Film analysis 1

Let The Right One In

Film Analysis

“Let the right one in” is a Swedish vampire film about a young boy who is bullied at school and he doesn’t seem to have any friends until befriends a young girl by the name of “Eli” who has only just appeared in “Oskar’s” (the young boy’s) neighbourhood. As the film progresses the audience are shown that “Eli” is a vampire who is looked after by an older male who is assumed to be her father. This man that is assumed to be Eli’s father goes out and kills victims and drains there blood so he can feed Eli rather than her having to go out and put herself in danger. During the film it seems that a love story is blossoming between the two children, Oskar and Eli, and she goes on to teach him ways to stand up for himself and she ends up saving him from the bullies in the penultimate scene.

This is a film where I believe it leaves the audience to make up what they think of who the victims are in this film, it also lets everyone make there own decision upon what the relationship between Eli and her male acquaintance may be. I think that films like this leave more of an effect on the audience rather than a film where all the questions are answered because it doesn’t leave you thinking after the film has finished.

This isn’t a typical horror because there isn’t a victim and a killer, in a way I suppose you could say Oskar is a victim but also the killer because if he had not existed then Eli would not have killed his bullies and they could be the victims. This is why I find this film very interesting because it is all up to the viewer on what they think and who they think is the killer and victim really is in this film.

This film also brings up the question of whether the bad person in this film is actually a bad character or is only doing these awful things for survival. The last scene of the film shows Oskar on a train with a box which Eli is in. This shows the audience that they may be running away together and she could just be using Oskar like she was using her male acquaintance, to get blood for her so she won’t get caught. This brings up questions as well like how many times has Eli done this and how old could what the audience assumed was a young girl.