Movie Review: Let the Right One In (on DVD)

Let the Right One In
[DVD Let]

After multiple recommendations from friends who’d seen and loved Let the Right One In, I finally took a chance and watched a library DVD copy of this 2008 horror/romance film. I use that description, because that’s what several online reviews describe it as.

Lonely, 12-year-old Oskar lives in a housing complex in Sweden. He is routinely bullied by other kids at school, and has violent fantasies of enacting his vengeance on them. A new family moves into his complex, an older man and his 12-year-old daughter. Though the girl doesn’t go to school, she meets Oskar in the courtyard of their complex and the two young ones become friends. The girl, Eli, advises Oskar on how to deal with the bullying. Meanwhile, a series of attacks and murders begins in their community, in which bodies are strung up and drained of blood.

This IS a vampire story, and fairly early on into the film, it’s revealed that Eli is the vampire, so that’s not a huge spoiler. But the rest of the plot, as Oskar and Eli become ever more inextricably entwined, and the people around them are put in greater danger, is what drives this drama. Director Thomas Alfredson wisely doesn’t kowtow to traditional “vampire movie” tropes, and this film is refreshing because of that.

My only complaints were that the pacing was very slow, and the English dubbing of the Swedish dialog was very…disjointed. But the performances of the two young “unknowns” as Oskar and Eli was compelling, and the set design and cinematography really gave this film a strong sense of place. This one won’t be for everyone, but I actually enjoyed it quite a lot.

[Also available in traditional print format.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library – Public Service

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