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Bookmark this pageLet the Right One In (2008)
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Movie review
From Time Out London
‘Let the Right One In’ borrows its title from a Morrissey song, but don’t let that put you off. It’s an angular and lusty tween horror movie based on John Ajvide Lindqvist’s bestseller in which lonesome, whey-faced 12-year-old Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) becomes smitten by a young, female vampire named Eli (Lina Leandersson). After initiating an adorable romance in the snow-coated forecourt of their glum housing complex, they soon realise that both of them are baying for blood. He’s privately fantasising about stabbing up his schoolyard tormentors with a pocket knife and she needs to sate an appetite for the red stuff that keeps her from dropping dead… again.It might sound a little like recent coffee-table vamp style exercise ‘Twilight’, but this is a more sinister and ambiguous work. It runs on similar rails to something like Abel Ferrara’s ‘The Addiction’ in that it retools the themes and metaphors that stem from the vampire myth – craving, hostility, impulsiveness, eroticism – and neatly dovetails them with a cool, sort-of-realist examination of the horrors of adolescence and poverty that triumphantly ditches cliché and overstatement.
Tomas Alfredson’s light, subtle direction, combined with DoP Hoyte Van Hoytema’s crepuscular visuals, makes the courtship elements all the more tender and the staccato scenes of extreme violence all the more disturbing. The bashful, impassive hue of the central performances also gives the film an anything-could-happen edge: feelings of anger and desire don’t provoke hysterical outbursts but remain bewildering within the minds of the juvenile cast.
Where the film falters is in its (arguably) reactionary final scenes. There’s an eye-wateringly vicious romantic gesture that celebrates Oskar’s new-found fondness for violent revenge without ever allowing him to step back and survey the absurd amount of damage that he and the young bullies have wreaked. And for a film that takes time to embrace small, tender details, especially in relation to Oskar’s sexual awakening, it does precious little to flesh out the bleak context of his relationship with Eli, when eccentric side characters (including a cat lover who is brutally mauled by his own cluster) are thrown in as madcap story padding. But these are mere quibbles as this bruised and brilliant fairy tale is one of the year’s true originals.
Author: David Jenkins
Time Out London Issue 2016, 9-15 April, 2009
User reviews of this film
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- Maria in London said...
- Posted on Oct 31 2009 12:37 Did the TO reviewer actually watch this film? Eli feeds on a woman but fails to kill her - thus 'infecting' her victim with vampirism. It was HER not the cats' owner who was brutally mauled by the cats.
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- Thomas Noctor said...
- Posted on Sep 05 2009 13:24 Snore zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz boring film
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- Thomas Noctor said...
- Posted on Sep 05 2009 13:23 As a film maker myserlf I first off will say killing scenes are very well done. This is a shockingly boring film more like a teletubbie Romeo and Juliet than a horror. The girl doing the Rubix cube is the best part of this bore, not as bad as Drag Me To Hell though but not far off worst film of the year.
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- Technoguy said...
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Posted on Sep 05 2009 13:19
This was a superb blend of creepy horror and sensitively nuanced film about the pains of adolescence and young love.Cold,suburban 1980s suburbs of Stockholm,the banal setting of estates where people lead quiet,ordinary lives. Oscar is bullied
at school by a gang through being studious and introverted. He hangs around his estate’s courtyard at night to find that a young girl,Eli, a vampire(he doesn’t yet know) is drawn to him. There have been murders going on where bodies have been drained of blood. Eli lives next door to Oscar with an older man she calls
dad. The beautiful coldness of the landscape and the extremely moving relationship of the two adolescents(though Eli’has been 12 for a long time’) brings a tenderness out of the gory subject matter.There are decapitations and blood-letting and Eli is surprisingly nimble when she springs onto each victim, yet Eli and Oscar make a genuine bond of friendship and love,both needing and complementing each other.
Atmospheric and poetic and yet real with some amazing cinematography and great scenes, breaking mind-forged clichés of an old genre,placing it alongside The Orphanage and The Devil’s Backbone,films with a new imaginative awareness.
The swimming pool scene is mind-blowing. The last scene on the train with Oscar tapping the lid containing Eli suggests them going to new pastures. Is Oscar a future Colombine killer in the making? - Report as inappropriate
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- Thomas Noctor said...
- Posted on Sep 03 2009 12:57 Ok first off I'm a huge horror fan and am open to alot of types of horror. If your expecting an exciting nerve wrecking film then skip this. I have to say the killing scenes are top notch, and as a film maker myself I have to say well done for that. Its more Romeo and Juliet than a horror and its incredibly boring. I dont know the camera crew stayed awake. Poor flick, not as bad as Drag me to hell though!!!
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- Humbert Humbert said...
- Posted on May 26 2009 14:19 Beautifully made film, minimalistic almost poetic imagery a la Svenska and an essay on the concept of the scapegoat and the pain of growing up. Evil never looked so attractive, so childlike, so vulnerable before. It is true that experience comes through innocence in an almost Blakean way but in this case nothing is lost and a pure love, a real connection is to be found. Outcasts, outsiders both in their own extreme ways Oscar and Eli discover they have each other and their bond is an uncommon one: forged in blood and death (symbolised by the snow and the long silent nights). One of the best films of this year!
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- Sutton said...
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Posted on May 13 2009 14:05
An excellent film. A slightly different take on the vampire them. Superbly acted and tenderly shot (apart from one unnecessary gratutous shot - why?) I would have given it the extra star but for the slightly dodgy affects work during the attack scenes (the cats and under the bridge). The ending was not too bad. It would have been good to understand how Eli got infected to start with.
On an aside, why do people bother posting they are going to see the film?! Get a life. - Report as inappropriate
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- Madeleine said...
- Posted on May 08 2009 16:48 Yes interesting idea but if your in it for the thrills don't be fooled. This is not scary at all. It's about a vampire FRIENDSHIP for goodness sake! No jumps at all, well maybe just a little one
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- Tom Lamb said...
- Posted on May 07 2009 00:32 I watch on average two or so films a week and this is by far one of the very greatest of films i've ever seen....i would definately go so far as to say it's a masterpiece of the horror genre.
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- Cappybear said...
- Posted on May 06 2009 07:51 I didn't like the film at all, and wouldn't want to see it again, although it's undeniably different from your average vampire movie. My wife thought it a masterpiece.
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- topreviews said...
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Posted on May 01 2009 17:32
Left a real sense of haunting for a few days after watching this superordinary movie:
The Scotsman & InTheNews.co.uk review this film magnificently - but watch it before reading I strongly advise. - Report as inappropriate
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- oldbrit said...
- Posted on Apr 26 2009 13:44 Best film I've seen in years. Go!
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- ron mael said...
- Posted on Apr 24 2009 15:20 Meh, it's not as good as The Hunger.
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- frank said...
- Posted on Apr 24 2009 15:20 I honestly don't see what the fuss is about... a decent little horror flick, nothing more.
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- jj said...
- Posted on Apr 24 2009 14:51 BRILLIANT WORK
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Cast & crew
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Cast: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar, Henrik Dahl full cast
Rated: 15
Duration: 114 mins
UK Release: Apr 10 2009
US Release: Oct 24 2008
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