In what’s now the second American remake of Swedish arthouse horror Let The Right One In, Demián Bichir plays the single dad of a ravenous vampire kid. At least, Eleanor (Madison Taylor Baez) was a 12-year-old kid when she got bitten 10 years ago.
Now, she’s trapped in a young body forever, and he must provide her with the human blood she needs to stay alive. Streaming exclusively on Paramount+, the 10-episode series of Let The Right One In premieres on October 8.
The story of a morose, eternally young and hungry vampire child first began in the novel by John Ajiivde Lindqvist, and was then adapted into the 2009 Scandi horror fable for the screen, with frosty Swedish suburbs as its setting and unlikely friendship at its core. An American remake titled Let Me In starred Chloë Grace Moretz as the lonely vampire whose “father”/familiar goes missing, forcing her to get dangerously close to an equally isolated human child.
That formula seems to be basically the same in Paramount’s original series, albeit with a more emphasised focus on the torturous experience of the monster-baby’s father. Bichir looks highly conflicted in the trailer below, forced to live by night and commit horrible acts if he wants his violent daughter to stay fed.
The series also stars Anika Noni Rose, Nick Stahl, and Grace Gummer, who tries to appeal to the twisted family in the trailer with these urgent directions: “the thing that bit you is thousands of years old. Find the host, find the cure.” Could a permanent solution to Eleanor’s supernatural sickness be on the cards?
Paramount’s release statement promises to “upend genre expectations, turning a naturalistic lens on human frailty, strength and compassion.” We can definitely trust in Penny Dreadful showrunner Andrew Hinderaker to toy with horror tropes in an empathetic and creative way. Let’s see how much blood he can wring out of the already-adapted Swedish story.
