Let The Right One In Review (2008) Worth Watching?

It’s about a lonely kid who befriends a vampire who eventually helps him with some bullies.

Let The Right One In was directed by Tomas Alfredson and stars Lina Leandersson and Kare Hedebrant .

Eli is 12 years old. She's been 12 for over 200 years and she just moved in next door.

A young boy, who’s picked on at school, meets an antisocial young girl outside of his apartment one night as he’s acting out some fantasy revenge on his bullies. After awhile the two become friends and it becomes clear she’s a vampire, taken care of by a man who kills off locals for their blood. As their friendship grows the vampire girl decides to step in and help the hopelessly vulnerable Oskar with his bully problem.

This movie gets high ratings across the board so I went into it with high hopes. What I found was a movie that’s basically a slow burn look at a weird friendship between two awkward kids.

Seriously, most of the movie is watching them just stare at each other.

Well, maybe that’s not fair.

We also get to watch young Oskar stand around in his tighty whities for way longer than is comfortable, for no apparent reason other than to beat home the fact that he’s young and vulnerable.

But okay, I’m still not being totally fair, we also get to watch him draw pictures on his foggy bedroom window, like a lot. Slow finger drawings that are ultimately pointless, other than to maybe beat home the fact that Sweden is cold in the winter?

And then there’s the fact that the movie title implies there’s a “wrong one” that you shouldn’t let in, when in fact there’s only one “one”.

I think this movie was trying to win a Swedish Oscar (maybe that’s why the boy’s name was Oskar?) and everyone who rates it so highly love stories dripping in drama . Because that’s all you really get.

There’s all the vampire attacks you’d expect to see in a vampire movie… oh, wait, no I’m thinking of a different movie.

There are actually some attacks, but it’s done by a regular guy who is comically amateur.

There’s some suspense but it’s unrewarding.

Of course there’s the ending, about an hour and 50 minutes in, when the vampire finally gets around to helping this poor kid with his bullies. But (Spoiler Alert!), after investing so much time and patience into this story, you don’t even get to see the action, it’s all “artistically implied”.

Ladies & Gentlemen, the Oscar goes to…. Drumroll… Kåre Hedebrant and Lina Leandersson for the longest needlessly awkward stares in Låt den rätte komma in!