Let the Right One In

Oskar Eriksson listens intently while the Vällingby police commissioner, Gunnar Holmberg, lectures Oskar’s class on drugs. When Holmberg asks students to name a bag of white powder, no one answers for fear of connection to drug use. Though Oskar is a constant target of bullying, he wants to make the policeman proud so raises his hand and answers correctly (it’s heroin). His answer draws the ire of Jonny Forsberg, whose older brother is friends with drug users. Jonny calls Oskar a snitch. When recess arrives, Oskar contemplates his options: Jonny and his friends want to bully Oskar, but commissioner Holmberg is outside showing off his police car. Though Oskar would love to look at the car, he flees instead to the restrooms.

Oskar suffers from incontinence, meaning he wets himself unintentionally. He’s made a “workaround” out of a small piece of old mattress that he places in his underwear. He removes the device, called a Pissball, from his pants after realizing that he’s wet himself. When he hears footsteps, however, Oskar panics. If Jonny and the others find the Pissball, they’ll bully him even more. Jonny calls out Oskar’s nickname, “Piggy,” and Oskar can tell that Micke and/or Tomas are also with Jonny. The bullies’ favorite pastime is making Oskar squeal like a pig. He likens their relationship to hunters versus prey, so he can’t just give in easily or they get bored and think of new taunts. The bullies eventually force the bathroom stall door open and Oskar squeals like a pig. When his nose starts bleeding, the bullies run away.

Håkan Bengtsson rides the subway to a forested area he has carefully chosen on a map. He’s 45 with a paunch belly and a receding hairline. Håkan remembers a conversation in which an unnamed person says, “There is no other way” (12). This conversation seemingly ties into his present situation. He has a bag with him that contains a knife and a canister of gas, but he has altered the bag so that police can’t trace it like they did in Norrköping (the narrator doesn’t reveal the person he spoke to in the conversation or what happened in Norrköping with the bag). He disembarks at Råcksta and heads into the park. He sees an eight-year-old girl and listens to her sing an old song, but Håkan determines that she is too young for his unnamed purpose.

While walking home, Oskar thinks about how shameful he acts when facing bullies. To feel better about his shortcomings, Oskar shoplifts regularly. After school, he steals candy from a store and rushes home to eat it. Near his apartment, he spies an older kid, Tommy, playing with a remote-control car. Oskar wants Tommy to think he’s cool. He plays with Tommy’s car while promising to buy the car from Tommy at a later date. Oskar then goes inside, takes out his candy, and reads Goosebumps books. He also reads through an album in which he collects clippings about macabre murders and happenings.

Elsewhere, Håkan finds a quiet place to hide in wait. He has to return home before dark, which is in less than two hours. At the same time, Oskar cleans up his mess before his mother gets home, then takes a knife from the kitchen to play a game out in the forest. He dresses and goes outside where he’ll pretend to be a mass murderer and kill his bullies by stabbing trees.

With only 10 minutes left until dark, Håkan spots a 13- or 14-year-old boy—the perfect victim. The boy looks tense, and while he tells Håkan the time, Håkan secretly places his hand on the halothane gas canister’s trigger. In what can now be seen as a parallel storyline, Oskar walks through the forest, happier than he has been all day, and imagines the earth soaking up Jonny’s blood after he kills him. In Håkan’s storyline, Håkan lunges for the boy and subdues him, then places the canister’s mouthpiece on the frightened kid. He drags the limp body under cover of trees, but Håkan is nearly crying: “There was a parallel world where he didn’t do what he was about to do. A world where he walked away, leaving the boy to wake up and wonder what had happened” (26). Håkan reminds himself that he can’t return home empty-handed, so the child must die. Meanwhile, Oskar picks a tree in the forest and, after overcoming his fear of the dark, begins hacking away at it, pretending it’s Jonny. 

News of the boy’s death (from Chapter 1) sweeps through Stockholm after a girl finds his body in the Vällingby forest. Oskar’s mother forbids him from playing in the forest or going outside alone. Despite the tragedy, Oskar delights in the murder. Not only is he able to steal an expensive knife from a store on account of a preoccupied shop owner, he’s able to add a newspaper clipping about the death to his album. Moreover, Oskar feels empowered because the murder took place at the same time he stabbed a tree. He wonders if he has superpowers, though he also admits that strange incidents like stabbing a tree to kill someone aren’t realistic.

In another place, a boy named Tommy sits in a basement hangout with 19-year-old Lasse and 16-year-old Robban. The boys read a motorcycle magazine while waiting for Tommy to inform them about the murder in Vällingby. Tommy’s mother, Yvonne, is dating a religious policeman named Staffan, and even though Tommy doesn’t like the guy or his devotion, he likes getting information from him. This also helps because Tommy and his friends steal things around town and hide their contraband in the basement storage room. Staffan inadvertently helps Tommy by talking about these goings-on at dinner, helping Tommy remain one step ahead of the cops. Tommy finally reveals that the murderer strung the body upside down from trees and slit the boys’ throat. Strangely, though, there was almost no blood at the crime scene. He likens the murder to slaughtering pigs, and suggests that the murderer took the blood with him.

Oskar goes outside to play, promising his mother to stay close. He brings his knife, finds a tree, and threatens to kill it. While doing so, he sees a girl’s reflection in the knife blade. Though initially frightened, he approaches the girl and begins talking to her. Oskar notices immediately that she’s beautiful but strange. She seems to be around his age, has pale skin, and only wears a pink sweater despite the intense cold. She reveals that she has just moved and lives next door to Oskar now. She noticed him attacking the tree, which embarrasses him. Then she further intrigues him: “[…] the girl jumped down from the top of the jungle gym and landed in front of him. A drop of over two meters” (37). While he wonders if she’s in gymnastics, she bluntly says that they can’t be friends. Oskar takes offense, and when the girl confronts him for being rude, he notices that she smells like his sick dog did right before it died. When he asks the girl if she’s cold, her countenance changes to that of an older person and she admits, “I guess I’ve forgotten how to [feel cold]” (39). She then walks back to her apartment, and despite looking small and frail, opens the door so forcefully that it flings open.

Håkan receives a large payment of 10,000 kroners for murdering the boy. To assuage his guilt, he decides to give the money to a good cause. He ends up at the Stockholm Public Library, a building familiar to him. It’s revealed that he not only used to be a Swedish high school teacher, but he knows from previous experience that the library is a well-known place to buy sex. Though Håkan doesn’t want to buy sex, he nonetheless enters the library while remembering past misdeeds.

Håkan used to consort with a group of pedophiles who paid young boys for sexual services (one of whom told Håkan about the library). When Håkan grew disgusted by their antics one evening, he left the group and never returned. Inside the library, Håkan sees a teenage boy who eventually propositions him for sex. When Håkan refuses, the kid promises to bring an even younger boy. Though Håkan feels guilty, he nonetheless waits in a bathroom stall for the sex worker to arrive. The boy, perhaps no more than 12 years old, doesn’t have any teeth, which disgusts and angers Håkan. Boys like this suffer from having their teeth knocked or pulled out so that they can give better sexual services. Håkan refuses anything sexual, yet he gives the boy the 10,000 kroners anyway. Håkan leaves the library with a lighter heart.

Oskar walks by the strange girl’s apartment and notes that the windows are all covered from the inside. He imagines that she and her family are druggies, and when he sees a sickly, strange man (Håkan) arrive who might be her father, his theory about them being druggies seems credible. He then plays with a Rubik’s Cube and determines to return to the forest later to stab at a tree while imagining another school bully.

In a cryptic conversation with the strange girl, Håkan says, “Never again. No matter what you say” (48). The girl is still too weak to kill someone herself, and if Håkan doesn’t help she will die. Håkan adamantly refuses, but she asks him to do it out of love. Håkan implies that she only loves him because of his usefulness.

In another part of town, a group of friends that includes Lacke, Jocke, Morgan, and Larry hang out a Chinese restaurant. Another friend, Virginia, isn’t present. It’s Friday night, and the narrator interrupts to reveal that this dinner will be the last time the group will be together in this manner—“Tomorrow one of them will be gone forever” (51). In the next section, the group drinks beer while talking about the murder. When Håkan enters the restaurant, Lacke decides to talk to him in hopes of getting free drinks. Håkan doesn’t introduce himself but buys Lacke a drink. When Lacke asks Håkan personal questions, Håkan gets suspicious and leaves.

Oskar goes out at night in hopes of seeing the strange girl again. When she appears, she again jumps down from the jungle gym and lands softly despite the height. He lets her play with his Rubik’s Cube. The girl has the same thin clothing on as before but somehow isn’t cold. Moreover, she talks like she’s far older than she looks. Though she intrigues him, Oskar sickens upon smelling her. She smells like an infected wound. He lets her keep the Rubik’s Cube and goes back inside. The girl finally goes back inside, too, and Håkan jealously demands to know where she got the Rubik’s Cube. She implores him to kill again the next day and says she technically loves him.

Oskar delivers advertisement packets around town for extra money, and his mother helps him prepare the packets. Since the murder, she doesn’t think he should go on his route. When Oskar promises to be extra diligent, she relents. It takes about four hours to complete the deliveries. He ends with the strange girl’s apartment. He then rifles through his mother’s things because she’s out shopping and finds an old picture of his father during Oskar’s christening. His parents divorced when he was two. Oskar then goes outside and runs into Tommy. Tommy asks him if he wants to buy a Walkman, which he begrudgingly agrees to, and they discuss KISS albums. They also chat briefly about the murder.

In another scene, the strange girl showers, confusing Håkan. She says she’s going out, which he also finds suspicious. She admits that she is going to kill someone herself because he refuses to help. Håkan begs her to be careful.

Oskar finishes his homework and goes outside, where he meets the girl. She has completed the Rubik’s Cube. This feat confuses Oskar because she had never even heard of the Cube prior to him showing her. She also mentions that she took a shower, causing Oskar to blush. Oskar queries her about her parents, and she reveals that they’re dead. He also learns that she’s only about 12, though she doesn’t know when she was born. As Oskar thinks about these things, the girl’s countenance changes and fangs appear. It’s dark, however, so he doesn’t notice. Right when she gets close enough to bite him, Oskar strokes her face, breaking her spell. She asks him why he stroked her cheek, then says her name is Eli when Oskar asks. He gives her the Cube as a present, but she gives it back. Restless now, Eli leaves but promises to return.

Jocke walks home in the dark from the movies. He decides to take a trip somewhere. Though he sees visions in the dark when he’s drunk, he takes the darker road home because he hasn’t started drinking yet. Suddenly, a naked, young girl (Eli) cries out for help. Jocke thinks that the Vällingby murderer has arrived in Blackeberg and attacked the girl. He wants to help, so picks her up and cradles her while walking quickly for help. Jocke begins feeling a pinprick on his neck, and before he can do anything, he realizes that the girl is biting him. He tries to wrench her off, but her grip becomes superhuman and latches onto him. He staggers, hits her weakly a few times, then falls. He no longer has strength left, so he cannot call out for help. He’s severely injured from her vice-like grip. As she sucks his blood, he blacks out.

As Oskar prepares for bed, he caresses the wallpaper near his bed. Eli’s apartment is on the other side. He suddenly hears heated shouting from Eli’s apartment and tries to listen. He fears for Eli’s safety, then watches as her father figure (Håkan) leaves the apartment angrily with a bag. Oskar wants to protect Eli and determines to save her from her horrible living situation.

Håkan finds Jocke’s body and nearly throws up when thinking that Eli is to blame. Eli broke Jocke’s neck and turned the head 360 degrees. Håkan knows this is to stop Jocke from coming back to life, but he doesn’t know the specifics of how this happens. He’s angry at Eli for putting him in this position, but he also wants to protect her. He drags the body to the lake and drops it in with Eli’s pink sweater, which Håkan found near the body. Despite helping Eli, Håkan admits that if someone sees him or if he’s arrested, his worries will be over.