right One In is Alfredson's first foray into horror, and as such, the film's tone is more muted and dramatic than horrific -- and rightly so.
It's not a perfect movie, though. The plot in the final third meanders, and Oskar frustratingly seems to forget the lessons that Eli taught him when it comes time for the climactic battle with the bullies. There's also not enough acknowledgement of the moral dilemma of killing innocent people, and the movie has that oft-annoying "arthouse ambiguity" that leaves you to decide what just happened and how things will end. Still, while it doesn't reach its full potential, Let the Right One In remains an impressive, strikingly original expansion of the vampire mythos.
