Let the Right One In (2008) on Netflix
Oskar, twelve, lives with his mother in a Stockholm suburb and is bullied at school. Eli, a child his age, moves in next door and appears only at night.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.8/10241,676 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes98%
Trailer
Plot summary
In the Stockholm suburb of Blackeberg, in 1982, twelve-year-old Oskar is picked on at school by Conny and two other classmates. At home he imagines getting his own back on them. One night he meets Eli, a child his own age who has moved into the adjoining flat with a man named Håkan and who is seen only after dark. Eli tells him they cannot be friends, but the two start passing coded messages through the wall that separates their apartments. When Eli hears about the boys who torment Oskar, she tells him to fight back, and he joins exercise classes after school. Meanwhile, Håkan waylays a man on a footpath and collects his blood for Eli.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Let the Right One In (2008)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Eli's dialogue in the film was dubbed by Elif Ceylan, chosen by a vote after men and women up to the age of forty auditioned. The sounds of Eli biting victims and drinking blood were made by combining footage of Ceylan eating melon or sausage with animal noises.
- The scene in which a pack of cats attacks Virginia was one of the most complicated to film, needing several weeks of planning, and was made with a combination of real cats, stuffed cats and computer-generated imagery.
- Tomas Alfredson wanted to omit the novel's scene of a vampire entering a room uninvited, but author John Ajvide Lindqvist insisted it stay. In post-production Alfredson found the sound effects and music made the scene "American, in a bad way", so they were removed.
- Kåre Hedebrant was chosen to audition for Oskar after a screening at his school, while Lina Leandersson answered an online advertisement for a 12-year-old "good at running" and, after three more auditions, was picked to play Eli.
- Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema and director Tomas Alfredson invented a lighting technique they called "spray light", which van Hoytema likened to capturing dull electrical light in a can and spraying it like hairspray across Eli's apartment.
- Although the film is set in the Stockholm suburb of Blackeberg, principal photography took place in Luleå in northern Sweden to ensure enough snow and cold, in an area built around the same time as Blackeberg and with similar architecture.
- The American DVD used new, oversimplified English subtitles instead of the original theatrical ones. After customer complaints Magnet said it would issue an updated version but would not exchange current discs, and director Tomas Alfredson called the subtitles a "turkey translation".
- To qualify for the 81st Academy Awards, the producers planned a seven-day run in Luleå beginning 24 September, but when the Swedish Film Institute picked Jan Troell's Everlasting Moments as Sweden's entry instead, the Luleå screenings were canceled.
