Let the Right One In (original title: Låt den rätte komma in), is a 2008 Swedish romantic horror film directed by Tomas Alfredson based on the novel by a Swedish author. The story centers on the relationship between a 12-year-old boy, Oskar, and a centuries-old vampire child, Eli. It takes place in a working class suburb of Sweden I would guess it is set in the early 1980s due to the type of clothing/building/hair styles. The film focuses on the darker side of humanity, dealing with issues such as existential anxiety, bullying, pedophilia and murder.
The two main characters are Eli and Oskar, who couldn’t be more unalike, Eli giving the look of being good and innocent like a 12 year old child should be for example her first killing that we see, she uses her innocence’s and sweet voice to prise her victim to her. Whereas Oskar gives the show that he is evil with his cold and pale coloured skin and his bright blue eyes. We also learn that Oskar carries a knife on him, and we see him keeping a scrap book full of newspaper clippings of murders etc. So we soon learn that he is mentally destructive, the first time that Eli see’s him he striking a tree with a knife, this is what attracts Eli to Oskar.
In comparison to Vladimir Propp’s theory, the hero in this film would be Oskar I guess, as he helps Eli, although it’s through evil he is also seeking Eli’s love. The villain I guess is the man who persuades the death of Eli or even Eli herself, the Donor would be the man who kill’s for Eli (Håkan) The princess would also be Eli I think from a perspective.
When Eli kills her first man we think it’s a bit in reverse when we consider binary opposites, it’s a young girl killing a middle aged man (young V’s old), tall V’s short the short little girl has the power.
Oskar where’s his dads big jacket, when we see them playing on the snow the camera shots are quick as fast pace, and there are a lot of close ups meaning you are not using your imagination, but in comparison to when the murders are played the camera is shot from wide angle so your imagination has to control the film. Although the sound is very clear along with the crunch of the snow, making it more terrifying as everyone’s mind has different fears and this means your mind can cause a perfect situation to make you more terrified. When Håkan kills the first victim he kills people who he thinks he will never have an issue with, this means that they will never get away, the voice is very clear, but when the man is hung and the blood flow is flowing into the tub the camera follows the flow. The corners of the screen often are blurred and the angle the camera is shot from a low perspective this could represent Eli’s or Oskar’s view of everything.
Windows are also used often throughout the film from the beginning to when he finds out that she is a vampire, I think the windows show the separate lives that the children lead, the shot where they are holding each other’s hands through the window shows this, this trend also follows through with the women that Eli turned into a vampire, when she is attacked by the cats we are watching from behind the glass, as if we are in separate worlds as does the wall between them although they are communicating he still is not in her world, like when she walks into his house but he doesn’t ask her to come in that is another sign of the borders that are there in their relationship, but when Oscar’s allows for himself to accept Eli he is okay to go into her world, to defend and to fight for her. It’s as if the walls/windows are the physical equilibrium. The first one being when he sees her coming into the building, he looks through the window, the second being when he has to work out how to be in contact with the worlds but he doesn’t know yet, (when he makes the code of knocks on the wall) then when he gets into the world, but the door is then closed again then we see him looking topless in the window to outside like we did at the beginning.
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