Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Posted by Ms Harker | Filed under Horror Films, Horror Reading
I feel its time to comment on the quiet phenomenon of both the film and book ‘Let the Right One In’. According to the blog ‘The Vault of Horror’in the 2008 Cyber Horror Awardsthe film won every category it was nominated in. The film is set in the 1980’s in Sweden, and is centered around two central characters a adolescent boy and a female vampire who appears the same age. The film maintains the awkward relationship between the boy and the vampire and also recreates the chilling stillness from the novel. The ambiance of the Nordic winter combined with the ambiguity felt towards the vampire; should you be empathising with her or is she indeed a predator? Allows the film to omit some of what I felt were some integral relationships within the novel.
Within the novel you are exposed to a group of misfits both adult and adolescent who all display their darker sides at some point. In the film we don’t get to know the group of adults who within the novel create a parallel plot of being ‘outsiders’ to their community, much like we are exposed to with the character of the young boy. Also at the climax of the novel the impact on the community at large is felt, and we relate to this as Lindqvist builds and joins the reader with the different groups within the novel, not unlike Steven King’s ‘Salems Lot’.
I recommend reading the novel before seeing the film, however both are some of the best crafted pieces in the genre in the past year.
Ms Harker.
(For another take on the film, visit the blog : Paranormal Romance)
Let the Right One In
