Låt den rätte komma in/Let the Right One In

The director Tomas Alfredsson is perhaps right now more known for his film 'Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy', a very well directed film, not using the 'usual' 007-like means to create suspense but more told in a quiet and calm tempo. The acting (not only from Gary Oldman) was also superb and gave to this depiction of 'espionage', an air of credibility.

The film we are going to write a little about hear ('Låt den rätte komma in') is however a film having won even more prizes than the above spy film, and having been submitted a remake by Matt Reeves, called 'Let Me In'.
It's an adaptation of the book 'Låt den rätte komma in' written by John Ajvide Lindqvist, before becoming a writer, having worked as a magician and stand up comedian.
This was his debut book.
Aurore and I met him at the Swedish Institute in Paris in 2009, when being invited to talk about his book and the next he was underway writing. Aurore got her french version dedicated by him.

In the book and film we meet Oskar (in much the alter ego of Lindqvist) and his mother living in a suburb called Blackeberg (being a real suburb and also the suburb displayed in the film, the subway station etc.)
I (Gunnar) lived not far from this suburb some 8-10 years ago, often visiting the Post Office.
Oskar is bullied at school, both physically and mentally by his school mates Johnny, Micke and Thomas and he dreams of revenge but is to afraid of doing anything.
All of a sudden new neighbours move in, a man called Håkan and a young girl (or is she?) called Eli.

After a while Oskar and Eli become friends although he finds her somewhat strange.
According to him, she sometimes smells bad and in their apartment the curtains are drawn all day, combined with her 'father' (or whoever he is?) having put cardboard all over the windows.
We also get to see Håkan when he meets a man in the forest, anaesthetizing him and hanging him upside down in a tree, emptying him on blood. He can't finish his work as people arrive and when returning home to Eli, she reprehend him in a very harsch way and in a particularly dark voice.

In school the bullying continues but Eli encourage Oskar to "fight back". Oskar tells her that he is 'outnumbered', the others being three against one but Eli answers: "In that case you have to fight back even harder!"
Oskar starts to train his muscles and later on he actually fights back when being threatened by the others.

After having seen Håkan perform the same action again, emptying a person on blood, having seen Eli attacking a man, killing him and drinking his blood, we now know that Eli is a vampire.
She also bites a woman who in turn becomes a vampire, frightened of light and and in the end burning up in a hospital bed after having 'seen the light'.
In the end, Eli has to leave this town for another as her situation has become to complex, not least since she looses Håkan as her 'blood collector' and guardian.
When Oskar things she is gone and being subdued in a swimming-pool by a elderly brother to his tormentors, she returns, kills two of them and the elderly brother, saving Oskar.
They both leave the town on a train.

This film is of course, superficially a vampire movie but on a deeper level, it's a more or less autobiographical story about Lindqvist when he was small, growing up in this very suburb and being bullied around by his schoolmates. Maybe did he have a fantasy figure, being the one who - at least in his thoughts - retaliated those bullying him, because he didn't dare to himself.
It's very common, as we know, that not least children, create a fantasy world in order to compensate for the harsch reality they might live in.
On the same time, this is a film, in part dealing with the alienation in society. Eli could symbolize the immigrant, not being accepted by the overall, rather ethnically homogenous society. In this case, taking into account her physical appearance, it's very easy to think of the Romanis or gypsies as one said before and sometimes says today.
As Sweden has been a rather homogenous society during decades, this has lead to great problems for those people coming from different countries, trying to 'acclimatise' themselves and become integrated.

In the book the actions are much more violent than in the film. This said as there are those thinking that it's a violent film.
We also get to understand (most of us) that this young girl is not a girl but in fact a castrated man! Well, it's of course easier to understand if one have read the book. In one of the scenes in this film we see that she has a scare at her sex, indicating the above.
Parenthetically one can add that in the American version, the audience are not 'allowed' to see the sex of the young woman/girl/man. Surprise! Hypocrites!

Finally - after having seen this one and the American remake - I can't say that we were impressed. In spite of all the different awards all over the world, we found it badly directed, the acting somewhat stiff and amateurish and it lacked real suspense. This although the story is rather violent, thrilling supplemented with some good special effects.
Aurore found the book better than the film. Personally I have to admit that I haven't read the book.

A bit surprising was to see that this film, on a list rating the 100 most suspensful horror movies, came in place 28!

(Poster copied from: http://s.cdon.com/media-dynamic/images/product/00/00/95/62/36/3/6722a38f-f14b-4a72-acd8-a95666278af6.jpg)
(Photo 'Oskar' copied from: http://www.sfi.se/PageFiles/8169/LATDENRATTE_445.jpg)
(Photo 'burning woman in a hospital bed' copied from: http://res.moviezine.se.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com/de613/de6134b70bab478138d7723f26f7a49b/video_l.jpg)