Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) is a deeply unhappy twelve year-old boy, devoid of friends and constantly bullied at school. His isolation is only lifted when Eli (Lina Leandersson) moves in next door, a strange girl who smells bad and doesn’t feel the cold...
In spite of her warnings, Oskar and Eli slowly become friends, and while a sudden spate of killings begins to plague the area, Oskar is finding new life with his mysterious neighbour.
Translation from Lindqvist’s Prose to Film
Let the Right One In offers a new perspective, understated and beautifully realized by Tomas Alfredson, for those jaded by the modern vampire flick. By all accounts the film compares favourably with Lindqvist’s novel, despite the inherent need to cut out what everyone’s thinking, to avoid scenes apparently too strong for film (such as Eli, in fact a boy, being castrated at the hands of a medieval vampire hunter), and to streamline the remaining content into a couple of hours. Alfredson and Lindqvist prove that directors and writers can get along, making the compromises necessary for the translation of prose into film.
What’s left is a touching story focused on unlikely friendship and innocent romance (where the centuries-old Eli is nevertheless twelve years-old mentally) contrasted by the lifetime and habits of a vampire. This aspect is shown not only through Eli’s recursive states of hunger, but also through the character of Håkan – essentially Eli’s partner in crime in the film, but a subservient paedophile in Lindqvist’s original (this is left open to interpretation in the film, which does nothing to contradict the idea, and the same approach is taken with Eli’s castration, only confused by the fact that the role is played by a girl).
It’s as much through Håkan as Eli that the film captures the labour and endless drudgery of keeping a vampire fed, while other vampiric aspects of the film are more traditionally conceived than Del Toro’s Cronos, but Alfredson refuses to over-emphasize displays of the supernatural, which are stylish and effective.
Let the Right One In Cast with Kåre Hedebrant and Lina Leandersson
As with most features with children as central characters, a lot hinges on the choice of child actor. A strong suppporting cast of adults is helpful, but if the kids don’t work then abandon all hope. Fortunately, an extensive casting process turned up Kåre Hedebrant and Lina Leandersson, who do wonders for the film. Hedebrant’s Oskar is painfully honest and Leandersson’s Eli inexplicably tragic. When the kids work, they can make a classic.
They are nevertheless helped by an utterly believable adult cast. Per Ragnar as Håkan is pitifully laboured and Peter Carlberg is eerily convincing as the tormented Lacke, the anti-Oskar of the piece, who loses more to Eli’s arrival than anyone. Henrik Dahl and Karin Bergquist make for perfectly mundane and subversive parents, while only Ika Nord is put in something like a role from Hammer horror, without being too over-the-top. Even so, her character of Virginia has the distinction of being in the only scene of the film that should have been left on the editing room floor, where a CG’d cat-attack simply doesn’t track with the tone of the film.
Let the Right One In Summary
If there’s one criticism to level at director Alfredson, in tandem with the CG cats, it’s that he wanted to cut the scene of Eli’s uninvited entrance onto a property. Not the cats. Thankfully, the scene was saved at Lindqvist’s insistence and becomes a touching signature moment of the film. Purists of vampire lore might argue against exploring this sancrosanct ground, except that the powerful haemorragic reaction is as good as anyone’s guess as to what should happen to uninvited vamps.
Carping aside, Let the Right One In is an exceptional film in every department that matters, featuring all-round great work in the music of Johan Söderqvist and cinematography of Hoyte van Hoytema. It’s not a film for the more traditional horror fan, who shouldn’t wait around for jumps or tons of gore or monstrous chases, but it’s a film that can be appreciated by anyone, horror fan or not.
Of course, studio producers plan to cater for the english-speaking dullards whose nemesis is the dreaded subtitle by re-making the film (no doubt losing every subtlety that makes this a great film along the way). Suite 101 rightly sees no need for expletive language, but this paragraph would merit more than its fair share for this, nothing short of spit-worthy, practise.
Do as the title says and let the right one in.
- Producers: Carl Molinder, John Nordling
- Director: Tomas Alfredson
- Screenplay: John Ajvide Lindqvist
- Starring: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar, Peter Carlberg,
- Released: March 2009 (Dvd: Sweden) by Efti and Sandrew Metronome Distribution
- Running Time: 110 mins approx
Michael Pantazi - Michael Pantazi is just another aspiring writer with delusions of artistic ability. He is almost entirely self-educated and living in ...
