A quick overview
Let the right one in was a movie that took the classic gothic tail of Dracula and gave it a twist. With eerie intensity and plenty of blood the movie had a unique mix of outrageousness and class. Ranging from a classic gothic romance to flaming hospital room chaos.
What differs this movie most from its other vampire themed cousins is the reversal of gender rolls.
The Characters
The main character a boy named Oskar who is a bit of a recluse and a wimp. His emotional journey throughout the film was one of gaining self-confidence and losing self worth (if that makes sense).
He becomes a stronger person and confronts his fears (a particularly creepy bully) but loses himself to a young female vampire named Eli.
Eli is the film's other main character she is stuck forever as a twelve year old girl and being a vampire needs to satisfy her blood lust or she becomes sickly and ill.
She doesn’t seem to enjoy killing people so she uses men and lures them into a web of love in which they become here in a word her slave.
At the beginning of the movie Eli is with an old man who probably has been with here since he was young and his job was to kill people and get blood for her. His age and other events led to him being discovered as the person who was murdering people and taking their blood to Eli.
He ends up sacrificing himself to Eli, which leaves her without a person to retrieve blood for her.
Over the course of the rest of the movie she befriends and falls in love with Oskar who in return dose the same.
My opinion
My personal opinion of the movie is very mixed, the film had all the ingredients to make a good movie; Something seemed off, certain aspects of the film seemed to out of place for the dark mood of the film for example the entire side story of the woman who survived Eli’s attack was way played up. From the cat attack to the finally in the hospital where she burst into an explosion of flames seemed over worked and unnecessary.
Another thing that bugged me was that the film at times was very predictable and certain characters such as the Generic bully he needed more background also the bully’s older brother (Super Generic Greaser) seemed forced and unnecessary his attack on Oskar in the public pool was ridiculous and completely unrealistic.
What bugged me the most had to be the peeping scene.
I understand that foreign films tend to be a bit more lax on the sexual stuff but it seemed to me that the film didn’t give the viewer any warning that a 12 year olds genitals where going to be flashed on the screen.
All this aside the movie did have good acting and a few plot twists that kept me watching.
Overall This film follows the classic vampire model almost to its purest, and is a unique modern approach to the classic tail of Dracula.
