The press notes say it takes place in 1982, which sounds about right. Certain fashion trends and an absence of technology give the film a period flavor throughout, but only the presence of that Rubik’s cube and a passing reference to Leonid Brezhnev ground it in time and place. The script adaptation by John Ajvide Lindqvist, from his own novel, is no doubt a gloss on the original material, and director Tomas Alfredson doesn’t spend a whole lot of time trying to bring the suburb of Blackeberg to life - the town is represented here mainly by a bar, a school, a few houses, and an expansive frozen lake. Let the Right One In is in some ways a slight film, but it’s evocative, visceral and deeply felt. But it’s also a kind of Scandinavian gothic - a love story between 12-year-olds, one of whom has been 12 for a very long time. Let the Right One In is certainly a horror movie, and it brings the pain in genre fashion.
At one point, we hear Eli snarling, “You’re supposed to help me!” Horror-movie fans will no doubt suspect something sinister is going on, and they will be correct. Hakan covers the windows with cardboard - perhaps to block out the sunlight.
Oskar has a new neighbor, the similarly tiny and wary Eli (Lina Leandersson), who has moved into the flat next door with Hakan (Per Ragnar), an older man who seems to be her father. He’s the target of menacing schoolyard bullies and, as the film begins, we see him practicing with a knife, imagining that he’s jabbing it into the flesh of one of his tormenters. Set in a neighborhood outside Stockholm, largely in and around a nondescript apartment complex, Let the Right One In is, first, a coming-of-age tale about Oskar (Kare Hedebrant), a slight, pale boy with a shock of blond hair and good humor that belies his general beat-down wariness and barely contained anger.
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