Let the Right One In

This is a very famous Swedish film, released in 2008 and based off of a 2004 novel with the same name: Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in).

Let the Right One In is a romantic horror film, a very interesting mix of genres. Before I really start the review let me just say one thing: Twilight has nothing on this story.
Directed by Tomas Alfredson in 2008, this immeditialy was celebrated by critics and average veiwers. It was remade into an American version in 2010, though the name changed to simply Let Me In. It was directed by Matt Reeves and starred Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloe Grace Moretz, who is probably my favorite up and coming actresses. She has starred in films such as Kick Ass, and Hugo. She is very young, she was born in 1997 making her 15 years old.

For this section of my review, I`m only to give away the very basic plot.
A 12 year old boy named Oskar is living in a suburb of Stockholme, and he is being badly bullied at school. A girl who claims to be his age, named Eli, moves in next door to him with an older man. We soon find out that she is a vampire and the older man is getting blood for her, but Oskar is not aware of this. Eli and Oskar meet and see each other often, but only at night. They start becoming friendly and eventually they fall in love, but it is a very strange love.

This film has a very interesting premise, its a romantic horror film involving a love story between a bullied boy and vampire. Now this films` two main characters were children, and cery rarely do you see children who can act well. These kids can act. They were 11-12 during filming this film and they were very good, the girl especially. She was played by Lina Leandersson and Oskar was played by Kare Hedebrant, who has done one film since this.
Oskar`s character was quite awkward at times, he was badly bullied and eventually he fought back after Eli gave him some advice to hit back harder. The vampires in Twilight sparkle, Eli jumps on them and rips into their throats and drinks their blood, Eli is a true vampire. We also see what happens when a vampire comes into a place of dwelling without being asked, and its quite gruesome. Once you get past the horror, and there is some and its done quite well, the romantic side of this story is very good. Its unconventional to say the least, and at times quite racy becasue it is dealing with children and at times it portrays some very racy scenes, but the fact that they are children is what makes it racy. You see Eli go from being quite secluded when it comes to Oskar to her actually liking him very much and open about it. You also see Oskar open up a bit with Eli, at the start he was very quiet and secluded but he becomes more friendly and loving towards her. In a very fun and violent climax Eli saves Oskar from some bullies and they catch a train together.
I would recommend watching this without the English dub over it because it is not quite accurate and it is distracting, watch the Swedish version with English subtitles.

This film was actually quite beautiful. To the average veiwer it might seem a bit slow, but if you stick with it, it won`t dissapoint. A very good film. Maybe I should learn Swedish.

Låt den rätte komma in