Lina Leandersson as Eli in 'Let the Right One In'. Photograph: Everett/Rex Feature

It's official. America, with its naff, slasher remakes (Texas Chainsaw, Prom Night, Friday the 13th) and dreary "torture porn" (Hostel, Saw) is no longer the home of horror cinema. Nor is Japan, whose lank-haired ghouls terrified the world in Ringu and The Grudge and their English language remakes. Even South Korea is yesterday's news.

The chilliest place on Earth is now Sweden thanks to Let the Right One In, a masterfully atmospheric reinvention of the die-hard vampire flick. Centring on the suburban torments of a bullied young boy and his enigmatic new friend, the film has already won plaudits worldwide. Yet director Tomas Alfredson insists that his native country has precious little horror heritage.

"There hasn't been any tradition of Swedish horror. I think I saw Dracula and Frankenstein on television as a child. But I try not to study other films because there are too many people just 'blue-printing' movies. I looked more to music, literature or painting for inspiration, particularly the beautiful work of Hans Holbein. The expressions he finds in faces are very creepy."

What about vampirism? Does that have the same cultural cachet in Sweden as in Britain, whose streets Dracula once roamed? "Not in my experience. I am uneducated about vampirism and the traditions behind it, although John Ajvide Lindqvist, who wrote the novel, researched everything. And it's true that the Swedish suburbs are perfect for a vampire story - it's a scary place with 20 hours of darkness a day in January.

"But for me, Let the Right One In is very much about the anger that this tormented boy is carrying. He's not able to do anything with it. He can't talk to his parents because he's shy and he's afraid of them interfering: he cannot talk to his teachers: he has no friends. So for him, the vampire in the story is the body of all this anger. I had similar experiences as a boy and that moved me when I read the book, the feeling of wanting revenge without having the ability to get it."

The international acclaim which has greeted Let the Right One In (and prompted its inevitable forthcoming English-language remake) follows a string of inventive European chillers putting Hollywood to shame. From Spain (via Mexico), there's been Guillermo del Toro's poetic fables The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth, alongside JA Bayona's heartbreakingly creepy The Orphanage and Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza's "reality terror" [Rec], ploddingly remade in the US as Quarantine

Meanwhile, the Gallic new wave, kick-started by the gruelling Switchblade Romance, continues with the current endurance-testing French/Canadian release Martyrs. Even the UK is flexing its horror muscles thanks to such edgy indie endeavours as Hush, from former Radio One DJ turned promising film-maker Mark Tonderai, while Norway's Dead Snow and Finland's Sauna have both been sold internationally.

"I heard there was some horrific stuff coming from Finland," agrees Alfredson. "And [Danish director] Lars von Trier has just made a horror film [Antichrist] which I think will be at Cannes. So who knows - maybe it is a trend. But I don't even know if Let the Right One In is a horror film. I just want to make films that make people laugh and cry.