Let The Right One In

4.5/5

I have been wanting to see this for quite some time, I finally got my shit together and sat down and watched it. I was highly disappointed with Twilight, and a friend of mine had told me that this would wipe away Twilight from memory, and you know what, IT DID! Twi-what???

It is no secret I am a fan of vampires, I have seen my share of vampire flicks (Near Dark possibly being my favourite). There is a strange appeal about vampires, the creatures of the night who must feed on blood to survive. They are immortal, they do not age, and depending on which mythology you follow there are several ways to kill a vampire. One of the things I love about Near Dark is they stripped away a lot of the classic vampire myths leaving two main myths of drink blood to survive and avoid the sun, simple and affective. Let The Right One In also did that, and it worked extremely well.

The plot is a simple one, and I think to some extent we can relate to our main character. Oskar is a twelve year old boy who is the victim of bullying. One day he meets a young girl named Eli, over time they form a close bond. Strange events start happening in the small town where they live and we soon find out why, Eli is a vampire. Through their friendship Oskar finds his courage to try and stand up to the bullying, and Eli finds someone she can trust. Yes this film centers around two young characters (Eli looks young but her true age is never revealed) but this is not a film for young teens, this is a far more adult film.

The two main actors, Kare Hedebrant as Oskar and Lina Leandersson as Eli are both amazing to watch. I believe this was both their first film, and you wouldn't know it. They both give strong and mature performances, I believed the story they were telling. They had wonderful chemistry together, you really believed this strong bond they formed. The adult characters are not really fleshed out, but this isn't really their story. There was one scene which involved cats which I thought was too comedic for this film and I would have liked to have seen that left on the cutting room floor. For the most part the adults do fine, but they simply cannot match the two leads. The bully characters were well done, as a victim of bullying at that age, I can tell you first hand, they don't know when to quit. The main bully certainly proved that, with his lackeys actually shedding tears over their actions. Whether they did that because they actually felt remorse or didn't want to get in trouble isn't clear but it is a reaction you do not often seen on film.

The look of the film is a sad one, the snowy back drop, the simple colours and the small town. It is toned down, and it works perfectly like that. There is a bit of blood, and the scenes are certainly interesting. There are things which are left up to your imagination, like who exactly was the man with Eli? But you can easily draw your own conclusions, and make them work. There is an interesting scene in the film which has to do with the vampire myth of being invited in, hence the title. I really loved that scene and how it played out. I do not want to give anymore away so if you have not seen this, do yourself a favour and DO IT NOW!