Let The Right One In

Michael George

10/27/2010

Let The Right One In

Total Running Time: 01:54:00

Director: Tomas Alfredson

Awards: "Best Narrative Feature," Tribeca Film Festival, "Best International Film, " Saturn Awards

PLOT: Let The Right One In is a Swedish film released in 2008. The film focuses on the relationship between a bullied 12-year-old living in Stockholm, Germany, and a young vampire who moves into town.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BOOK AND MOVIE: I've never read the book before, but after viewing the movie I hopped on the internet to search sources for a specific "attention to writing." In this case, the most common attention to writing is the differences between the events depicted in the book (released in 2004) and the movie that was released four years later. Apparently, as seen in most cases, the book has a lot more plot points and characters than the movie does. This was probably done because of time and budget restraints.

I think the biggest difference of all is how much the film was toned down. The film looks G rated compared to some of the things I read that appear in the book. The biggest difference I can tell from reading reviews is that the book is a lot more sexual than the movie. The young vampire, Eli (who was originally a boy), lives with a caretaker who is a pedophile and makes unwanted advances, if not flat out taking what he wants, on the young girl. Sexuality between adolescents is depicted in the book, as well as possible incest, as well as the whole transgendered debate. I have a feeling this was toned down for the big screen because that would be a big no-no for audience members and the people who rate movies because of the content being directed towards two children. The main character, the bullies boy Oscar, is also much darker in the book than on camera. In the movie he collects a scrap book of violent newspaper articles and other grim things, but is mostly quiet and somewhat cowardly. It was noted that his character is much darker and sinister in the book. Examples of this are that in the book he contemplates being a serial killer and an arsonist.