Description
Book SynopsisThese days it takes a very special vampire movie to stand out. Like
Twilight, the Swedish film
Let the Right One In is a love story between a human and a vampire but there the resemblance ends.
Let the Right One In is not a romantic fantasy but combines the supernatural with social realism. Set on a housing estate in the suburbs of Stockholm in the early 1980s, it's the story of Oskar, a lonely, bullied child, who makes friends with Eli, the girl in the next apartment. 'Oskar, I'm not a girl,' she tells him and she's not kidding. They forge a relationship which is oddly innocent yet disturbing, two outsiders against the rest of the world. But one of these outsiders is, effectively, a serial killer. While
Let the Right One In is startlingly original, it nevertheless couldn't have existed without the near century of vampire cinema that preceded it. Acclaimed film critic and horror novelist Anne Billson looks at how it has drawn from, and wrung new twists on, such classics as
Nosferatu (1922), how vampire cinema has already flirted with social realism in films like
Near Dark (1987) and how vampire mythology adapts itself to the modern world.
Trade ReviewThis is a concise but penetrating volume on one of the most influential Swedish films in some considerable time; the intriguing analysis of Tomas Alfredson's
Let The Right One may be delivered within only a hundred or so pages, but Billson still produces a remarkable number of aperçus on this highly influential adaptation of John Ajvide Lindqvist's remarkable novel. (Crime Time)
Anne Billson offers an accessible, lively but thoughtful take on the '80s-set Swedish vampire belter... a fun, stimulating exploration of a modern masterpiece. (Empire)
...informative and eminently readable, hitting just the right note of intellectual engagement ... any vampire film aficionado will be able to revisit
Let the Right One In with new eyes and appreciate so much more after reading [Anne Billson's] assessment of its undoubted merits. (Black Static)
Table of ContentsIntroduction
'Be Me, for a Little While'
Textual Analysis
The Other Swedish Vampire Movie
The Vampire's Arrival
Meeting the Vampire
The Vampire as Serial Killer
The Vampire as Metaphor
Sex and the Vampire
Becoming a Vampire
The Vampire's Lifestyle
The Vampire's Nemesis
The Vampire's Assistant
Vampire Rules
The Vampire's Departure
