We watched "Let The Right One In" today. It is *Swedish,* not French, sorry everyone for telling you it was French.
Some basic ideas from the film were these: sunlight burns vampires very badly; a vampire will shake violently and bleed if [it] enters a space without being invited in first; it is not wonderful in any way to be a vampire (you don't sparkle); if a food victim is not killed he/she becomes a vampire within a short time after becoming very sick; once turned, a vampire will stay the same age until it is destroyed [implied]; vampires are very human in their feelings and actions; vampires have at least some control over their blood lust and can keep from killing someone if they wish to; cats hate vampires; vampires will throw up if you give them "people food"; vampires are very strong and can hurt you very badly if you mess with their cute little boyfriends; they are capable of love and affection.
If you have anything else to add, please do.
i think you nailed most of the points there.
ReplyDeletei was actually really impressed with this movie. it was much better than i originally expected it to be.
i think it gave us a very different view on vampires where they are not the bad guy or a sexual being (the two other main types of vampires that we have seen). i think that this will definitely be an important film when discussing the differences in vampires in different cultures
I agree, I thought it was great both in its not messing with how vampires are supposed to work and in its not being a standard vampire movie. I feel like there was one other point that I can't remember. Oh yes. In this, there is no association of the vampire with an animal, as in there is no transformation into a cat or dog or bat and nothing batlike happens. On a similar note, Eli does not fly (at least that we see, she does say "I flew," but it is taken as humor), but she does climb pretty well. The whole super-strength also goes with super-ability/agility. There was also a lack of garlic, crosses, fangs, stakes, super-speed, and super-senses (although the lack of weapons against vampires was because this was not a fight-the-vampires story; it's not that weapons would not have existed, we just don't have any input about them). Eli was pretty much a super-strong human who needed blood and who couldn't enter anyone else's abode without invitation (and I wonder, the bleeding everywhere must hurt and/or eventually kill a vampire, as otherwise it's not that much of a deterrent). Also, agreed that this movie was terrific.
ReplyDeleteWell I am happy you both liked the movie. I think it is a masterpiece. As you both said, this is definitely a completely new way to look at what it means to be a vampire. As Nik alluded to, Eli is not a "beast" of any type, she does not associate herself with them nor does she change into one. I think that is the main difference between her and other vampires, she does not have "beast-like" qualities that would make her dislikeable as a person, her only problem is that blood lust thing, but don't most American's eat cows? *vegan input*
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I think we should look into maybe one or two other foreign films to see maybe some other ideas. Indie films (like i believe this one was) always have some good ideas put into them. It's worth some research, i think.
ps. one more thing is the smell when Eli is hungry. i know in Twilight Edward's eyes change when he is hungry.. maybe another thing to add to the list? it could just be modern since i dont think we have run across this in anything older and both Let the Right One In and Twilight came out over the past decade.
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