Is Let the Right One In Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Yes, 5 out of 10. It's a quiet friendship story with sudden, bloody interruptions.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
5 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Medium
It lasts about a night, and it comes from the friendship as much as the killings.
DOG
Dog: fine
No dog dies in this one.
Ruling: Fine for a quiet evening, as long as you are comfortable with a friendship that comes with a body count.
Let the Right One In runs one hour and fifty-five minutes, and a good part of it is two kids tapping on a wall. It takes place in a Swedish suburb in 1982, where the neighbors are very polite about the bodies.
The premise, briefly
A bullied twelve-year-old named Oskar befriends Eli, the strange girl who has moved in next door with a man, and a string of killings starts around the neighborhood.
How much do you want to know?
🐱
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
Eli kills and dismembers the bullies who were holding Oskar under the water at the pool, all except one, who is left crying on a bench. Oskar is next seen on a train, Eli travels in a box next to his seat, and they tap a kiss to each other in code.
The scene you're dreading
The pool scene, near the end: a bully holds Oskar underwater, and Eli arrives and kills and dismembers the bullies. One bully is left alive and crying on a bench, and Oskar survives.
The dog
No dog dies in Let the Right One In.
Let the Right One In is a quiet friendship story with some violent scenes, and it ends with Oskar on a train beside a box with Eli in it.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
Bullied in Blackeberg, helped through a wall
The year is 1982, and Oskar shares an apartment in Blackeberg with his mother. The kids at school pick on him, and at night he daydreams about revenge. One evening he meets Eli, who looks like a girl his own age and has just moved into the apartment next door with a man named Håkan. Eli tells Oskar right away that they can't be friends. The two start sending coded messages to each other through the wall between their apartments anyway. When Eli finds out about the bullying, she tells Oskar to stand up for himself, and he starts going to exercise classes after school.
Håkan's job is to get blood for Eli, and he is not good at it. His first attempt on a footpath is interrupted by a passerby, so Eli goes out and kills a man named Jocke herself. A recluse watches the attack from his flat and reports nothing, and Håkan gets rid of Jocke by dropping the body into a hole at the lake. His next try is to lock a boy in a room once school lets out, and that fails too, and Håkan pours acid on his own face so nobody can identify him. Eli visits him at the hospital, and he holds out his own neck for her. She drains him and he falls out of the window. Eli then turns up at Oskar's place and stays the night. They agree to go steady, and Eli tells him, "I'm not a girl."
An invitation Eli can't skip
On a school field trip, the bullies go after Oskar again, and this time he swings a pole at their leader's head and hurts him. Some of his classmates also find Jocke's body on the trip. Oskar suggests that he and Eli form a bond and cuts his hand, but Eli laps up the blood and runs away. Jocke's friend Lacke argues with his girlfriend Virginia, and Eli attacks her afterward. Virginia survives, but she finds out sunlight burns her skin. Once she is admitted, she gets an orderly to raise the blinds in her room and goes up in flames. Later Eli shows up at Oskar's door and asks to be invited in. He refuses, so Eli steps inside anyway and starts to bleed heavily until he gives in. Eli admits to being a vampire who has to drink human blood, and Oskar sees a scar and no genitals when Eli changes clothes.
The pool, with the bullies
Lacke sets out to kill Eli and finds her asleep in the bathtub of the apartment. Oskar gets between them, and Eli wakes up and feeds on Lacke. Eli thanks Oskar and kisses him, then decides the neighbors have noticed too much and leaves that night. Oskar is lured back to the pool for the after-school program, and one of the bullies holds him under the water. This is the scene people dread most, and it happens near the end. Eli arrives, kills the bullies and dismembers all of them except one, who is left crying on a bench. Oskar comes up from the water alive.
The ending, explained
After the pool, Oskar is on a train, and Eli rides next to him inside a box. Eli taps out the code for a kiss, and Oskar taps it back. Håkan, Jocke, Lacke and Virginia are dead, and so are the bullies Eli killed at the pool, apart from the one crying on a bench. Oskar survives.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: No dog dies in this one.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Let the Right One In scary?
Let the Right One In is a 5 out of 10. The dread is medium, and the fear comes from a sad friendship and sudden, violent scenes.
How does Let the Right One In end?
Eli kills the bullies who are holding Oskar under the water at the pool. Oskar is then seen on a train, Eli travels in a box next to his seat, and they tap a kiss to each other in code.
Does the dog die in Let the Right One In?
No dog dies in Let the Right One In.
Is there a post-credits scene in Let the Right One In?
No. Let the Right One In has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
What is Eli in Let the Right One In?
Eli is a vampire who has to drink human blood to survive. Eli tells Oskar this after stepping into his apartment when he refuses to invite Eli in, and says the two of them are alike, since Oskar wants to kill and Eli has to.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of Let the Right One In is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
You can skip the pool in Let the Right One In now that you know how it goes. Install Scaredy Cat and it will blur horror before you see it.
