Let the Right One In

This original, beautiful horror flick is as bleak and lovely as its Swedish winter landscape backdrop. Alternately creepy and tender glimpses into the human psyche unfold with the burgeoning of a friendship/innocent romance between a bullied 12-year-old boy, Oskar, and his new neighbor, Eli, who turns out to be a vampire, apparently of the same age. Oskar uncovers Eli’s unfortunate secret during a well-meaning attempt at mixing their blood, which renders her a ravenous animal. And Eli’s bloodthirstiness makes for local killings, tough on her thin little-girl skin. Witnesses and bodies pile up. But when Eli must skip town, Oskar’s own trouble and the tenacity of their love is realized, darkly.