Tomas Alfredson\'s 2008 Film Let

Tomas Alfredson's 2008 film Let the Right One In follows the story of twelve-year-old Oskar as he attempts to deal with school bullies and his parents separation, but it complicates these generally mundane, childhood concerns with the introduction of Oskar's new next-door neighbor, Eli, who happens to be a vampire. Though the film is, in the words of Roger Ebert, "deadly grim," the relationship which develops between Oskar and Eli is decidedly sweet, and constitutes the emotional core of the movie around which the violence and horror are bound (Ebert 2008). Examining certain key scenes in the film along with the dual meanings of the title itself will demonstrate how Alfredson uses the tropes of the vampire genre in order to effectively convey the isolation and anxiety of childhood.

The title, Let the Right One In, functions on two different levels. Firstly it refers to the film's usage of the vampire trope in which a vampire cannot enter a home or room without first being invited in, which is referenced when Oskar first invites Eli into his room. In addition, the title functions on a thematic level, because it serves as a kind of instruction to both Oskar and Eli; each of them can only survive by opening up to another person, but they must be careful who that person is. For Oskar, some form of genuine kinship with his mother or father, or even anyone else at his school, is all that he is lacking, but for one reason or another he cannot find this companionship, as his parents are more concerned with their own issues than him, and as "he is smarter, prettier and lonelier than anyone in his school, […] he naturally attracts abuse from the bullies" (Anderson 2008). This fact makes Oskar's fascination with Eli all the more understandable, because any of the odd hints which suggest that something about Eli is off or different are not enough to dissuade Oskar from pursuing this relationship, which represents the only genuine interaction he has in the film.

Eli arguably has a more difficult time connecting, because her existence seems predicated upon avoiding close interaction with those people who might one day become her prey. As such, her only companionship is a seemingly lecherous old man Hakan, who for inscrutable (or unthinkable) reasons is dedicated to providing blood for Eli. While this relationship affords Eli with the physical sustenance she needs to survive, her relationship with Hakan does not offer the kind of emotional connection that both her and Oskar are ultimately seeking. Only when she meets Oskar, someone as isolated as she is, does Eli find the kind of relationship that can provide for those needs beyond the drinking of blood.

When Oskar and Eli meet, Eli is at first reluctant to allow herself to grow close to Oskar, telling him that they cannot be friends, but other time the two develop a bond. For example, Eli is the only person to whom Oskar reveals the physical and emotional torture he has undergone at the hands of Conny, the school bully. Thus, the title is both a suggestion to Oskar to let Eli in (to both his room and his life), but also an instruction to Eli, to let Oskar, "the right one," in to her life in lieu of the ineffective and ultimately dangerous Hakan, whose ineptitude leads Eli to seek out blood on her own.

Recognizing that the film's title functions on both of these levels is important because it reveals how Alfredson deploys common vampire tropes in novel ways which serve to elevate the emotional content of the film, so that the "rules" surrounding vampires become metaphors for the emotional development both characters undergo. Thus, following Hakan's death, Eli goes to Oscar and he invites her into his room at the same moment that she implicitly invites him into her life, revealing to him the first explicit hints that she is something other than a twelve-year-old girl. From this point on, the two work to protect and comfort each other while providing each other with the confidence and companionship they need in order to be happy. Oscar confronts his bullies, and after a period of initial unhappiness, Eli gains a friend who accepts her as a vampire.

Though Eli initially has far more agency and power than Oskar, she is no less isolated, lonely, and anxious about her existence, and the film uses her status as a childlike vampire dependent on an ineffectual adult to mirror Oskar's relationship with his parents and school teachers, all of whom are completely unaware of the bullying he must endure and the crushing loneliness which characterizes his life. Thus, while the two characters begin the film with an apparent distance between them in terms of agency, over the course of the film their lives are revealed to be not that different, at least thematically, if not literally. This similarity is what gives the film its poignancy, because as their relationship develops, Oskar and Eli give each other the necessary support that they have been lacking, and have fruitlessly sought in their interactions with adults.