Let the Right One In (2008) - by Faro

Some little girls know what they are doing, and some little films are equally aware…

Shes got everything she needs,

Shes an artist, she dont look back.

This film offers us a glimpse of hope amidst the darkness of our daily isolation; it shows us a  tiny candle flame of a relationship, shrouded in long dark nights, snowdrifts, and silences. The light may be small and uncertain, but in its fragile warmth we can find a bit of hope by watching the blossoming trust between the strangest of companions… a 12 year old boy who is living with his divorced mother and a 12 year old vampire girl who is living with a murdering old man. The love that these two children form together seems so honest and open and brutally beautiful.

She can take the dark out of the nighttime

And paint the daytime black.

But as the bonds of love and understanding are formed between two pale children amongst the falling snow, we cannot help but wonder at the weathered and jealous man who stands behind the little girl. What does he represent? Why does he kill for her? Why does she not hunt for herself? What is his story… or rather, what is their story?

You will start out standing

Proud to steal her anything she sees.

And when this old man is caught, he burns his face with acid. Then we know that this old man loves his little vampire, and that he kills only for her, to feed her, and we know that he is filled with shame for his actions. He doesn’t want to be recognized for what he has become. 

But you will wind up peeking through her keyhole

Down upon your knees. 

But he is not done serving her, not yet. When she comes to his hospital, he offers her his final blood to feed her one last time. And she does not refuse this last gift, and in truth it is also a gift to him… a final release from bondage. 

She never stumbles,

Shes got no place to fall.

She sacrifices her servant, and she is alone. She must hunt for herself, and her diminutive size clearly causes her problems. A predator must have either strength or poison on their side, and she does not seems to have the size for strength. The film shows us her fragility now. And we learn more about the shattered isolation that the little boy is living. She botches an attempt to feed. He is unable to communicate with his father or his mother. She’s hesitant to tell the little boy her true nature. He is constantly tortured by sadistic schoolyard bullies. The little boy and the little girl reach out to each other, and make missteps and misunderstandings, but always a little bit of progress. He accepts her for what she is and proves his love for her by this acceptance, and she goes against the vampire code and nearly kills herself coming into his home without his spoken request, proving her love for him. Let the right one in. He lets her in…  and so we learn that as a predator, she uses poison instead of strength.

Shes nobodys child,

The law cant touch her at all.

And at a moment of absolute crisis, when it seems all is lost, she comes to save her friend, her lover. She kills in spectacular fashion, and one wonders if perhaps she has more strength than she lets on. They flee the dreary and bitterly cold Scandinavian suburban town on a train, and in the last moments of the film they are together escaping on a train… and the sunshine flows in the window, and the color palate of the shot is warm and inviting for the first time the whole film. They are together, they are not alone.

Shes a hypnotist collector,

You are a walking antique. 

We see that the real vampirism is not that she feeds off blood, but rather that she uses love to ensnare a life. To bring the life of a young boy into her service, into a devotion to her that will warp the very ethical fabric of that boy’s life, deciding for him what he will become before he even knows what else he could be... She offers total connection in a world of isolation,  and as payment she takes his soul.

…hope she’s worth it…

 

Let the Right One Slip In – by Morrissey 

Ah ... let the right one slip in / Slip in / Slip in / And when at last it does / I'd say you were within your rights to bite / The right one and say, "what kept you so long ?" / "What kept you so long ?" / Oh ...