Screenplay by John Ajvide Lindqvist, based on his novel with the same name.
Blaine: There used to be an award show on Spike called the "Scream Awards”. In 2009 one of the nominees was "Let the Right One In". I had never heard of it before and during the Summer of 2010 I decided to look it up and watched the whole movie on Youtube.
Plot
Oskar is a twelve year old boy who lives in an apartment with his mom in 1981. He doesn’t have any friends because he’s sort of a loner and gets bullied at school by other kids. One night while Oskar’s outside his apartment, he meets a pale girl named Eli, who has just recently moved into the apartment next to his. Oskar only sees Eli at night because that's when she comes out and he finds her a little odd, but he likes her anyway. As time goes on Oskar and Eli become close. A few murders have happened in the area and there are no suspects. Oskar is still having trouble with the kids who bully him at school and Eli tells him he has to fight back. He takes her advice and hits one of the kids with a stick and feels he has become a man.
Eli congratulates Oskar for what he has done. Oskar cuts his hand and wants them to have a blood bond. Eli acts weirder then usual when she licks the blood on the floor. Oskar then puts everything together and discovers Eli is a vampire. It is also revealed that Eli’s father is really her friend, who has been killing people for their blood so Eli can fead on it. But after he gets caught trying to kill a teenager, he pours acid on his face and is sent to a hospital. Eli shows up and he has her kill him. Eli attacks a woman and drains her of half her blood. The husband shows up and kicks Eli off. The next day while the woman is in bed she feels very strange. Every time the sun shines on her it burns. They go to a friend of their’s apartment and his cats go crazy and attack her. She is sent to the hospital. She tells her husband that the girl who attacked her must have infected her with something and that she doesn’t want to live anymore. Later the doctor comes in and opens the window and the light sets her on fire.
Oskar asks Eli how long she has been this way and her answer is for as long as she can remember and that she lives off of blood. Eli and her friend have had to steal in order to survive. Oskar feels it’s not right to be a thief, but then learns to accept it. Later Eli comes over to Oskar’s room, but she can only enter the room if Oskar says she can. Oskar has her enter the room without saying and Eli starts bleeding from the inside out. Oskar then worries and tells her she can come in. Eli washes up, then Oskar’s mom comes home and Eli gets to her room through the outside windows. Once his mom is asleep, Oskar heads over to Eli’s room and sleeps over there.
The man who lost his wife tracks Eli down and finds out where she is staying. Eli is asleep in the bathtub with blankets covering her to protect her from the light. As he is about to kill Eli, Oskar shouts out “No” and Eli attacks the man from behind while he is distracted. Oskar looks away while Eli is killing him. Eli then hugs Oskar thanking him and tells him that she will have to go away for a while. She then kisses Oskar and he heads back to his room with his mother worried sick. The next morning Oskar cries for he misses Eli. That night Oskar is at the after school fitness program at the local swimming pool. The bullies cause a small fire to draw the coach outside while they take care of Oskar. The bullies are lead by one of their older brothers and he holds Oskar under water for three minutes.
Suddenly Eli shows up and kills three of the bullies. The only one who is left alive is the most reluctant of the group who is left sobbing. Eli then pulls Oskar out of the water. Oskar smiles at Eli and she smiles back. The film concludes with Oskar on a train with Eli in a box beside him to protect her from the sun light. Through the box, she taps small kiss in Swedish.
Blaine: I love how “Let the Right One In" focuses on these two characters, Oskar and Eli and their relationship instead of being another vampire movie that shows the origins of the vampire. “Let the Right One In” is also more of a peaceful horror film because it shows less blood splater and more of a average everyday life. And it’s story is so original. It’s interesting to see what happens to a vampire when they enter without permission through Tomas Alfredson’s vision by bleeding from the inside out. In other vampire stuff the front door would have an invisible shield so that vampires couldn’t enter and when the person rescinds the vampires entry they would be forced out.
Director Tomas Alfredson said the ending to him is a happy ending, but if you want to this can be a very tragic ending because of the young boys get murdered. He said it’s up for you to decide because maybe Oscar will become the guy who will kill in order to supply blood to Eli in the future. That depends on you if it is a happy or unhappy ending. Well to me it is a happy ending, but because Eli can’t age like Oscar even though she’s a lot older than him (she has the body of a twelve year old for eternity) and Oskar can’t be in a romantic relationship when he’s an adult. But still I like to think of it as a happy ending because it’s one of those "enjoy it while it lasts" moments in my opinion.
My rating on “Let the Right One In” is five out of five stars.
Music
Music was done by Johan Soderqvist. The music he did for this movie can be so nice and it's one of the things that shows “Let the Right One In” is more of a peaceful horror film.
