[MOVIE SUMMARY] "Let the Right One In" (2008)
bjk...@hotmail.com
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
Cast
Oskar ............... Kare Hedebrant
Conny ............... Patrik Rydmark
Martin ........... Mikael Erhardsson
Andreas ............... Johan Somnes
Hakan ................... Per Ragnar
Eli ............... Lina Leandersson
Jocke .................. Mikael Rahm
Gosta ......... Karl-Robert Lindgren
Matte ........... Christopher Bohlin
Lacke ............... Peter Carlberg
Virginia .................. Ika Nord
Jimmy ............. Rasmus Luthander
Eli's voice ............ Elif Cevlan
Comments
"Let the Right One In" is based on the 2004 novel "Lat den
ratte komma in" by Swedish writer John Ajvide Lindqvist. Eli
(pronounced "Ellie") is a 220 year old vampire. Born male, Eli
was, for some reason, castrated at the age of 12 by the vampire
who turned her. Now Eli is stuck forever in the body of a 12-year
old, which actually makes it easier on her because adults are
more easily fooled into helping her. The part of Eli was played
by a female actress, but her voice was dubbed by a male. The
story takes place in the early 1980s, as evidenced by references
to the Soviets and Leonid Brezhnev in news reports and
conversations.
Summary
Twelve year old Oskar is so wimpy that he's constantly
picked on by the other boys at his school, especially Conny and
his two friends, Martin and Andreas. Out of fear, Oskar never
fights back. In the evenings, however, he sits in the courtyard
rehearsing knife attacks on his tormenters. One evening, Oskar
notices a new girl about his age and her father moving into into
#15, the apartment next door to his. Oddly, the first thing they
do is to cover the windows with cardboard. What Oskar doesn't
know is that Hakan is not Eli's father...he is her renfield...and
Eli is a vampire. It is Hakan's job to bring Eli fresh blood,
which he gets by killing other humans. First he anesthetizes them
with halothane, then he strings them up by the feet, slits their
necks, and catches the blood in a jug, leaving the bodies to be
discovered the next day. Unfortunately for Eli, Hakan is having
problems securing blood for her. On his first kill after moving
into the new apartment, he either lost or forgot the jug filled
with blood. Consequently, Eli is beginning to get hungry.
One evening, as Oskar is in the courtyard stabbing a tree in
lieu of his tormenters, he notices Eli watching him. She's not
very friendly, as she tells him right off that she can't be
friends with him. The next evening, they run into each other
again in the courtyard. Oskar notices that Eli is not wearing a
coat even though it's the dead of winter in Stockholm. What's
more, she's not even cold. And she smells bad. Still, Oskar
shares with her his Rubic's cube and shows her how to work it.
After Oskar has gone inside, Eli goes hunting. She waits in the
shadows under a bridge. When two neighborhood friends, Jocke and
Gosta, part company, and Jocko walks under the bridge, Eli calls
out, "Help me!" Thinking that the little girl has fallen, Jocko
picks her up. Suddenly, Eli latches onto him and bites his neck.
Gosta sees everything. By the time he is able to stumble into the
Sun Palace Cafe and get help, however, Jocko's body is gone
(Hakan has already covered up the killing by tossing the body
into a pond), but they do find Jocko's blood in the snow. The
next morning, Oskar finds that Eli has solved the Rubic's cube
and left it in the courtyard. When they meet there later in the
day, Eli is a bit more friendly, taking the time to explain to
Oskar how she went about solving the puzzle. She also smells
better, but it's odd that she cannot remember her birth date when
Oskar asks. Since Eli doesn't know her birth date, she doesn't
celebrate her birthdays and gets no presents, so Oskar offers her
the Rubic's cube.
The next day at school, Oskar stays after class to copy the
symbols for Morse code from the encyclopedia. On his way home, he
is confronted by Conny and his two friends. When Conny orders
Oskar to show him what he copied from the encyclopedia and Oskar
refuses, Martin grabs Oskar and Andreas begins to whip his legs
with a stick. As an added measure, Martin slaps the stick against
Oskar's cheek, gashing it. Oskar later tells his mother that he
fell during recess. But when Eli asks what happened, he tells her
the truth. Eli tells him that he must start to fight back. If so,
they will stop tormenting him. If they don't stop, Eli promises
to help him. Oskar shares with Eli the Morse code that he copied
from the encyclopedia. That night, they practice tapping on the
wall that separates their apartments. The next day at school,
Oskar signs up for the weight-lifting program. Later, he takes
Eli to a candy store and offers her a piece. At first, she
refuses; then she tries one. Oskar finds her heaving on the
sidewalk around the corner. He hugs her. Eli asks him whether or
not he would still like her if she wasn't a girl. "I guess so,"
Oskar replies, not quite understanding what Eli is asking.
As the friendship between Oskar and Eli deepens, Hakan
starts feeling a bit jealous. He tries again to obtain blood for
Eli. This time he preys on a student alone in the weight-lifting
room, but he is interrupted when Matte's friends come to pick him
up. Knowing that he is trapped and about to be discovered, Hakan
pours acid on his face so that he can't be identified. When Eli
learns that Hakan has been taken to a hospital, she shows up
asking for her father. The desk clerk tells her that Hakan is on
Level 7, so she climbs up the outside of the building until she
gets to his window. Hakan lets her in and offers her his neck.
After Eli drinks his blood, Hakan falls to his death. Eli returns
to the apartment building and taps on Oskar's bedroom window,
asking to be let him. Oskar is almost asleep but he tells her to
come in. Eli crawls into bed with him, and Oskar notices that she
doesn't have any clothes on. He asks her whether she'd like to go
steady with him, and Eli replies "I'm not a girl." That doesn't
seem to bother Oskar, so they decide to go steady. The next
morning, Eli returns to her own apartment, but she leaves a note
for Oskar that reads, "To flee is life; To linger is death. Your
Eli."
One afternoon on a school outing to a local pond for some
ice skating, Conny, Martin, and Andreas again confront Oskar with
a warning that they are going to push him into an ice hole. This
time, however, Oskar stands up for himself and takes a swipe at
Conny's head with a stick, causing his ear to bleed. At the same
time, two younger students gone off to pee behind some trees
notice a body frozen in the ice. The police are called, and the
body is cut free. Later that afternoon, after school is out,
Oskar brings Eli to a basement room at the school. When Eli asks
why they're there, Oskar pulls out a knife and cuts his palm,
offering to mix bloods with her. Watching Oskar's blood drip on
the floor, Eli can no longer stand the hunger that she's
experiencing now that Hakan is not providing her with blood. She
falls to the floor and begins to lap up Oskar's blood.
The body stuck in the ice is identified as that of Jocko's.
Jocko's drinking buddy, Lacke and his girlfriend Virginia, try to
convince Gosta to tell the police what he saw the night that
Jocko was murdered. During the discussion, however, Lacke defends
his closeness with Jocko by pointing out that Virginia is "cold",
Consequently, Virginia storms off. Lacke follows her to the
subway where Eli jumps on her. Fortunately, Lacke is able to kick
Eli off before she kills Virginia. Unfortunately for Virginia,
Lacke's save only means that Virginia is doomed to become a
vampire. She notices the change the next morning when she opens
the blinds and quickly closes them again. That evening, she
visits Gosta's apartment looking for Lacke, but she is visciously
attacked by Gosta's cats. Later, in the hospital, Virginia
realizes that she's been infected with something and decides that
she doesn't want to live. She asks the doctor to open the blinds
to her room. Immediately, she is consumed in flames.
A wimp he might be but Oskar is not a dummy. He has figured
out that Eli is a vampire and confronts her. Knocking on the door
ot her apartment, he is let in to see that there is no furniture
and that Eli smells bad again. When Eli comes to his apartment
and asks to be invited in, he stalls, asking her what would
happen if he didn't invite her in. Eli steps inside and begins to
bleed from various places on her body. Oskar relents and invites
her in. Eli explains that she drinks blood because she has to.
Apparently, Oskar understands, as he allows Eli to shower and put
on one of his mother's dresses. As Eli dresses, Oskar peeks in
the door and notices that Eli has a horizontal scar across her
public area and no evidence of a vaginal slit. [NOTE: In the
novel, Eli was born male and castrated at age 12 during a ritual
that also turned him into a vampire.] When Oskar's mom comes
home, Eli immediately scampers across the window from Oskar's
apartment to hers, even though it's two stories up.
The next morning, Oskar finds a note from Eli asking him
whether he wants to meet her that evening. Lacke has somehow
traced Eli to her apartment. He breaks in and finds her asleep in
the bathtub. Because he can't see in the dark, he rips open the
cardboard covering the windows. Oskar, who was in the apartment
waiting for Eli to wake up, screams "NO!" giving Eli sufficient
time to jump on Lacke and drink his blood. After feeding, Eli
thanks Oskar, but informs him that she must go away. That night,
Oskar looks out the window to see Eli moving.
The next day, Oskar gets a call from Martin, asking whether
or not he's going to be at swimmig practice that afternoon.
Martin also tells Oskar that he thinks Oskar was right to stand
up to Conny. That afternoon, while Oskar is in the pool, someone
starts a fire in the trashbin out back, forcing the attendant to
leave the pool area unintended. As Martin distracts Oskar, Conny,
Andreas, and Conny's big brother Jimmy enter the pool area. Jimmy
orders everyone else out ot the pool. When they are alone with
Oskar, Jimmy gives Oskar an ultimatum...either stay under water
for three minutes or have one of his eyes poked out...Okkar's eye
for Conny's ear. Then Jimmy grabs Oskar's hair and pushes him
under. A minute passes. Suddenly, feet can be seen skimming on
the surface of the water, followed by Jimmy's head, and then
Jimmy's arm. an almost drowned Oskar is pulled from the water by
Eli, who has
Epilogue: Oskar sits on a train. Snow is falling outside. A large
basket sits in front of him. From inside the basket comes a
rapping. Oskar raps back in Morse Code, "P-U-S-S", Swedish for
"kiss".
bjk...@hotmail.com
Ooops. I posted the wrong copy of the movie summary for "Let the Right
One In." The second last paragraph was incomplete. It should read:
The next day, Oskar gets a call from Martin, asking whether or not
he's going to be at swimming practice that afternoon. Martin also
tells Oskar that he thinks Oskar was right to stand up to Conny. That
afternoon, while Oskar is in the pool, someone starts a fire in the
trashbin out back, forcing the attendant to leave the pool area
unintended. As Martin distracts Oskar, Conny, Andreas, and Conny's big
brother Jimmy enter the pool area. Jimmy orders everyone else out of
the pool. When they are alone with Oskar, Jimmy gives Oskar an
ultimatum...either stay under water for three minutes or have one of
his eyes poked out...Oskar's eye for Conny's ear. Then Jimmy grabs
Oskar's hair and pushes him under. A minute passes. Suddenly, feet can
be seen skimming on the surface of the water, followed by Jimmy's
severed head, and then Jimmy's severed arm. An almost drowned Oskar is
pulled from the water by Eli, who has just slaughtered three of Eli's
tormentors, leaving the fourth sobbing on the side of the pool.
Sethra007
last week. I missed the bit about Eli being male and castrated, so I
had no idea. Was it referenced explicitly in the movie?
bj_k...@hotmail.com
> Beej, thanks for posting this. I just rented Let the Right One In
> last week. I missed the bit about Eli being male and castrated, so I
> had no idea. Was it referenced explicitly in the movie?
It was very subtly referenced. When Oskar asks Eli if she'd like to be
his girlfriend, Eli's reply is something like, "I'm not a girl" or
"Would you still like me if you knew that I wasn't a girl?" or
something like that. The only other reference is when Oskar looks
through the door to see Eli getting dressed and sees only a crotch
with a scar on it, the scar being from the castration. The castration
itself is not referenced in the movie. Knowledge of it comes from the
novel.
JadedMage
Would there happen to be an english version of this movie?
bj_k...@hotmail.com
> Would there happen to be an english version of this movie?
The movie was filmed in Swedish. It is marketed to English-speaking
audiences with English subtitles. Whether or not there is or will be a
dubbed version, I don't know.
^BJ^