Given its relatively low number of total subscribers, it’s easy to understand how you might forget about Peacock, even if you’re one of those subscribers. The service arrived on the streaming scene later in the game, and it was crowded out for many people by Netflix, Max, and Disney+.
Just because the service isn’t as popular as some of its competitors, though, doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of things worth watching on it. In addition to some devilishly fun original series like Poker Face, Peacock is also home to a great archive of older movies, some of which you might not expect to find on the service. We’ve selected an especially spooky one, Let the Right One In, as a movie you should definitely check out this April.
It takes on a familiar genre in a new way
This Swedish film is, minor spoiler alert, about vampires, but it’s not the kind of vampire movie you might be used to seeing. The film follows a 12-year-old boy who meets and befriends a girl who is a neighbor in his apartment complex. As he is drawn further and further into her world, though, he discovers that she is connected to a string of grisly murders that have been happening in the area.
Although it has its bursts of gloriously bloody violence, the film is ultimately much more subdued than many vampire films, and much more about the terrible burdens of being an immortal creature who never grows old.
It creates a very specific mood
So much of great directing comes from establishing a precise mood or tone, and that’s precisely what director Tomas Alfredson does here. Let the Right One In is set in Sweden in the dead of winter, and its filled with the kinds of grays and colorlessness that you might expect.
While that kind of flat color palette can be overused, it’s exactly right for this movie, whose central character is a young girl who can only survive if she drains the color of out other people.
It’s hugely influential
Let the Right One In was so influential, in fact, that it spawned an American remake from Matt Reeves, who would go on to direct The Batman. Let Me In, the American remake, is solid, but the original remains the superior film in part because of the surprises it manages to wring out of every moment.
In addition to helping to launch Reeves’ career, Let the Right One In was also hugely important to an entire wave of European horror that would follow in the decade to come. Films like Speak No Evil and Lamb probably wouldn’t be possible without Let the Right One In. It’s both moody and scary, and it’s that combination that would prove so effective and alluring for future filmmakers.
Let the Right One In is streaming on Peacock.
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