A twelve year old boy lives in an apartment complex with his Mom. He has no friends and gets beat up a lot because he is slight and studious. He dreams of getting revenge on his tormentors, but can’t find the nerve to stand up to them. A twelve year old girl moves in next door. She too is an outcast with no friends. She lives with her father. The boy and girl find each other, at night in the playground behind the apartments. They become friends – the only friend they each have in the world. But as young Eli says to Oskar, “I am not a girl.” Too true. Eli is a vampire and she has been twelve a long time. Let The Right One In – a Swedish film – is easily one of the best horror movies of the decade, but manages to transcend the genre entirely. The friendship between Eli and Oskar is the heart of the picture. You watch them go from basically punching each other in the shoulder to a full blown, unconditional affection. This could be one of those Disney coming-of-age flicks except for the dark, snowy Swedish days and nights… and the blood. Though the film is in Swedish, neither watching with subtitles nor dubbed takes away from the movie. The words are few. Most of the emotion comes through the acting and the cinematography. The two young leads are astounding – just simple and honest, every emotion coming through their face. The direction is very atmospheric. And don’t get me wrong – this is a horror flick. When Eli needs to feed, nothing gets in her way. But instead of a bunch of scenes to shock or make you jump, the gore is just an integral part of the story. AND it’s probably the most faithful movie regarding vampire lore I have seen in some time. Let The Right One In succeeds on so many levels I can only pray that no one tries to do an Americanized version of it. Hollywood is too ham-fisted to find the balance this film reaches so effortlessly. Very well done.

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