Let The Right One In - Lisa's Review

Lets start this review off by saying, if you have yet to watch this movie, remedy that!  Watch it.  It's awesome.  I watched this movie with absolutely NO idea what it was about, purely after hearing wow after wow from horror fans.  It really is the best way to see it, so if you haven't, I urge you not to read any more of this review.

So, you're still here?  Ok then, you want to know a little more.  'Let The Right One In' is a Swedish language movie by Tomas Alfredson.  It is based on the novel of the same name by John Ajvide Lindqvist.  There are of course subtitles available.  I know this puts a lot of people off, but it really shouldn't.  There are some fantastic foreign language movies out there that bring something completely unique to the table.  'Let The Right One In' is most definately in that bracket.

I'll start by saying this movie is a story of friendship, triumph over adversity and love.  Adding that it is a vampire movie may make this difficult to imagine.  So to a premise.

The movie follows 2 individuals - shy, reclusive 12 year old Oskar and a very odd, pale young girl called Eli, also 12, who has just moved in beside him and his mum.  Oskar is different.   Because of this he is very badly bullied at school.  I concluded his general peculiarity and anger are what cause his fascination with murders, blood and knives.   

Oskar badly wants a friend, but it comes in the unexpected form of young, frail Eli.  Even though Eli tells Oskar at first that they can never be friends, their mutual strangeness soon makes them inseperable.  As delicate as Eli appears, she makes it clear very quickly she is very strong mentally and as we come to discover, physically.  She encourages Oskar to stand up to his bullies, so he joins a weight training class.  They confide in one another and learn morse code so they can talk to one another through their wall at night.

Eli lives with an elderly man, Håkan, who asks Eli to stop seeing Oskar.  We become aware there is much more than it seems going on with Eli.  It's almost as if Håkan is working for Eli and will go to strange lengths for her.  It is more than a coincidence that the number of disappearances and murders in the area have spiked dramatically since Eli and Håkan moved there.   Oskar just seems to be one of the few people who are accepting of Eli and what she really is.

I don't want to say any more than this as I've said too much already.  The performances in this movie are spot on, the cinematography is eerily beautiful, the story is captivating, moving, shocking and wonderful.  There is the most awesome falling scene in a movie I think I've ever seen.  The ending is just perfect for this movie.  It makes the character of Håkan all the more poignant and makes it clear you have actually just watched 2 stories, not 1.

It's no surprise that I give this movie a resounding 'Recommended'.  Go watch it!!