| Title | The golden age of horror: Let the Right One In (2008) |
| Author | Chris Hornbostel and Rob Morton |
| Posted in | Features |
| When | October 19, 2014 |
Chris: Being the new kid in the neighborhood is tough..
Read the full articleHere's how you can tell if you've got the old and busted subtitles on your physical copy of LTROI: http://iconsoffright.com/news/...
Good chat guys. I very much enjoyed this movie, but agree with you on how thin all of the characters are outside of the central three.
I thought that Hakan was obviously Eli's former child-love from decades back in that scene where Hakan requests that Eli see less of Oskar. What lingers with me most about the film was the scene of Hakan's death and her reaction to it. No emotion, just a blank stare & grab some more newly available blood, then let him fall to his death without a second thought. Hakan's end is Oskar's future. This innocent looking girl was truly monstrous.
I also thought "former child-love-turned servant" was the only possible explanation. Don't we see a picture of them together when they were young (or was that the remake?). The reason he's incompetent is only because he's becoming, to quote a wise man, "too old for this shit". Thus the vampire girl's need to find a replacement, another little boy.
That was definitely my read as well. Hakan was once very, very good at this. Thus the preparation, the kit, the practiced hand with a knife.
But he's gotten old, and sloppy. He can't lug a corpse around the way he used to. He can't sit waiting in the shadows for hours in the freezing cold for the perfect victim.
Did she acquire Hakan the same way she acquired Oskar? It's implied, but I don't think we know, and I don't think it matters much. What matters is that Hakan's fate is unquestionably what lies in Oskar's future.
I consider Let the Right One In to be a modern classic of horror. So many memorable parts, so many memorable performances. Fun fact: Eli's voice was actually dubbed over by an older actress to make it sound more otherworldly. It's especially noticeable during the scene in which she loses it with Oskar.
The cinematography is just so impressive throughout. The scene of Oskar striking his tormentor during recess, but shot at a distance, still sticks with me to this day.
And finally, how often does the writer who created the work you're adapting cry after seeing a rough cut, before finally announcing to the public that it's a masterpiece?
p.s. On the matter of Hakan, the book takes a slightly different direction than the movie for his reasons behind helping Eli. It also makes clear something only hinted at in one line and one quick shot about Eli's past.
Okay, that makes sense... with Hakan starting to become more and more unreliable, Eli has to befriend a new human caretaker. So she picks the kid who's out stabbing trees at night. Not that she strikes me as a girl who particularly needs a caretaker.
The burning created by the normally delicious A&W cream soda in my nostrils makes me hate you right now.
By the way, Hakan suggests a new rule for all of us to learn from movies. If you see a stranger hauling around a tank of pressurized gas, YOU ARE NOT CURIOUS ABOUT IT. This rule applies to both well-lit snowy park paths in Sweden as well as dusty, deserted highways in Texas.
It is a beautiful and haunting movie. I remember reading the book afterwards and being relatively disappointed. The book fleshes out Eli's backstory significantly (it's not happy) and adds a side plot with one of her victims that Hakan doesn't dispose of.
My two favorite parts are the shots of snow falling against the night sky and the deafening silence while Oskar is underwater in the pool. I never saw the American remake, I just couldn't see it adding anything to the experience.
The American version wasn't a fiasco. But it just seemed...redundant. The original is all you really need.
"Det är Karin, Sune, Anna, Hakan!"
Do elaborate on your "p.s." as I'd love to know but don't plan on reading the book (I don't generally like reading books of movies I've seen and vice-versa).
According to the author of the novel Oskars father isn't supposed to be gay. My guess is that the friend coming over was only meant to show that his father where an alcoholic, and prioritizes getting drunk when a friend comes over.
The father being an alcoholic creates a more believable scenario for Oskar wanting to get away from there, so that makes a lot more sense. I guess I'd have liked the movie to have somehow figured out a way to show the alcoholism and that making Oskar uncomfortable a little better.
***************SPOILERS! STOP HERE IF YOU PLAN ON READING THE BOOK SOMEDAY!*************************************************
In the books, Hakan is a pedophile and former school teacher that lost his job after being caught with child pornography. He eventually encounters Eli, who is actually a boy who was castrated at some point in his past, and falls in love with her. Eli, who dresses and acts like a girl, pays Hakan to procure blood for her, as well as holding out the promise of intimacy someday. After the hospital scene in the movie where Eli drinks his blood, he turns into a rabid vamp driven by his lust for Eli. He eventually tries to rape Eli, but she escapes. Finally, he's killed by another youth after getting locked in a basement with him.
Wow. I love it. I think I better read the book after all. Thanks for sharing :-)
Honestly though, like Rob, I prefer the way the movie plays it all out.
Pasting this from the forum... Okay, so Hakan is definitely Eli's long-time companion in Let the Right One In. But in defense of my interpretation of their circumstances, I still think the story of Eli prior to this movie is a lot more fun to imagine if she's not stuck with him for half a century. She's such a great character and he's, relatively speaking, a total drip. This is one of those movie relationships where the choice of companion reflects poorly on our main character. Okay, he's growing older and he's tired and can't perform his duties for her anymore. But there's nothing interesting that I can see in him for her to connect with. So even though I'm demonstrably wrong, I'm sticking with my version of events because I think it's more creatively compelling. Eli is 12, she doesn't settle down. She's a tornado blowing through and occasionally picking things up and taking them with her.
And now that I see hepcat's description of Hakan from the books... wow! That's messed up. How long were they together prior to Eli meeting Oskar?