A Little Romance: A Let the Right One In Review

When I was a kid—many, many, many years ago—a young Diane Lane burst onto the scene in a little movie called A Little Romance. It featured two thirteen year olds falling in love in Paris. Their affection was supposed to be cute and adorable. And of course it was. But when I rewatched the film as an adult, there was something a little creepy about watching two kids make goo-goo eyes at each other. The first flush of romance is such a private, intimate thing and I felt a bit like an intruder.

Let the Right One In, a subtitled Swedish import currently in limited release, takes that creepy feeling and amps it up to 11. This blossoming romance also brings blood into the mix. Oskar, a fragile twelve year old, feels out of place in the world. His parents are divorced, his father has moved away and he has no friends. Bullies at school make each day a waking nightmare. And worst of all, he lives in an apartment building that looks more like a prison complex. Basically, it sucks to be him.


Enter Eli, a new girl who just moved into the apartment next door. She’s cute, smells kinda funny and only comes out at night. Every boy’s dream. Eli doesn’t exactly fit in anywhere either. Of course, it’s kind of hard to make real connections when you eat people. Oh, did I mention that she’s a vampire? Eli might look 12, but she’s actually over a hundred years old.

Luckily, she has an adult protector who procures victims for her. Håkan’s a late middle-aged man who lives with Eli and poses as her father. Unluckily, he’s the worst serial killer ever and is constantly interrupted in his quest for blood. You can sense the weight of his responsibility bearing down on him and making him careless. His repeated failures have started to come between them.

So, Eli turns to someone else. In Oskar she finds another lost soul. They bond over a Rubik cube and Morse code. Although kind of sweet, their little-kid courtship is not without incident. Since Håkan’s not getting the job done, Eli has to go out on her own to find food. As the bodies start piling up, people start asking questions. If the clues lead back to Eli, she won’t be able to stay.

Meanwhile, Oskar has problems of his own. After taking Eli’s advice, he strikes back at the school bullies and sets into motion a plot for revenge. Things aren't looking good for him. Can't these two crazy kids find a way to be together?

Let the Right One In is an adaptation of a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist and the screenply was written by the author. Director Tomas Alfredson pitches the story just right. The film has a very naturalistic feel and the special effects seem of this world rather than out of it. The wintry cityscapes of Stockholm add to the sense of bleakness and dread. Also, the snowy setting brings to mind 30 Days of Night. However, this film far surpasses that one.

And the two kids are perfectly cast. As Eli, Lina Leandersson has a face that’s at once innocent and ancient. And Kåre Hedebrant, the angelic-looking boy who plays Oskar, has such pale skin, he seems almost translucent.

When you put all that together, you get a great vampire movie, one of the best I've seen in awhile. But Let the Right One In is also a lot more. It really taps into the uncertainty of youth. Standing on the threshold of adulthood, you realize that you’ll shed your innocence with the next step you take. And all your firsts—first kiss, first girlfriend/boyfriend—can leave you feeling both heady and queasy. Of course, for most folks, the first kiss usually doesn’t involve a set of bloodstained lips.


Best Line: “Will you be my girlfriend?”

Skull Score: