In news that will warm the dead hearts of anyone who likes their vampire stories grim, sad, cold, and very, very bloody, TNT has announced a pilot order for a series based on Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel Let the Right One In, according to Deadline. The book, a 1980s period piece about the dark friendship between a bullied social outcast and a vampire who moves in next door, was made into an extraordinarily grim film by director Tomas Alfredson in 2008. In 2010 Matt Reeves wrote and directed an English-language remake, starring Chloë Grace Moretz as the vampire, under the title Let Me In.
Extraordinarily enough, both the original film and the remake were excellent, and by excellent I mean almost unbearable to watch. Both versions are tied for saddest horror film ever made, and their pitch-black endings are enough to darken your worldview permanently. A TV show that produces that kind of feeling on a weekly basis could be the end of all happiness, but TNT is forging ahead.
The pilot script is by Jeff Davis, the creator of Teen Wolf and Criminal Minds; neither show has a reputation for hollowing out viewer’s souls. Davis, Marty Edelstein, Becky Clements, Simon Oakes, Carl Molinder, and Alex Brunner are all as executive producing: Molinder produced Let the Right One In and Oakes produced Let Me In, so there’s continuity there. But it remains to be seen how well a story like this will work in a serial format, in which only one episode can have the swimming pool scene.
