Be Me
A Little
John Ajvide Lindqvist's debut novel,
Låt Den Rätte Komma In, was
released in 2004 in Sweden, with an English translation arriving in 2007. 2008
saw the premiere of Tomas Alfredson's Swedish film which will henceforth be
known as Let the Right One In or LTROI, and the American
adaptation Let Me In or LMI debuted in 2010, directed by Matt
Reeves. While LMI pays homage aesthetically to LTROI, it is not a
remake and is instead a separate - if similar - retelling of the novel.
Reeves's version goes so far as to adapt to the changed setting and rename the
leads the Americanized Owen and Abby, rather than Oskar and Eli. Though the
films have a common runtime of one hour and fifty-five minutes, each makes its
own alterations to the world set down in Lindqvist's story, while winnowing
away multiple subplots that the Swedish picture does touch upon without further
exploration.
Major variances between the
adaptations are apparent in the introductory scenes. Alfredson opens his movie
with credits amongst falling snow, followed by main character Oskar imagining
taking revenge on his tormentors, and the novel's first occurrence of Oskar's
class being taught by a police officer appears five minutes into the
proceedings, albeit about a different subject. Reeves begins his film with a
scene from the middle of the consequent action, now set in New Mexico, with a
character known only as The Policeman inspecting the circumstances behind a man
burning his own face with acid. As the officer arrives at the hospital, the
burned man later revealed as the vampire's familiar throws himself from his
window.
This is where the biggest deviation
from the novel occurs, as neither movie deals with the character after his apparent
demise. Lindqvist's iteration reanimates due to his vampiric bite, yet is only
a zombified husk, incapable of coherent thought, roaming the nearby
neighborhoods in the nude. This dovetails with the earlier police officer
lesson and an entire other subplot about Oskar's neighbor and friend Tommy,
whose only nod in the movies comes in the form of him having shown Oskar/Owen
where the basement rec room is.
The characterization of the burned
man is unique to each version. In the novel and presumably in the first movie,
Eli's assistant is a man called Håkan, a pedophile recruited as familiar in exchange for the
promise of touches. Let Me In takes a hugely different approach to the
character, now known only as The Father. Owen discovers pictures in Abby's
apartment taken of her and her helper when he was a child, identifiable by a
facial birthmark. This leaves the audience to wonder if Owen will suffer the
same fate, growing old and worn down beside Abby out of a fierce dedication
formed in his youth.
