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CINEMA
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
Being an handsome boy with long canines is not enough to make a vampire. Into the “vampire movies” scene, lately snuffed out by the Twilight saga, the Swedish Tomas Alfredson’s movie is a breath of fresh air. The story is taken from the namesake novel (Lat den ratte komma in, in Swedish) by John Ajvide Lindqvist, a bestseller in North Europe.
What makes “Let the right one in” different is , first of all, a strong deepening of the characters, who are not stupid pictures painted on an unconvincing landscape, but live and move along their daily problems, tied to social themes, but also facing supernatural happenings.
The protagonist is a twelve years old boy called Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) who lives with his divorced mother in a suburb of Stockholm, Blackeberg. He is introvert and is daily tyrannized by his schoolmates, against whom he feels a deep hate. One fine evening he meets Ely (Lina Leandersson), a girl of his same age, who has come to live in the neighborhood with an older man, that doesn’t seem to be one relative of hers.
While Blackeberg is upset by a series of bloody murders, the friendship between Oskar and Ely becomes stronger: he is charmed by the peculiarities of the playmate, as much as he doesn’t care she’s a bit weird (she can be seen only with the dark, she doesn’t feel any cold). At the same time, the neighbours follow with diffidence the moves of Håkan, Ely’s tutor, a rude and solitary man who hides a terrible frailty: none indeed understands his pain in being totally subject of the little girl he goes along with.
When Death arrives to shake the freezed life in the suburb, the point of view is put upsidedown: the audience understands that Håkan is not a paedophile but just a “human servant” who attends a dark and supernatural creature: a vampire. Ely’s secret is revealed: she must drink blood to live and the man kills instead of her.
Nonetheless, Oskar crashes the balance kept until that moment: Ely gives the boy more and more faith so to unleash Håkan’s jealousy. After having realized of being no more necessary, Håkan kills himself and only Oskar remains for Ely. Even if he knows she is not a human being, it’s too late to escape and maybe he doesn’t want to, because she is his one and true friend. He will stay with her for the rest of his life.
Watching “Let the right one in” you don’t have the immediate feeling of an horror movie: of course, there are many bloody scenes, but violence is never shown for free, it never falls into gore. At the same time there is no kind of softening about Ely’s curse. She lives her condition in pain (“I must kill to live!” she will cry towards the end of the movie), but at the same time she follows her needs with blind determination.
Vampirism is described following the tradition: the title itself – Let the Right One in – is due to the legend according which vampire can’t enter a room without being invited by the victim. There is not any exaltation about these creatures. The sexy features are stopped immediately, given the “for-ever- child” Ely’s total asexuality . She could be compared to Anne Rice’s Claudia, the demon looking like a 5 years old child in “Interview with the vampire”. But as Claudia suffers because her mind is adult, Ely keeps a playful face that gives to her character a more tragic touch. Staying beside her, Oskar feels to be able of being himself, even letting come out those feelings that he made him ashamed (for example the frustration due to his classmates).
What really strikes in this movie is how the darkness creeps very deep into the characters’ hearts and take its inspiration by feelings that we all have felt at least once in life. So the sensation of identification becomes larger and larger and, for “classic vampire”’s lovers the many successes with the handsome boy who is called vampire (but doesn’t drink blood and shines underneath the sun instead of becoming cinder) lose their charm at once.
“Let the right one in” is a movie worth to be seen and suggests the will of reading the novel. In the USA is already in act a project for a remake directed by Mark Reeves (famous for “Cloverfield”). I can already say that the little jewel by Alfredson shines so bright, that a remake is totally unuseful.
Legolas_di_Mirkwood
Planned and developed by Mrs Lindstrom with the help of Nailedtoacross, Legolas di Mirkwood,
Shikaia590 Editor in chief: Mrs Lindstrom, Graphic Project: Dan[616]
