Låt den rätte komma in (Let The Right One In)

// April 9th, 2009 // Film Reviews

Beautifully shot, brilliantly acted and impressively directed, this gem of a picture is a thoroughly engaging “horror” story that brings a genuinely original twist to the vampire genre. Set in the early eighties, when Brezhnev’s Soviet Union still cast ominous shadows, it cleverly uses imaginary monsters to highlight real ones. Screenwriter John Lindqvist adapts his 2004 novel of the same name in which a strange, introverted 12-year-old boy named Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) lives with his single mother in a bleak apartment block on the outskirts of Stockholm. Fascinated by newspaper accounts of violent crimes and relentlessly bullied at school, Oskar does not have many friends, indulging instead in violent Travis Bickle-esque (“are you looking at me?”) revenge fantasies. Things change dramatically for Oskar when a 12-year-old girl called Eli (Lina Leandersson) moves in next door with what initially appears to be her father. Eli is scruffy, strange and sometimes smells bad. Oh yes, and she goes out only at night.

Eli appears to be locked into a bizarre relationship with an old man named Hakan (Per Ragnar). He is assumed to be Eli’s father by the neighbours but actually he serves as a supplier of blood, in an increasingly inept fashion, killing random strangers at night and siphoning their blood into plastic containers. In the novel, I am led to believe Eli’s adult helper is actually a paedophile who has lost his job as a teacher and has been taken in by the vampire. In the film version he has become a submissive vampire “familiar”. The book spells out in far greater detail how perverse their relationship can be. The film only suggests at his perversity in the overpossessive way he reacts to her friendship with Oskar and in the regal disdain she occasionally exhibits in return.

The film is mainly accurate in the depiction of traditional vampire lore. Eli is unnaturally strong, moving with speed and stealth, she climbs like a spider, she deteriorates into decrepitude if she doesn’t feed, sunlight burns her, and she must be invited into a house before entering. What happens if a vampire enters your house uninvited is shown here in truly memorable fashion in one of several breathtaking scenes. The bravura closing scene at the school swimming pool is brutally unique.

Tomas Alfredson directs in a restrained, atmospheric, at times almost documentary style that plays down the supernatural aspects and the gore. This more subtle approach lends the film’s more visceral moments added punch. The audacious sound design also adds much to the film’s success, with the vividly impressionistic noises made by the vampire while feeding or while physically growling with hunger particularly effective. Unlike most modern “horror” films, which tend to rely on gore and bloody violence to disturb the viewer, it is the quieter moments in this film that make the experience at the same time both sweet and unsettling. In some ways Let The Right One In is more concerned with the everyday horrors of childhood than the more visceral horrors of the blood-thirsty undead.

At one point in the film there is a brief shot of Eli’s genitals as Oskar accidentally sees her dressing. He gives an audible gasp as he sees that she appears to have been mutilated. A large scar is evident where the missing genitals should be. The scene is very brief and it is never discussed afterwards but it presents the possibility that Eli was originally a boy. Earlier in the film she stated to Oskar that she “wasn’t a girl” and you assume at the time she is hinting at her vampirism. The novel does give more in the way of backstory for Eli and her familiar, Hakan, but the film version leaves things in a far more ambiguous position.  Lina Leandersson’s voice has been dubbed with a less feminine sounding voice throughout the film to increase the androgynous quality of her character.

While Hedebrant is very good as the vulnerable Oskar who, while meek and introverted, displays a disturbing potential for future violence, Leandersson is particularly impressive as Eli, the conflicted young vampire who wants nothing more than to be an ordinary girl (boy?) again. By turns sweet, shocking and ultimately genuinely moving, Let the Right One In is a stunning and original film that you will be glad you sought out.