Review of Let the Right One In (2008) by Deb S — 20 Nov 2011

In this Swedish movie, the 12 year old scrawny Oskar who is singled-out like Piggy in William Golding's The Lord of the Flies is a bullied loner, dreaming of revenge. Oskar is pleased to make friends with new neighbour Eli as it takes his mind off being bullied. She can't stand the sun or food and needs to be invited in before she enters a room. Her pathetic existence is seen most clearly when she attempts to enter Oskar's home without being invited in, in violation of vampire lore; the result is an instant and horrific hemorrhage, only stopped by Oskar's intervention. Eli gives Oskar the strength to hit back but when he realizes that she needs to drink other people's blood to live he's faced with a choice. How much can love forgive? Eli really shines in this role as both a victim and menace, and there is the enigmatic plea when she says "Try to be me for a while.".

'You would like to kill if you could, but I kill because I have to.' This is the response Oskar gets from Eli when he fantasizes about stabbing the boys who are bullying him at school. She kills out of necessity whereas Oskar feels the desire to kill out of anger even if he can't act on it.

The chilly Scandinavian setting and eerie music are very important to the film as a whole. The music is intriguing to listen to and fits well with the complex genre of the film giving it a really mysterious and tense atmosphere. I am not a huge horror genre fan but I could not resist watching this one because of the rave reviews by many of the esteemed horror fans of this community.