Låt den rätte komma in

For the last several years it would seem that the entire U.S has had been infected with Vampire fever. Granted this isn’t as spooky-scary as baby fever or even feline AIDS, but has still made it’s indentation in the form of two glittery teeth marks on the necks of every frail and squeamish teenage girl willing to invite them in. It’s a shame; Blade was so much more bad ass.

With the glow of electric sex and teenage hormones surrounding all the hype, it’s no wonder that I (at first) found the idea of viewing a current vampire flick off putting. Admittedly, I have never seen the series which will remain unnamed. In fact, the only vampire films I have ever experienced are 1994’s Interview with a Vampire and 1998’s Blade. Both excellent, so let’s try not to be pretentious here.

Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right one In) is a 2008 Norwegian film by John Ajuide Lindguist (who also wrote the novel by the same name) and director Thomas Aflreadson. Please don’t watch it in English; you’ll barely notice the Swedish as you go along. It stars Kare Hendenbrant, who plays Oskar. We meet him as a twelve year old boy who is very much trying to establish his identity in a life of full of absentee parents and void of supervision and otherwise care. He is on the cusp of who is going be. Soon we are introduced to Eli (also played out in a twelve year old) characterized by Lina Leandersson, a headstrong siren type that both saves and dooms her new building mate. Set in a small community of Blackenberg in Stockholm in the 50’s, the films universe consists of those would be deceived, like the unsuspecting character Jocke (Mikel Rahm), those who would be picked off like Virginia (Ika Nora) and those would be sacrificially devoted, such as Eli’s caretaker Håken (Per Ragner).

We begin to get a sense of Håken’s full devotion of Eli, with incomprehensible grace-like-love when we review the death of their first victim. He subdues a man in the woods using a halothane device (continuity issue: halothane is a general anesthetic and immediately causes a short term loss of consciousness. In this scene the victim struggles to retain consciousness after being gassed.) However, much like this and several other film gaffs’ not everything goes smoothly and their plan beings to become unhinged.  After Håken’s fate is sealed Eli must find another way to survive and begins to groom Oskar as a new front man to face the world. He is both fascinated and only a little hesitant to commit himself in becoming part of Eli.

There are several striking scenes in this picture. One of which is after an undressed Eli climbs in to Oskar’s bed he asks “Do I have a chance with you?”  Eli’s replies “Can’t we just be like this?” Leaving a note the next day which reads

“TO FLEE IS LIFE, TO LINGER- DEATH. – Your Eli”.

 Every time I am in this situation, I feel the exact same way. Theirs is the beginning of a romance, but Eli tries to tell Oskar that things are not what they appear to be. Throughout the movie it is never directly stated, however questioned several times is Eli’s sexuality. While Eli is changing there is a two second shot of the pelvic region where a scar is revealed to us.  Eli is obviously a male in this film; the observer can be thrown off by small physical features brought on by the halting his age. Although we are never keyed in to how old he is exactly, Eli’s castration scar would date him much older than his appearance.

The original writings of Let the Right one In contains much more on this subject and the full expression of Oskar and Eli’s attraction to each other. Although this film is only three years old the United States has already placed guardianship of Låt den rätte komma in Hollywood itself and created a bastardized, bleached and unnecessary remake. We call his version Let me in.



Writer John Ajuide Lindguist