If there’s one film I could use as an example that the horror genre is as strong as ever, I would go with Let the Right One In. The film’s balance of misunderstood adolesence with the great fears that lie in the dark make for a stunning work. Director Tomas Alfredson (Four Shades of Brown and Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy) puts a masterful touch of beauty and horror into every image. Let the Right One In is not just one best horror movies of the last ten years, but of the last twenty years.
Adapted by John Ajvide Lindqvist from his own book, Let the Right One In is about Oskar (Kare Hedebrant), an overlooked and bullied12-year-old boy living in a suburb of Stockholm in 1981. One night, Oskar meets Eli (Lina Leandersson), a beautiful but peculiar girl who has just moved into Oskar’s apartment complex. They quickly develop a friendship that evolves into something special, but there’s one hitch… Eli’s a vampire.
If only every “Twihard” could see this and realize this is the way a real vampire love-story should be told. There has to be the perfect balance of love, terror, and sadness, and Let the Right One In is that and more. Even the U.S. remake, Let Me In is a superb film. It just goes to show the strength of John Ajdvide Lindqvist as a storyteller with two different, yet stunning interpretations of his work. Just go and sink your teeth into it, I can’t recommend it enough.