There’s something tragic about vampires. Even evil vampires are a little bit sad. But the most heartbreaking figures in vampire stories may be the humans who help them.
Eli’s grizzled caretaker Håkan slips up while procuring fresh blood for the vampire and is faced with only awful choices. He remains loyal to Eli and suffers horribly as a result.
12-year-old Oskar has a more complicated relationship with Eli. Oskar thinks Eli is a girl about his age, which is a fair assumption to make when you’re a human boy. Despite being awkward and strange, Oskar wins Eli’s friendship even though it’s not easy to get close to a vampire.
Some of Oskar’s classmates are bullying him, and Eli feels sorry for Oskar. He sees her as a potential sweetheart, and a tentative romance begins. Then, Oskar learns Eli’s secret, and he’s suddenly faced with the hard choices that all humans have to make when they take up with a predator.
Let the Right One In is a perfectly blended vampire movie with characters you care about, an unsettling atmosphere, terrible secrets, and primitive bursts of bloodletting and violence.
Dark Swedish nights have never been more compelling and frightening.
Watch it on Kanopy.