Let the Right One In

Let the Right One In (2008): The land of Ingmar Bergman has once again exported a well done genre movie about creatures of the night (see ‘Frostbitten’ review). This superior effort is seen from the viewpoint of a twelve year old boy and his problems with school bullies and his new neighbor that just moved into the apartment next store. He meets a twelve year old girl in the square of his apartment house and the two ‘rejects’ from society form an immediate bond. As the movie progresses, both children have to deal with their personal problems without much help from the adults at home and school. In fact, the adults in the film seem to inhabit a world separate from the kids, interfacing with the kids only on occasion. As their relationship grows, we see that the little girl isn’t only odd but dangerous. As people start to die in the neighborhood, the boy’s problems with bullies continue to get worse. The story is neatly wrapped up by the end and is well done and quite a change from normal fare. I would hazard a guess that this movie might find favor with normal people as well as those of us with eccentric tastes. (You know who you are.) The movie was rated R for: brief nudity, lots of white snow, some yellow snow, really lots of red snow, neck biting, hanging upside down, acid to the face, deadly swimming pool activities, and for incendiary vampires in the sun.