Let the Right One In is a Swedish movie, a mixture between a horror movie and a playground love/coming of age story.

It’s about Oskar, a twelve year old bullied loner, who acts out his aggressions against his tormentors at home, alone, with a knife. When a mysterious girl, Eli, moves in next door, he falls in love with her. But Eli turns out to be a vampire.

[SPOILERS BELOW] – and seriously, if you want to see the movie and haven’t yet, be careful to not get any more details than what I gave you above, makes for a better viewing experience, imo. (And I only included the vampire thing because it’s everywhere anyway.)

In this case, I actually liked not having read the novel by John Ajvide Lindqist. Why? Because this movie is definitely made for multiple viewings. In a good way – you don’t struggle to understand it, but you can uncover layer after new layer of the story and the background. If I had read the book before, I would already have known the layers and a lot of background, according to the forums at least, which wasn’t included in the movie. [Like the guy Eli refers to as her father, who I thought to be a grown up Oskar (which would have been disturbing enough), in the book is a real paedophile who’s only been with Eli for a couple of months or so.]

There’s just a lot of things you can focus on in this movie, which, at least for me, would take a few viewings to get in its entirety. Like the whole “is Eli a boy or a girl thing (or none of the above) and does it matter?”

But actually, why type it all out, when I have a review I – amazingly – agree 100% with?

Let the Right One In is a fascinating blend of violence and love and poetry. The moments between Eli and Oskar are so wonderful and exquisitely crafted, the beauty and nuances of those scenes is almost impossible to absorb the first time around. Unfortunately, the film can’t always focus on Eli and Oskar, and whenever it switches to the other characters–a.k.a, the fodder–the movie starts to drag. In parts, this movie feels way too long, because it does such a good job of making us fall in love with Eli and Oskar. When you’re in love with someone, you don’t care about Guy Being Eaten Under the Bridge, or Sad Drunkard Friend of Guy Being Eaten Under the Bridge; you only want to spend time with the characters you’re in love with. I’d call this a shortcoming, except the fodder characters do add to the story, so I’m not even sure which scenes I’d cut.

Exactly.

And I want to read the book. My Wishlist is growing longer and longer and longer. And my money is not keeping up and it’s so sad… :(