A modest masterpiece, Tomas Alfredson’s trimming of author John Ajvide Lindqvist’s layered, modern vampire fable explores the myth from a fascinating, contra-traditional angle.
Let the Right One In focuses on the powerful friendship which develops between two 12-year-olds – one a bullied, troubled school kid, the other a girl vampire who’s been 12 since forever.
Set in a small Swedish town near Stockholm, the film’s frames are steeped in crisply white snow, the entire narrative unfolding in a kind of dreamy haze. Let the Right One In is crisp yet blurred, grimly contemporary yet retaining a fairytale quality.
Jan is a gentle, almost feeble adolescent who channels his frustration at being the sole target of a trio of bullies through violent fantasies of revenge, collecting newspaper clippings of violent crimes and criminals, which he keeps in a secret book. Into the sleepy, winter-trapped town of his life enters Eli, a young girl simultaneously cautious of people yet aware of her own incongruous power.
Their opposite natures coalesce around their mutual self-designed solitude, and a tentative bond deepens into something beautiful and freeing.
The film’s tone is cynically human: Pedophilia, violent abuse, depression – dark aspects of many children’s lives – are acknowledged, with the character of Eli bringing ironic redemption. Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In features great acting, endearing characters, and a contrapuntally hopeful score, all of which conspire to make this one of the most touching films of recent years.
[First published in Muse magazine.]
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