LET THE RIGHT ONE IN

(Sweden, 2008, d. Tomas Alfredson)

An enigmatic title which does not indicate the theme or tone of this quietly mysterious and even sinister film.

Set in a wintry housing estate in Sweden, it begins with snow falling and a young boy looking from a window. There are profiles of others staring into the cold night. The boy lives with his mother, has some contact with his absent father whom he loves. However, he is badly bullied at school and is reserved in his manner. It is not surprising that he makes friends with the young girl next door who has suddenly materialised and is comfortable in his company.

We soon learn what the boy takes longer to discover: that Eli, the young girl, needs to feed on blood to survive. Her mentor brutally kills some students. While the tone of the film is not particularly gory – though it has its moments – this is not your traditional vampire film. For one thing, we know nothing of Eli's origins or why she is in the apartment. She has no relatives and just survives from day to day (or, rather night to night). She has a powerful effect on the young boy who wants to 'go steady' with her. This is the first time that he has experienced anything like this, the new experience of having a girlfriend. It seems that it is the same for Eli.

In the meantime, the boy's mother fusses about him and worries about his behaviour at school. The older adults in the district who tend to resort to a local tavern find that some of their friends disappear and are mystified and upset. The police are investigating the unsolved killings.

The development of the drama is slow-burning. The danger is that the audience is not gripped emotionally but are more like detached observers, admiring the skills with which the writer, novelist John Ajvide Lindqusit, has built up atmosphere, and the director gradually immersing his audience in the moods and action so that it is quite affected by the end – the puzzle of what will happen to the boy and to Eli.

Those of a Jungian persuasion may be tempted, as this reviewer was, to wonder whether everything was really happening in the boy's mind and imagination because of the 'magic realism' episodes and the strange vampiric presence of Eli. She is an anima figure. The film is full of shadow figures: the bullying boys, inadequate parents, the sinister guardian, the strange neighbours, dogs and cats who are terrified when vampires are present. And the final scene...? Is it real, or has the boy finally retreated into his sub-conscious?