Last Wednesday I had the opportunity to see Tomas Alfredson’s screen adaption of John Ajvide Lindqvist’s superb novel.
It is a drama about a harassed 12-year old boy (Oskar) making friends with what he thinks is a girl (Eli). It soon obvious to the audience that Eli is in fact a vampire. Sounds cheesy? It ain’t. It is a gripping film which gets into your skin. Never boring, always keeping the pace. Since I read the book two or three years ago, I knew about what was going to happen. However, I still found it exciting and didn’t want it to be over.
There were a few scenes however that I sorely missed from the book – mostly the flashback where Eli’s origin from the 18th* century is explained. The scar is shown in the movie, but there is no explanation for it. Several main characters are also missing or radically reduced, but since the movie already spans almost two hours, it is understandable that didn’t incorporate them into the screen version. But it did make me want to read the book again.

To cut it shourt: Let the Right One In is the best Swedish movie that I have seen in many years.
The book is (as in most cases) better than the movie, but I am still very happy with the adaptation.

* Don’t remember exactly, +/- a century.

Trailer: Let the Right One in