Let the right one in film analysis

Let the right one in

Let the right one in is a Swedish romance horror film released in 2008. Directed by Tomas Alfredson, produced by Carl Molinder and John Nordling. This film is based on the 2004 vampire fiction novel Let the right one in by John Ajvide Lindqvist.

The film starts off by showing the background and lifestyle of the two main characters Oskar and Eli. Oskar is a young Swedish school boy, that's having a tough time at school because of the fact that he is getting bullied. Oskar also has separated parents and lives with his mother in a block of apartments. Eli is a young vampire girl, who looks roughly the same age as Oskar. Eli's father is helping Eli survive by draining the blood of humans into a container and feeding it to Eli. This prevents Eli from giving away her identity as a vampire to the public.

The first time Oskar and Eli meet is in the local park central of all the blocks of apartments. This happens at night time which is the only possible time of day Eli can come outside without burning to death. Oskar and Eli become close friends and end up helping each other out.

This follows Todorov's theory, Oskar meets Eli and becomes friends with her, this starts to make changes in his life, Oskar becomes more confident over the bullies and ends up hitting one of them round the face with a piece of wood. This jump from normal everyday life to the meeting of Eli and the changes it has on his life is a clear equilibrium. Oskar then finds himself in lots of danger, he discovers that Eli is a vampire and due to them becoming friends he tries to help her survive and keep any attention drawn to Eli away, this is recognition of the problem. Eli decides to move away which is her trying to fix the problem that she has created. This leaves Oskar in a vulnerable state and finds himself being dunked in a swimming pool. As Oskar thinks all hope is lost, the bully's body parts appear to be thrown into the pool, this turns out to be Eli who has returned to help Oskar. They are reunited and travel to a new destination, this is the final new equilibrium.

From the official trailer for this film, it's made obvious that it's a vampire film. Oskar asks Eli if she is a vampire and she reply's with "would you like me anyway?", Eli isn't denying she is a vampire and previous clips before this final clarification show Eli feeding on human's. The two main characters in this film are children, as they show in the trailer, this makes the film feel less frightening because children are younger and smaller than most of the audience who watched this film. Using a child as a horror character changes the stereotypical features of the horror character, usually the main horror character in a film will be a big, strong, aggressive male. Eli is disguised as a young girl but is actually an aggressive strong vampire when thirsty for blood. When the audience see that the horror character is a child they wont feel frightened, but when they see Eli in action feeding on humans they will know not to be fooled, horror characters can take any shape or form.

The reason this film falls into the horror genre is because of the blood thirsty vampire that hunts and kill humans. Vampires also posses superhuman strength and also the ability to fly and run extremely quickly. These abilities are frightening and in the use of evil; hunting and killing humans, makes theses films scary and threatening. Vampires are usually corpses been brought back to life or humans been bitten and transformed into a vampire, either way the victim - new vampire is no longer a living human. In this film Eli the vampire is a young girl, which means she was either bitten or a corpse been transformed into a vampire. This corpse that wonders the earth feasting on the living typically falls into the horror genre; the dead being brought back to life, killing.

The main characters and dominant characters in this films are obvious. The whole film is based round the life of the child Oskar, showing his normal everyday life, the encounter of him becoming friends with a vampire and the troubles it get's Oskar in and the solving at the end. I would say the main character is Oskar because the film revolves around him. But the dominant character would be Eli because she is the confident influential character. During the film Oskar takes control at one point when he stands up to his bully, this was majorly influenced by Eli.

In conclusion, this is a modern day vampire film, the genre and it's mythological creature was put into a realistic situation of todays time. This film follows Todorov's theory and the tradition of the vampire. This film is a typical horror film full with loads of lots of blood and jumpy scenes. The ending of the film takes a twist, when usually the vampire would die for it being the evil character, Eli survives and continues to live but just in a different location, which can lead the film on into a sequel if wanted to.

Here is the trailer for Let the right one in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZJUgsZ56vQ