Maggie Kay's Horror Blog LTROI feature

[MaggieKayPresents]

First off, I would like to thank any of you for reading my article (or part of it..) on Let the Right One In (2008) posted on my blog at the following link: http://maggiekaypresents.blogspot.com/2 ... -2008.html

Secondly, I appreciate all of your enthusiastic criticism about my interpretation of the film. I am always looking for feedback, and negative feedback gives me more room to grow than positive feedback.

Finally, I would like to state that I wrote the article on the Swedish film ONLY. This does not include the American remake, the book, the epilogue titled "Let the Old Dream Die" or any other pieces on this topic. I did not mean to offend anyone, and I am certainly open to your interpretation of the film. However, this is how I felt when viewing the film and after a long discussion with my colleagues on the same topic that you all have mentioned today.

Best Redards,


Maggie Kay
Maggie Kay's Horror Blog

http://www.MaggieKayPresents.blogspot.com
MaggieKayPresents@yahoo.com

[Cuchullain]

Hello Maggie and welcome to the infected.

I am glad that you have decided to visit and may I say first of all that you are fully entitled to your own interpretation of LTROI and I have not taken any offence at anything written in your blog I just hold a different view. Also realise that not all of us here share the same views and there are many different trains of thought when it comes to the interpretation of LTROI.

I look forward to reading more of your blog reviews and I shall outline my interpretation further when I have some time.

By the way it you enjoyed LTROI you should run to the book store and get the novel. It can be disturbing at times but it is a must for any fan of the film.

[gattoparde59]

Hi Maggie Kay. I didn't expect to see you here.

People here are really very nice. Don't take it the wrong way if the opinions here get a little emotional sometimes . . .

[MaggieKayPresents]

By the way it you enjoyed LTROI you should run to the book store and get the novel.

I actually do own a copy of the book, however I have not had the chance to read it. I definitely want to read it though.

After skimming a few of the discussion boards on the film I found myself shocked at just how open to interpretation this film was. There are several little things that, depending on culture, might get missed or understood incorrectly. I am certainly open to the idea that Eli and Oskar are genuinely in love, however with my cultural background (American, I actually live in the "Bible Belt" where people think I'm going to Hell merely because I watch horror films) it seems obvious that he is infatuated with her and she needs him. She may love him, but certainly in a different way (My friend Justin pointed that out to me, and I don't want to steal his words). Being a foreign film, there are just some things I won't understand due to cultural difference, and I accept that.

[MaggieKayPresents]

People here are really very nice. Don't take it the wrong way if the opinions here get a little emotional sometimes . . .

I completely understand. When people talk crap about my favorite movie, I get pretty emotional too. I just hope that people understand that it is merely a disagreement and I'm not some Sexist-Swedish-Horror-Film-Hating-Monster. I do have some good things to say on my blog, and I hope that some of you might give it a chance even though I had a different interpretation of your favorite film.

[Cuchullain]

I actually do own a copy of the book, however I have not had the chance to read it. I definitely want to read it though.

After skimming a few of the discussion boards on the film I found myself shocked at just how open to interpretation this film was. There are several little things that, depending on culture, might get missed or understood incorrectly. I am certainly open to the idea that Eli and Oskar are genuinely in love, however with my cultural background (American, I actually live in the "Bible Belt" where people think I'm going to Hell merely because I watch horror films) it seems obvious that he is infatuated with her and she needs him. She may love him, but certainly in a different way (My friend Justin pointed that out to me, and I don't want to steal his words). Being a foreign film, there are just some things I won't understand due to cultural difference, and I accept that.

Yes this is true, interpretation can be affected by cultural issues. The main reason that this forum exists and why you and others chose to write about LTROI is because Eli and Oskar's characters have touched us all deeply. From the moment I finished watching I steadfastly believed that the film is above all else a love story and a love story that is beautiful due to the innocence of the two main characters.

Eli is a vampire and has lived for a long time, she is 12 but '...has been twelve for a very long time'. I think that this is the crux of the issue. How does a viewer/reader see Eli? If you see her as a vampire first and a 12 year old child second then the dreaded 'caretaker' interpretation is more probable but if you see her, like I do, as a 12 year old child first and a vampire second then the innocent love story makes more sense.

Oskar and Eli are both outsiders and they both need each other for different reasons. When Eli meets Oskar first she sees him as a meal but his act of kindness in handing over the Rubik's cube changes that and over time Eli learns what it is like to be human again. Before Oskar all she encountered were paedophiles or people who were willing to help her for the wrong reasons but Oskar is different. It is Eli's discovery of the fact that Oskar is different that makes her feel like a twelve year old child again and the fact that he accepts her knowing exactly what she is that makes her love him.

I think that they both found something in each other that they didn't know existed and they will remain together as equals.

Check out Wolfchild's 'A Tale Told By Hands' for a great illustration of this view,

http://let-the-right-one-in.com/woofy/4 ... -by-hands/

[DMt.]

Hi Maggie. In my turn, I hope you are not offended by my Aaargh!, and refusal to even read the blog, but the 'dreaded caretaker interpretation' is such a well-worn trope as to be almost physically painful to LTROI fanatics such as myself.

I admire your courage in coming here and standing by your work, and hope you will enjoy the place.

[a_contemplative_life]

First off, I would like to thank any of you for reading my article (or part of it..) on Let the Right One In (2008) posted on my blog at the following link: http://maggiekaypresents.blogspot.com/2 ... -2008.html

Secondly, I appreciate all of your enthusiastic criticism about my interpretation of the film. I am always looking for feedback, and negative feedback gives me more room to grow than positive feedback.

Finally, I would like to state that I wrote the article on the Swedish film ONLY. This does not include the American remake, the book, the epilogue titled "Let the Old Dream Die" or any other pieces on this topic. I did not mean to offend anyone, and I am certainly open to your interpretation of the film. However, this is how I felt when viewing the film and after a long discussion with my colleagues on the same topic that you all have mentioned today.

Having watched the film a number of times, I have come to reject the "manipulative Eli" theory; however, there is enough ambiguity in the character of Hakan in the film to make the point arguable. But I would urge you to go back and rewatch the scenes between Oskar and Eli, and ask yourself whether what you are seeing is blooming mutual love, or infatuation + manipulation. I think there are many subtle clues pointing to the former. Also, I think the unfolding of events is too coincidental to support the theory that all of them were engineered by Eli.

[sauvin]

Also, I think the unfolding of events is too coincidental to support the theory that all of them were engineered by Eli.

Not to mention that Eli occasionally has problems with discipline and foresight. She knows d%#n well she can't just leave her victims' bodies laying about so close to home, but that's precisely what she did with Jocke's body, depending on Hakan (who has already proven to be less than perfect as a servant) to dispose of the evidence. Her attack on Virginia was - purely from a practical viewpoint, mind - harebrained, irrational and impulsive. She left surviving witnesses, and a vampire with two centuries of experience is bound to have learned long ago that you either leave no survivors or you leave immediately if you don't want visitors knocking down your door while you sleep.

She might be wise and experience beyond her years, but in so many ways, Eli really is only twelve years old. She can solve a Rubik's cube in no time flat, that's true, and maybe she can play a devastating game of chess - but it sounds to me like she can't plan her way into next Tuesday without help.

[Hume]

I feel kind of privileged, in a way, that I got to see LTROI at the theater for the first time, in its first run through the art-theaters in the US, made its way to my city in the fall of 2008, I think. I saw it without reading the novel or any knowing any background of the story. My first impression of the story was similar Maggie Kay's Horror Blog: Oskar will be the next Hakan, following a long line of Hakans.

My feeling about this has changed over the years, as I've watched the film more, read the novel, and, of course, checked out the discussions at We, The Infected. But I'm still sympathetic to that first impression I had; it's a valid interpretation of the film. And it's such a dark, evil take on it, just pure horror greatness. It doesn't diminish the film in any way, I think.