This summer at Scandinavia House, see the critically acclaimed Nordic films that inspired American remakes in the series “The Nordics Do It Better”! You’ve seen the Hollywood version — did you know how good the original was?

On July 19, see the critically lauded Swedish romantic horror film Let the Right One In /Låt den rätte komma in (dir. Tomas Alfredson, 2008), based on the 2004 novel of the same name by John Ajvide Lindqvist, which was later adapted to the 2010 American film Let Me In (starring Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloë Grace Moretz) and the 2022 Showtime TV series Let the Right One In. A fragile, anxious boy, 12-year-old Oskar is regularly bullied by his stronger classmates but never strikes back. His wish for a friend seems to come true when he meets Eli, a pale and serious young girl who has just moved in next door with her father, and who only comes out at night. Coinciding with her arrival, a series of inexplicable disappearances and murders occur — in which blood seems to be the common denominator.

As Oscar begins to realize that Eli may be more than she first seemed, a subtle romance also begins to blossom between them, as Eli gives him strength to fight back against his aggressors. But as he also becomes increasingly aware of the tragic and inhuman dimensions of Eli’s plight, he also cannot bring himself to forsake her.

Hailed as “a spectrally beautiful vampire film that’s more than the sum of its chills and estimable technique” (Manohla Dargis, NY Times), Let the Right One In won numerous awards including four Guldbagge Awards, the Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature at Tribeca Film Festival, the Méliès d’Argent (Silver Méliès), and others. Swedish filmmaker Tomas Alfredson weaves friendship, rejection and loyalty into a disturbing and darkly atmospheric, yet poetic and unexpectedly tender tableau of adolescence.