Dale Luck Let The Right One In AS Media Studies

The opening shot of snow on a dark night background links in to the character of Eli, seemingly
symbolizing her presence in the setting – the arrival of the snow coincides with her arrival in the city.
This is backed up by the fact that at the end of the film, after she’s returned to save Oskar, it appears
again, showing the presence of her character (as when it’s shown at the beginning of the film, she’s
just arrived in town, and the shot a few seconds after showing Oskar in his window is of her and
Håkan in their car). It’s at this opening scene in the film that the director has chosen to link the two
characters of Oskar and Eli together, with Oskar’s violent words overlapping the image of the snow,
before showing him in a reflection – this reflection, however, could also be linking his character and
Håkan’s, as the scene cuts to the car, with his reflection in the mirror. This could be showing how
Håkan reflects what Oskar may become when he’s older – it’s revealed that Håkan is in love with Eli
(shown by his self-sacrifice to her, his forwardness in the situation where he pours acid on his face to
eliminate any trace to her, and his wish for her not to see Oskar, for fear of her becoming interested in
him instead), and that he clearly accompanies and helps her wherever she goes, and yet she doesn’t
love him back – the film ends with Oskar abandoning everything to travel with Eli, and his future is left
somewhat ambiguous.

There are two main sides to the character of Eli. For one, the monstrous, powerful side, that even she
herself hates (as seen by her crying when she kills Jocke and snaps his neck), which is the side that
the audience are first introduced too, as they are shown very little affection or feeling from her
character in the opening scenes, and the tune humming of her first shot is probably there just to build
tension by making the atmosphere somewhat creepy (the lack of any non-diegetic noise helps to
emphasize this point), as well as portraying her child-like image that the rest of the characters see
(and to some extent, even Håkan does, as despite his “job” of killing people and feeding her the
drained blood, he still is able to smile at her child-like tendencies, such as the humming).

The other side is the child-like side, that the rest of the characters can see, and that Oskar focuses
on. This side is shown mainly through the character’s affection towards the others, and her actual
appearance. The affection is clearly visible when she interacts with the characters of Håkan and
Oskar – for example, when Håkan asks her to not see “that boy” again, she smiles at him and strokes
his cheek lightly, before leaving the room, and when she licks the blood off the floor in front of Oskar
she tells him to run before leaving quickly herself, showing her care for him. She seems to have
genuinely “fallen in love” with Oskar, or for those that prefer to see her as a monster, has “a great
interest” in him as a person, as seen by her constant return to him (seeking company from him after
killing Håkan in pity), and her protection over him even after she’d supposedly left (which then lead to
him accompanying her indefinitely, leaving his mother behind).

Oskar is an odd character to examine. He too, like Eli, has both an innocent and a violent side, though
his inability to attack (and possibly kill) those he wants to because of a lack of power to do so results
in him becoming a sort of recluse from other characters and he’s seen acting out his fantasies in
imaginary games involving a knife of some sort, by himself. This may have lead to the fact that he
doesn’t seem to have any friends before Eli comes along, though whether or not Martin is actually his
friend or not isn’t very clear (he seems to talk to him as a friend after he puts Conny in hospital after
breaking his ear, though I don’t know whether this was due to a plan of Conny’s to eventually lure
Oskar in (as he later does), or if the eventual betrayal comes from Conny’s dominance over him later
on) – it’s more probable that he isn’t, however, as Eli seems to have considered him a key part in the
attempted murder of Oskar later on, choosing to murder him, Conny, and Conny’s older brother
Jimmy, whilst leaving the other bully Andreas alive, even though he was with them (possibly seeing
Martin as responsible as Conny and Jimmy for what could have happened). Despite this violent,
friendless type that Oskar seems to be, he easily makes friends with Eli, and his violent side helps him
in some way towards this (not being disgusted in the least that Eli is a vampire, nor threatened). A
loving side can also be seen in his character, mainly towards his parents – he doesn’t tell his mother
the real reason he has a cut on his face, despite it resulting in him seeming like he had simply

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Dale Luck Let The Right One In AS Media Studies

assaulted Conny with the stick later on for no reason, and he loves spending time with his father and
having fun, despite it being revealed that he’s an alcoholic (and it being hinted that he doesn’t
necessarily care for his son’s activities, seen by his disinterest in the attack when talking to him on the
phone, despite the outrage of his mother). This love for his father is also emphasized by his wearing
of a red jumper during his stay there, a colour that is often used to represent love.

The relationship between Eli and Oskar is hard to explain... Whilst first starting out as mere friends,
they eventually become boyfriend and girlfriend, which (despite Eli’s old age) is purely affection – the
portrayal of the characters as children helps emphasize this point (which I guess is why Lindqvist
chose to write them as children in his book as well), as at their age of 12, relationships are just ways
of showing deep affection for one another. After a certain age, sex seems to factor in to how long a
relationship lasts, and the lack of sex allows their relationship to be focused just on love for each other
– this also relates to the fact that Eli is revealed to be a boy (I refer to her as a girl for ease of writing,
and the fact that the actor who played Eli was a girl, though when they were casting for the character
they had simply asked for a boy or girl that was “good at running”), and that she’d been castrated at
some point in the past (a lack of a sexual organ clearly shows a lack of any sexual interest at all). I
guess the final scene of them on the train could also relate to the lack of physical intimacy in their
relationship, as they both scratch the Morse code for “kiss” on the trunk, without actually touching
each other, which could be a symbolic gesture.

This relationship between them can also be seen in their choice of clothing in the scenes where
they’re together, which seem to reflect the way that the other is seeing them. For example, when they
first meet next to the climbing frame in front of the apartments, she is wearing a very light choice of
clothing, reflecting Oskar’s oblivious view of her monstrous side, and Oskar is wearing very dull
browns, with a contrasting scarf, which could show her largely dulled opinion of him at this point in the
film, with a hint of interest (hence the scarf). Their clothing at that point also seems to reflect the
environment – Oskar’s clothing suits the colour of the building itself, showing perhaps that he’s been
there for a while, whilst Eli’s clothing blends with the colour of the snow, which by the opening shot I’ll
assume has just arrived (as it grows in severity very quickly), as has she. Later on, as they become
closer, they also begin to start wearing the colour red around each other, which is a colour often used
to represent the idea of love – an example of this is when he goes to visit her at her house for the first
time after finding out she’s a vampire (confirming it at the beginning of the scene), and when she goes
to his house and puts on one of his mother’s red dresses, after having bled on her own clothes. This
relationship is also emphasized by camera work involved during the scenes they’re both in. They
began as semi-distant shots, with almost both of their full figures being in the shot, but when they start
to grow attached to one another, the camera work becomes a lot closer to them – this is easily seen in
the final scene where they’re both visible (the swimming pool scene), when Eli pulls Oskar out of the
pool and the camera remains fixed on close ups to their faces (with Eli’s shot only fitting in her eyes
and the upper part of her cheeks), only cutting out to a longer shot when they’ve left the scene
entirely. This scene is also a great example of the point I’m trying to make, that the use of having only
them in the shots shows the character’s perspectives – focused on each other. Oskar no doubt knew
of the bodies, but he remains oblivious to it all, happy that Eli had returned for him – in the shot that
follows, the point where he was being held down in the water, and was subsequently pulled up from,
has the headless body of Jimmy right next to it.

The camera work for the entire film is generally kept from a child’s perspectives, other than the
scenes that followed Håkan –so, more specifically, the camera work follows the perspectives of the
characters in the scene. For example, in the opening shots of Oskar and Eli, the perspective in the
first is a lot like what you’d see from Oskar’s view, with you being able to see mainly his reflection and
outside of the window, the shot of the car is from both the perspective of Eli and Håkan (though
mainly Håkan), and the shot of them getting out of the car is from Oskar’s perspective once more.
Even the shot where they first formally meet is from Oskar’s perspective, with the camera being closer
to him than Eli, and showing only the things that he would be able to see – at first the tree and some

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Dale Luck Let The Right One In AS Media Studies

of the environment as he acts out his fantasy, and then when he turns you get to see more of what’s
behind him, which shows the climbing frame and Eli on top of it. Another good example would be in
the classroom, where the camera is clearly at waist height of the talking officer, or head height of
Oskar. I could go on and on with examples, seeing as the majority of the film uses this type of
camera work, but you get the point. Another point to take note of is that the camera shots taken in the
perspective of the children (including Eli) is generally a lot closer to the action than those coming from
the perspectives of the adult – in Håkan’s scenes, they use a lot more long shots (such as when he
knocks out the guy who he asks for the time, and when he falls from the hospital window), and in the
children’s scenes they use a lot more close ups. They both do use the other at various points, but
there are a lot more of each type for each perspective (I know there are a few close ups with the
adults and long shots for the children).

A good scene that shows the differences between the two being to good use is the hospital scene: it
begins with Eli walking in to the hospital (after being let in, of course), and asking what floor her
“father” (referring to Håkan, though he isn’t really her father) is on – at this point, the camera is using
her perspective, hence the focus on her bare feet which the receptionist would have noticed had she
seen herself, and thus the camera is very close to the characters; she then leaves, and the
perspective switches to that of the receptionist, who runs out of the hospital and scans the area for Eli
– at this point, the camera is a wide shot of the hospital’s exterior, and the scene has been set up to
blend Eli in with the wall, making her hard to see, just like she is from the view of the receptionist; Eli
then climbs the wall, and the camera switches to Håkan’s perspective, who it doesn’t use close ups,
but rather mid shots of the scene; from this point on in the scene, it’s constantly switching between the
perspective of Eli and Håkan – all of the points that focus on Eli are close ups, and the rest are mid
shots and long shots of Håkan (not including the close up on his dying breath once he hits the floor,
which I haven’t determined is from whose perspective yet, either Eli’s or Håkan’s).

The film’s use of sound and music reflects the scenes it’s involved with quite well, and it lacks much
music, if any at all – it does occasionally have some non-diegetic sound within it, but it’s mostly done
to raise the tension of a moment whilst keeping the pace relatively low (a good example of which
would be when Lacke is in Eli’s bathroom and is uncovering the bathtub slowly, at which point the
classic high pitched tone of horror films is used lightly – this is followed by a quick one note on what
sounds like a violin (quite a classical, old-fashioned instrument, possibly reflecting the source of the
sudden pace change, aka Eli)). I think that the choice to have very little non-diegetic sound within the
film helps towards the immersion of the audience to an extent, as well as keeping it true to the
source material it was based on (the book by John Lindqvist having been praised for it’s social
realism, and so was the film upon release).

In terms of plot, the story seems to have messed with the theories proposed by Todorov and Levi-
Strauss, and mismatched the various roles spoken of by Vladimir Propp. There story begins with an
equilibrium, but in terms of the protagonist (Oskar), there is no real disruption that needs to be
fixed, unless you count the cause of his near-death from the confidence he gained from Eli. Lacke,
however, the man who’s girlfriend who lost everything because of Eli’s presence, and his best friend
was killed by her too, has a sort of unfinished story, in the view of Todorov’s equilibrium perspective
– his life is at a stage of equilibrium to begin with, then Eli comes along and disrupts said
equilibrium... But the equilibrium is never restored. Instead, he breaks into her home and is,
consequently, murdered because of this. With this classic level of storytelling in mind, that there is
an equilibrium that is broken then restored, you could say that the story of Let The Right One In is an
unfinished one. You never see the end of Eli and Oskar’s tale, nor do you see what happens to the
others, other than the bullies that died and the friend group of Lacke.

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Dale Luck Let The Right One In AS Media Studies

Levi-Strauss’ idea that the narrative contains binary opposites could also be seen as being somewhat
muddled within the plot too – the bad and the good seem to be on both sides of the spectrum,
working together in unison. Sure, the bullies could be seen as the baddies, and Eli and Oskar could
be seen as the goodies, but to do that would be shoving them into categories that they simply don’t
belong to. Oskar is a troubled boy with psychotic thoughts and an obsession with knives, and Eli is an
immortal transsexual 12 year old girl/boy who drinks the blood of the living. Conny and his friends
are children, and even they towards the end see problems in their own actions, but are unable to
stop the older boy Jimmy from acting – they’re simply too young to understand the repercussions of
their actions, and so naming them as evil wouldn’t be right. In some ways, Conny is what Oskar
would be if he had more confidence and power.

Propp’s character roles seem to be applicable to other roles. For example, Håkan takes the role of
the doner (who gains the blood for Eli), the villain (a heartless murderer who doesn’t care for his
victims), and in some ways the hero (sacrifices himself for the good of Eli, though this could potentially
fit into the false hero category, as he’s sacrificing himself over an unfounded love of a child). Oskar
doesn’t fit into many, and he doesn’t really do much at all, so I doubt he’d fit into hero... a repressed
villain is what I’d say he is – with more power, he’d become like Conny is, as seen by his fantasies
and obsessions over murder and knives. Eli fits into the categories of villain (or seen as such by the
others, at least), the helper (who aids Oskar, and gives him confidence, even though he isn’t the
hero), the father and the princess (being the eventual “reward” for Oskar at the end, by her own
choice), and the dispatcher (as she tells him how act, such as the scene when she tells him to fight
back the next time the bullies assault him). Overall, I don’t think anyone in the film is morally right or
wrong, and that the source material by Lindqvist seems to have created a very deep set of characters
that makes the setting and plot all the more realistic and immersive, bettering the book and, more
importantly, the film (through a seemingly perfect use of direction that matches the feel of the story
and themes it sets amazingly).