Horror · Drama
Let the Right One In
Swedish (Låt den rätte komma in)
2008 · Directed by Tomas Alfredson · 115 min
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Horror · Drama
Swedish (Låt den rätte komma in)
2008 · Directed by Tomas Alfredson · 115 min
Meaning, unpacked
Central idea
The film can be read as a story about what loneliness will accept for company. It asks what love costs when the need behind it is desperate, and sets tenderness and monstrousness side by side without resolving them.
Its lasting influence
It encouraged a wave of art-house vampire and monster films that emphasise mood and character, and its remake brought the story to a wider audience. It also reinforced the standing of Nordic filmmakers in contemporary genre cinema.
The rest, in short
The central idea is what loneliness will accept for company. Oskar and Eli are both isolated, and their bond comes from need as much as affection. The film never settles which is stronger. It sets tenderness and monstrousness side by side and refuses to resolve them, asking what love costs when the need behind it is desperate.
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Create your free spaceWhat happens
At the swimming pool, Conny's brother holds Oskar underwater until Eli arrives and kills his attackers. Oskar then leaves town with her, Eli hidden in a trunk on the train. He has chosen her, whatever she is.
The last image
On the train, Oskar taps Morse code on the trunk where Eli lies hidden, and she answers.
Two readings
What it says
The film refuses to settle whether this is rescue or surrender. Oskar escapes his tormentors by joining a killer, and the ending keeps tenderness and monstrousness side by side. It asks what a lonely child will accept for company, and what love costs.
Or follow an idea from this film
See what influenced it
Nosferatu (1922)
The founding screen vampire story, in which the creature is a pale, alien outsider rather than a charming aristocrat. It shows what Alfredson's film is in dialogue with.
Follow the idea
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
Another slow, stylised vampire film about loneliness and unlikely companionship, in stark black and white.
Compare another approach
Ratcatcher (1999)
A child's view of a bleak housing estate, with the same mix of social realism and quiet poetry.
Coming soon
Explore the era or movement
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
Another mid-2000s film that uses a child's perspective to fuse fantasy-horror with harsh historical reality.
Continue the director
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
Alfredson's next film is a Cold War spy drama, with the same patience, muted palette and attention to composition.
Coming soon
