Is Let the Right One In scary

The snow whirls, the nights draw in and a gloomy Swedish housing estate becomes a pocket murderess's hunting ground. Let the Right One In is based on a book by John Ajvide Lindqvist and directed by Tomas Alfredson, a former comedian. Here is a vampire story born out of the shadows; a film of whispered secrets. But don't lean too close: it may well pull out your throat.

Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) is a bullied 12-year-old schoolboy who befriends Eli (Lina Leandersson), who is pale of skin and dark of eye and wise beyond her years ("I've been 12 for a very long time," she explains). Eli has recently moved into the estate with a man who may possibly be her father, or a paedophile (as he was in the novel), or a lover who has grown old while she remains young. She needs constant feeding and her blundering, alcoholic neighbours provide easy pickings.

Yet it would be too easy to file Let the Right One In as a tale of a hunter and her prey, or of light and dark, good and evil. Most of its inhabitants are victims of one stripe or another. They are the marginalised and the dispossessed, living their lives below the parapet and sustaining themselves with blood and alcohol. And while these people may, at times, be able to help each other, and even love each other, the transaction comes with a terrible price. Eli helps Oskar confront the bullies and so Oskar helps Eli when she is left abandoned in her decaying apartment. But the film's finale does not quite offer the happy resolution we've been wishing for. We are left wondering just where these characters go from here.

On its release in 2008, Let the Right One In (which is soon to be subjected to an American remake) found itself billed as the antidote to the Twilight pictures, a movie that brought a little mystery and magic back to the hoary old bloodsucker yarn. Perhaps it gave it some red meat as well. The Twilight kids would presumably never be caught scaling the walls of a hospital to feast on a patient, or snuffling spilt blood from a dirty stone floor, as Eli does. Alfredson's heroine is sensitive and sympathetic. But we are never allowed to forget that she is also a stone-cold killer; the embodiment of the old adage about the snake that winds up biting the cowboy who gives it shelter: "Because I'm a snake, stupid. It's what I do."

Earlier this year, the horror author Stephen King bemoaned the way in which the vampire genre has recently been hijacked by "lovelorn southern gentlemen and … boy-toys with big, dewy eyes". I'm guessing he has yet to see Let the Right One In. Alfredson's film is by turns tender and terrifying, funny and sad. And yes, OK, it is also a romance, albeit of the richest, strangest, most provocative kind.

Think of it as a boy-meets-girl love story in which the girl may not be a girl at all, and where the boy knows this – and doesn't care.

Is Let the Right One In disturbing?

The poster for the film “Let the Right One In,” directed by Tomas Alfredson. The film is rated R for some bloody violence including disturbing images, brief nudity and language.

Is Let the Right One In OK for kids?

This movie is more for teens and like most other creepy horror movies they are not meant for little kids.

What type of horror creatures is Let the Right One In about?

The vampire identity has usually been described as a creature of the night, enslaved to a human host of male or female sex. “Let the Right One In” by Swedish writer John Ajvide Lindqvist, takes the idea of the old vampire lore and reinvents it for a modern audience.

Is Let the Right One In a good movie?

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is a superior vampire film. There's an innocent yet terrifying atmosphere to it. At its heart it's a love story punctuated by horror and jarring violence. Unlike most such films, it's emotionally fulfilling as well as frightening.

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