Let the Right One In was first a Swedish novel that came out 2004. The first movie adaptation came out in 2004, while a new American remake was released in 2010. I watched the American remake first in 2012, and subsequently read the book in 2014, and watched the Swedish movie this year (2016). I think this is a fascinating story, and all of these different ways of telling the story are different from each other, while all of which I find myself liking.
What is the story about? Well… It’s a story about young love… And there are vampires… My voice always trails off a bit whenever trying to explain it to my friends. I mean, when there are memes like this floating on the internet:
It is a pretty big accusation. I personally haven’t read any of the Twilight books or watched any of the movies, but through osmosis alone I can tell they are not the best stories or characters even told. But personally, I do not know if anything could be worse than the love story between Anakin and Padme, maybe that between Mila Kunis and Channing Tatus in “Jupiter Ascending”, but that’s not the point.
But, I always say, it is a seemingly dumb idea done well. Very well.
So the novel tells the story about a young boy Oskar who’s constantly bullied in school (of course), who befriended a girl Eli who just moved in with who he assumed to be her father. It is revealed later that the girl was not only a vampire, but also a young boy kidnapped, castrated, and transformed into a vampire by a satanic cult. “Her” “father” is in fact a pedophile who loves Eli and offers her sustenance by murdering people and collecting their blood. In one of his errands however, he was captured and he chose to pour acid on his face so the police would not be able to recognize him and lead they to Eli. Eli eventually located him in the hospital, and he offered her his blood as a final act of love, before falling to the ground. He survived the fall, becoming a vampire, but was eventually killed. Knowing Eli is a vampire, Oskar finally accepts her and protected her from a local townsman, leading to his horrifying death by Eli’s hand. When Oskar is again bullied in school more violently than ever, Eli saves him by murdering all the bullies. The story ends with Oskar leaving town with Eli in his suitcase, communicating with each other through Morse code.
What is the novel about? Oh dear, I must begin by saying while love is at the center of story, there are so much more: vampires (of course), pedophilia, castration, alcoholism, physical abuse, and a lot of dark elements. In book form, Let the Right One In was able to pull off so many themes within a single story. To me the book is a very good love story as well as a horror story, because it is really dark. One of the most memorable (and traumatic) scenes I remember the most was when after Eli’s “father” was turned into a vampire, his only desire was Eli. Even when he was hunted down by Eli and incapacitated, he still masturbated to Eli. And that was scarily memorable, and the constant juxtaposition between the dark and mature themes and the innocence of childhood to me was what made the book great.
And the book is a huge success, and knowing modern entertainment models, there is only one logical conclusion: make a movie out of it!
So how would you do it? Given around 2-hours of running time, what do you keep in, and what do you leave out?
The Swedish movie adaptation is a somewhat faithful adaptation of the novel, keeping most of the characters intact, while removing most of the more disturbing themes out of the movie. There was no mention of the satanic cult, nor was Eli’s origins really explained. There was one shot, however, with Oskar looking through the door and seeing the signs of his castration. This is probably my biggest complaint of the movie, as it was never explained or even talked about. This is an R-rated movie already, if you have decided to show that much, be more aggressive in what you want to show and do them all. Otherwise, just don’t show it at all, since it doesn’t benefit the story one bit anyway. But all in all, I like the movie quite a lot. It was shot well, and the acting was good I think. I could not comment much on the dialogues however, for I have no knowledge of the Swedish language at all, but to me at least every line sounds a bit monotone. (Also I am surprised at how similar is Swedish is to German, as I can catch a few words every line). I like the movie in general, as it is truly well made. I think it works much better as a romance story though, and I do not find it scary at all. There was no violence, and there was no gore, and I feel like this movie should not have been an R. But it is, and to me this is a substantial misstep in marketing.
This might be surprising, but I prefer the American remake to the Swedish original. To be very fair, after watching the Swedish original I realized that the remake has a lot of similarities with it, with some of the scenes almost shot-for-shot the same. Having said that, I prefer this version mainly due to the storytelling. The dark themes of the original novel was stripped down, with Ebby (the Eli in this version) being a girl instead of a castrated boy. To me the more streamlined story works better in movie form. What I like the most about this version is the characterization of the “father” character. In the novel as well as the original movie, he was a pedophile. In this version a picture found in their room showcased both Ebby and her “father” as children, making a point of them also falling in love when he was younger, thus creating parallel between him and Owen (Oskar). And because of this, the ending is not just a bittersweet moment, but has some even more disturbing implications, suggesting that Owen would eventually suffer the same fate. The movie for me thus became scary, and did what the original could not do for me. The chemistry between the leads are very good, and Chloe Grace Moretz’s acting I think is very good. I absolutely adore her from “(500) Days of Summer”, though I haven’t seen “Kick Ass” or the “Carrie” remake and currently have no plans to do so.
It might seem strange that I have criticized (somewhat) the original for not giving enough darker elements, while praising the remake for being simplified. While for me, it’s one way or the other. The remake was simple without interfering with the main story line, and save for perhaps the most loyal of the novel fans, everyone could understand it. The original, on the other hand, while still good, hinted at the darker themes without actually exploring it further, and to me it seems needless and confusing, and this is why I prefer the American remake, even though it is much more different from the original source material.
All in all, the novel as well as the two movie adaptations are very good. Heartfelt and creepy, this might be the best “falling in love” story disguised as a horror, or the other way around.
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