I have read the source novel, Let Me In, and can give more info on Eli’s back story.
Eli’s real name is Elias. He was a 12 year old peasant boy in eastern Europe centuries before. A number of young boys were called to the castle of the nobleman who controlled their lands. Eli was selected by the nobleman. He was tied to a table with his penis protruding through a hole. His penis was cut off and his blood caught in a bowl, which the nobleman drank. Then Eli was made a vampire, so the place where his penis was sealed over when he healed. He has no genitals and is smooth like a Barbie doll. Pretty disturbing stuff. No way it’ll be in the American remake if it wasn’t even in the Swedish version.
This movie is attracting attention outside of Sweden? Man, do I feel out of the loop. I got the book as a present and liked it but never heard about it anywhere. Then I somewhere picked up that there was a movie coming and put it on my will-see list. I read a Swedish review or two praising it, and that was pretty much it until this thread, when I find out that Americans are seeing the thing when I haven’t yet.
That’s one of the reasons I can never understand the whole ‘OMG they’re gonna ruin it with a remake!’-reaction: the original isn’t going to be cheapened in any way, the remake is likely to make a few bucks for the people who made the original, and it also might attract a new audience that wouldn’t ever have seen it on their own, all at the cost of there being another movie you (as the original’s afficionado) perhaps won’t like, in which case nobody’s gonna make you see it.
For those who haven’t seen it, here’s a short clip that doesn’t give anything away (nothing that I already didn’t say in the OP) but gives a good introduction to Oskar and Eli and a good indication of how slow and quiet the movie is.
The trailer is there too, but I don’t recommend watching it, if there’s a chance you’ll see the movie. It has some major spoilers, plus after the quiet beginning, it picks up and then makes the movie seem like a quick-shot action/horror film. :rolleyes:
Wikipedia tells me that the English-language movie will not be a REMAKE of Låt den rätte komma in (the Swedish movie), but instead is a NEW adaptation of the book. So a whole new take on the story.
Yes, that’s my understanding. So the American remake would benefit John Ajvide Lindqvist, the book’s author, but wouldn’t necessarily benefit Tomas Alfredson, the original’s director.
I’d also like to reiterate to potential viewers who read the spoiler above, that this is not a “Psycho” or “The Sixth Sense” type of twist that ruins the movie experience by you knowing it. It is as peripheral to you, the viewer, as it is to the main character. It adds another dimension to the film but is dealt with so subtly that without having read the book, you might well miss it. Don’t let this, or anything, dissuade you from seeing the best film of 2008.
Just came back from seeing this movie. It’s really more of a coming-of-age film with a girl who just happens to be a vampire – more akin to My Life as a Dog with extra blood and violence. Sweet little film, but rather slow-moving. The “cat attack” was hilarious.
I predict the remake will be more of a “Twilight” knockoff and really, really suck.
Rubystreak, I have a couple of questions about the book.
PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE MOVIE.
Please. It’s a much bigger spoiler than the one earlier.
[spoiler]So, according to the people on the IMDB message board, the older guy she lived with was a pedophile, right? Only they never had sex. Did the pedophile know that Eli was a boy? Or did he think that Eli was a girl? What was his motivation if Eli never allowed him to touch her? him, I know, but I’ll keep saying her because that’s how she’s presented in the movie. I mean, the pedophile was willing to kill people for Eli, drain their blood, but never tried to rape Eli? I know I need to read the book, but I’m impatiently puzzled.
Also, why did she need a human to take care of her? I realize she needed an adult to rent apartments, turn on utilities, do the things they won’t let minors do, but why not turn an adult into a vampire to be her companion/caretaker?
Did the book end with Oskar and Eli on the train, running away from home, with Eli in a box on the floor? I was wondering how they were going to hide and live until Oscar was old enough to do things like rent apartments and whatnot. It was sad to think that Oskar would grow old, while Eli would always be 12, but then I thought she could turn him into a vampire when he reached 18, then they could stay together forever. Was there any resolution in the book? Is there a sequel?[/spoiler]
[SPOILER]
As for why Eli needed a human adult: Well, vampires (in this movie) instantly burst into flame in direct sunlight. It’s probably useful to have a helper who doesn’t do that.
I think the end of the movie works pretty well, because while we know that “running away” can’t really work for these kids, it reminds us that they’re still kids - really screwed up, utterly doomed kids. It’s played as a happy ending, but it really isn’t - which is cool.
Finally - I’m not sure the older guy was a pedophile. He might have just been a garden-variety serial killer. As for why he hangs with Eli - hey, he likes killing people. Eli kills people, and has money. So why not? [/SPOILER]
I had a completely different understanding of the older guy. My thought was that he started out just like Oskar. He was enticed into a relationship with Eli as a young kid, just like Oskar, but then he grew old while Eli remained young. The old guy’s fate is Oskar’s eventual fate.
[spoiler] In the book, Eli finds Hakan, the older guy she is traveling with in the movie, not long before the story begins. He is a disgraced former school teacher and a pedophile.
In the book he asks if Eli will allow him to “touch” her later. But this is never depicted. Later in the book after Hakan has been transformed into a zombie (not part of the movie) he attempts to rape Eli/Elias.
Not addressed in the book or movie, but in my opinion, making an adult companion into a vampire would not be an efficient strategy for Eli. An adult vampire wouldn’t be able to protect her during the day. And having another vampire around would be competition for the food supply. Eli kills her victims to prevent this. Virginia only becomes a vampire because Eli is interrupted in her feeding before she can kill her.
The book ends like the movie. My feeling is that Eli has real feelings for Oscar, something she didn’t for Hakan. In the book she offers to ‘turn’ Oscar. He declines. She also assures Oscar that she would never harm him.
The author has promised a short story sequel titled “Let the Old Dreams Die”, which is another line in the Morrissey song “Let the Right One Slip In”, that the book’s title is taken from.[/spoiler]
I haven’t read the book, but I can’t really see a rape attempt on Eli going well for any normal human. She dismembered Oskar’s attackers with little effort.
I have to admit that I didn’t at all pick up on Eli being a castrated boy. The shot passed by so quickly that I really had no idea what I had seen.[/spoiler]
That’s actually…disappointing. My interpretation (wrong though it may be) would have added a layer of poignancy to the old man’s character (and Oskar’s, for that matter).
Haven’t read the book, but I just wanted to say that I’ve had girlfriends (my own age) like that – always promising to put out, but demanding that I fulfill their every whim and desire first. :rolleyes:
The movie leaves it open to interpretation. In an interview, speaking of Hakan, the old man character, director Tomas Alfredson says, “In the film he has a mysterious appearance and to me he is either an old ‘Oskar’ - an old lover - or the opposite, the kind of man she can live close to, a person who she despises, because of the fact that love and nearness is her only threat.”
To me, this brings up the issue of how an audience interprets and reacts to any work of art. In this case, what is ‘true’? What the book’s author wrote, what the film’s director thinks or what you, the audience member, took away from the experience.
