Week 2: Vampire

Let the Right One In

John Ajvide Lindqvist

I have watched the movie Let the Right One In by Tomas Alfredson before I read the book. After I read the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, I have noticed that many of the characters in the movie weren’t portrayed as strong as it was in the novel. In the novel, Oskar’s desperation in wanting to murder his bullies in the beginning of the story was so much stronger than how it was portrayed in the movie. The novel also seem to have explained the outcome of the character’s personality through telling us the story of each character’s backgrounds. Since movies have limitations, many of the scenes were hidden, which I find it very upsetting.

What I found interesting in the story itself was that the vampires weren’t like the typical vampires in many of the vampire movies. Vampires I knew from other novels and movies were creatures that didn’t really have a deep relationship with a human; many of them used their appearances to seduce others into luring them to their sides. However, in Lindqvist’s novel Eli and Oskar slowly and gradually built their relationship. Also Eli is an older vampire trapped inside a young girls’ body. Although she may have lived a long period, her mind is still that of a child’s and she doesn’t wishes for those she bites to become something like her that she always ends up killing them off completely. Virginia, a woman who survived Eli’s attack, end up killing herself by having the nurse open up the blinds exposing herself to the sun, causing her to burn into flames. This explains that ‘vampire’ is something people do not want to become and Eli probably understands it. Due to popularity of ‘vampires’, many people would have a wonder of becoming one if they ever existed in reality, but through the novel, Lindqvist seem to explain that vampire isn’t something people would want to become.