Let The Right One In (2008) Analysis

‘Let The Right One In’ (Låt Den Rätte Komma In), is a 2008 Swedish horror film directed by Tomas Alfredson (director of many Swedish films and recently the movie adaptation of the book ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’) about a young boy bullied at school who makes friends with the girl that moves in next door, who turns out to be a vampire trapped in a 12 year olds body. It is the screen adaptation of the 2004 Swedish novel of the same name. The film's screenplay was by John Ajvide Lindqvist (who wrote the novel) and was distributed and produced by Sandrew Metronome Distribution Sverige AB (among others). There has been an American re-make of the film.

‘Let The Right One In’ perpetuates the Bulgarian structuralist linguist Todorov’s work, as it does follow the basic of beginning with an equilibrium, which is disrupted by an event setting off a chain of events, creating disequilibrium. This is then resolved by the denouement and a new equilibrium is settled at the end. At the start of the film, the audience are introduced to Oskar who obviously has lots of pent up anger at his bullies as he practices stabbing a tree. The first few moments before Eli arrives in his life, although not ‘normal’ seem to be the norm for his life and it allows time for the movie to explore the current characters personalities and for the audience to understand the dynamics of Oskar’s life. The event that sets off a chain of events leading to disequilibrium is when Oskar meets Eli on the play equipment and she tells him she can’t be his friend. Disequilibrium is everything from that point e.g. the murders resulting from Hakans failure to bring Eli blood, Oskar finding out about Eli’s past and the last swimming pool kill scene. After this a new equilibrium is created as Eli and Oskar decide to leave together, however the audience feels uncomfortable as they don’t know Eli’s true intentions or what happens to Oskar.

When an audience goes to watch a horror film, there are certain elements they expect to see in order for them to properly identify with it being a horror film. Much of horror films is actually suspense and in order to create this, the film has to create the right atmosphere. The elements of Let The Right One In that perpetuate the genre include setting, camera work, lighting and iconography. The film is set in a snow-covered community on the outskirts of Stockholm which promotes a clinic and isolated feeling. Because of the snow and the grey buildings, there is a general lack of bright colours, which combined with many of the shots which occur at night, create an eerie atmosphere that the audience will find believable for murders and monsters to occur in. Technical code such as lighting from unexpected angles, unsettling jumps in editing, the use of ambient sounds such as footsteps and unusual, expressive shots are also made use of in this film and the genre in general to create suspense and shock for the audience. Iconography in the film was the use of children on the brink of being teenagers, for both the unsettling juxtaposition of children and evil and this also means the audience feel repulsed and conflicted by the paedophilic themes in the film, whilst also wanting Eli to survive.

As Horror dates back to the very early 20th century, there has been plenty of time to create the genre expectations as mentioned before, however these can be very useful for film directors to oppose as well, shocking the audience into a false sense of security, then frightening them suddenly. This can also be used in the narrative structure of films and by contrasting to the usual expectations that the viewers have, such as the monster being a love interest and surviving, you can confuse them which creates more disconcertment. The ambiguous ending of the film where you discover Oskar leaves with Eli, both makes the audience think and want to discuss the film, and also leaves it open for a prequel.

In terms of Let The Right One In’s place in the history of horror, gore returned with a vengeance in the 2000’s and the terms 'gore-nography' and other similar terms came into existence to describe the new breed of movies that try to titillate the audience with excessive amounts of gore. However, Let The Right One In is much more subtle than this and uses taboo topics such paedophilia, transgender people, and subverting the idea of childhood innocence to create unease in the audience, as well as bloody moments too. An example of this is Hakan, who had poured acid all over his face to avoid being identified, letting Eli drink from him and then end his life by pulling him out of the hospital window. Also, Let The Right One In was released just before vampire, and specifically Twilight mania took over the globe, which has meant vampire-genre films have returned on an big scale.

A Russian theorist named Propp examined hundreds of examples of folk tales to see if they shared any structures and identified 8 characters that were mostly present. They were: the villain(s), the hero, the donor (who provides an object with some magic property), the helper that aids the hero, the princess (the sought after person) who is the reward for the hero and object of the villain’s schemes, her father who rewards the hero, the dispatcher and the false hero. Although horror films obviously differ from folk tales analysed a century ago, many of these character types are still visible in the horror genre, often tweaked such as the idea of the hero. The hero in horror films now tends to be a ‘final girl’ who is often in need of rescuing (the princess) but ultimately defeats the villain. These character types however are subverted in Let The Right One In as instead of the female being the one in need of rescuing, it is Eli that rescues Oskar and protects him. Another theorist who is important when looking at horror film analysis is Levi-Strauss who looked at narrative structure in terms of binary oppositions. These are sets of contrasting values which show the structure of media texts such as films. The binary oppositions set up in Let The Right One In included male/female, young/old, life/death and morality/immorality.

In conclusion, although Let The Right One In adheres to many of the main conventions traditionally found in the genre, the characters are much more complex and multi-faceted than many typical horror films. It does perpetuate the genre however, as it shares many of the common settings, technical codes, narrative structure and character types found commonly in horror.