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Let the Right One In (film)

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Let the Right One In
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTomas Alfredson
Screenplay byJohn Ajvide Lindqvist
Produced byCarl Molinder
John Nordling
StarringKåre Hedebrant
Lina Leandersson
Per Ragnar
CinematographyHoyte van Hoytema
Edited byTomas Alfredson
Daniel Jonsäter
Music byJohan Söderqvist
Distributed bySandrew Metronome
Release dates
  • 26 January 2008 (2008-01-26) (Gothenburg)
  • 24 October 2008 (2008-10-24) (Sweden)
Running time
115 minutes
CountryTemplate:Film Sweden
LanguageSwedish
Budgetc. 29 million SEK (c. $4 million)
Box office$11,227,336[1]

Let the Right One In (Swedish: Låt den rätte komma in) is a 2008 Swedish romantic horror film directed by Tomas Alfredson. Based on the novel of the same name by John Ajvide Lindqvist (who also wrote the screenplay), the film tells the story of a bullied 12-year-old boy who develops a friendship with a vampire child in Blackeberg, a suburb of Stockholm, in the early 1980s. Alfredson, unfamiliar with the horror and vampire genres, decided to tone down many elements of the novel and focus primarily on the relationship between the two main characters. Selecting the lead actors involved a year-long process with open castings held all over Sweden. In the end, then 11-year-olds Kåre Hedebrant and Lina Leandersson were chosen for the leading roles. They were subsequently commended by both Alfredson and film reviewers for their performances.

The film received widespread international critical acclaim and won numerous awards, including the "Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature" at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival and the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation's 2008 Méliès d'Or (Golden Méliès) for the "Best European Fantastic Feature Film", as well as four Guldbagge Awards from the Swedish Film Institute.

Plot

Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant), a meek 12-year-old boy, lives with his mother, Yvonne (Karin Bergquist), in the western Stockholm suburb of Blackeberg in 1982. His classmates regularly bully him, and he spends his evenings imagining revenge. One night, he meets Eli (Lina Leandersson), who has the physical appearance of a pale girl his own age. Eli has recently moved into the next door apartment to Oskar, with an older man named Håkan (Per Ragnar). Eli initially informs Oskar that they cannot be friends. However, over time, they begin to form a close relationship, with Oskar lending his Rubik's Cube to Eli, and the two exchanging Morse code messages through their adjoining wall. Håkan requests that Eli stop seeing him. After questioning him about a cut on his cheek, Eli discovers that Oskar is being bullied by schoolmates and encourages him to stand up for himself. This inspires Oskar to enroll for weight-training classes after school.

Meanwhile, Håkan has killed a local resident to provide blood for Eli, but fails to return with it. Eli waylays and kills a local resident named Jocke (Mikael Rohm), making his way home from a bar. Håkan attempts to hide his body in a lake.

Håkan makes one final effort to obtain blood for Eli. He fails, however, when some students manage to break into the changing room he is in. Before they can locate him, Håkan, wanting to prevent the authorities from identifying him and tracing Eli, throws some concentrated hydrochloric acid onto his face, disfiguring it. Eli finds out where Håkan is being held at the local hospital, and scales the walls. Håkan lets Eli in the window and offers his neck for Eli to feed on. Afterwards, he falls out the window to his death. Now alone, Eli goes to Oskar's apartment and spends the night with him, during which time they agree to "go steady". Eli discloses that she is "not a girl", but Oskar ignores this.

During a skating field-trip to the lake, some of Oskar's fellow-students discover Jocke's body, hidden by Håkan. At the same time, Oskar finally stands up to his tormentors, who had threatened to throw him in. He strikes the leader of the bullies, Conny (Patrik Rydmark), on the side of the head with a pole, damaging his ear.

Some time later, Oskar shows Eli a private place he knows. Unaware that Eli is a vampire, Oskar suggests that they form a blood bond, and cuts his hand, asking Eli to do the same. Eli, thirsting for blood but not wanting to harm Oskar, laps up his spilt blood before running away. Soon after, Eli attacks Virginia (Ika Nord), a local woman who had stormed out of a drinking session with Jocke’s old friends. Her boyfriend, Lacke (Peter Carlberg), who was also Jocke's best friend, turns up in time to interrupt the attack.

Virginia survives, but soon discovers that she has become painfully sensitive to sunlight. Thirsting for blood, she pays a visit to her friend, the eccentric Gösta. Gösta's many cats attack her fiercely. In the hospital, Virginia, who has realised what she has become, asks an orderly to open the blinds in her room. When the sunlight streams in, she bursts into flames. Lacke, who has lost everything because of Eli, seeks out Håkan and Eli's apartment. Breaking in, he discovers Eli asleep in the bathtub. As he is about to strike with a knife, Oskar distracts him. Eli is alerted by the noise and kills Lacke. Eli realises that it is no longer safe to stay, and informs Oskar of this.

The next morning, Oskar receives a phone call from Conny's friend, Martin (Mikael Erhardsson), who lures Oskar out to resume the after-school fitness program at the local swimming pool. The bullies, led by Conny and his older brother, Jimmy (Rasmus Luthander), start a fire to draw Mr. Ávila (Cayetano Ruiz), the teacher in charge, outside and tell the other children to clear out. This leaves Oskar trapped alone in the pool, where Jimmy forces him to hold his breath underwater for three minutes, threatening to cut Oskar's eye out if he fails. While Oskar is underwater, however, a commotion takes place above the surface. Soon Jimmy's severed head drops into the pool, followed shortly by the arm which had held Oskar down. Eli then pulls Oskar out of the water. Three dismembered bodies lie around the pool while Andreas (Johan Sömnes), the reluctant fourth bully, sobs on a bench. Oskar travels on a train, with Eli beside him in a box, safe from sunlight. Inside, Eli taps the word "kiss" to Oskar in Morse code, which he taps back.

Cast

  • Kåre Hedebrant as Oskar
  • Lina Leandersson (Elif Ceylan, voice) as Eli
  • Per Ragnar as Håkan
  • Henrik Dahl as Erik, Oskar's father
  • Karin Bergquist as Yvonne, Oskar's mother
  • Peter Carlberg as Lacke
  • Ika Nord as Virginia
  • Mikael Rahm as Jocke
  • Karl Robert Lindgren as Gösta
  • Anders T. Peedu as Morgan
  • Pale Olofsson as Larry
  • Cayetano Ruiz as Magister Ávila
  • Patrik Rydmark as Conny
  • Johan Sömnes as Andreas
  • Mikael Erhardsson as Martin
  • Rasmus Luthander as Jimmy
  • Sören Källstigen as Erik's friend
  • Bernt Östman as Virginia's nurse
  • Kajsa Linderholm as the teacher
  • Susanne Ruben as the older Eli

Production

Development

The characteristic subway station of Blackeberg, which features in the film

The film project started in late 2004 when John Nordling, a producer at the production company EFTI, contacted Ajvide Lindqvist's publisher Ordfront to acquire the rights for a film adaption of Ajvide Lindqvist's novel. "At Ordfront they just laughed when I called, I was like the 48th they put on the list. But I called John Ajvide Lindqvist and it turned out we had the same idea of what kind of film we should make. It wasn't about money, but about the right constellation".[2] A friend introduced Tomas Alfredson to the novel.[3] While he normally doesn't like to receive books, because "it's a private thing to choose what to read", he decided to read it after a few weeks.[4] He was deeply affected by the depiction of bullying in the novel. "It's very hard and very down-to-earth, unsentimental (...) I had some period when I grew up when I had hard times in school (...) So it really shook me", he told the Los Angeles Times.[5] Ajvide Lindqvist was already familiar with Alfredson's previous work,[4] and he and Alfredson discovered that they "understood each other very well."[3]

In addition to EFTI, co-producers included Sveriges Television and the regional production centre Filmpool Nord. The production of the film involved a total budget of around 29 million SEK, including support from the Swedish Film Institute and Nordisk Film- & TV Fond.[6][7]

Screenplay

Ajvide Lindqvist had insisted on writing the screenplay himself. Alfredson, who had no familiarity with the vampire and horror genres,[8] initially expressed skepticism at having the original author do the adaptation, but was very satisfied with the end result.[4] Many of the minor characters and events from the book were removed, and focus directed primarily on the love story between the two leads.[9][10][11] In particular, many aspects of the character Håkan, including him being a pedophile, were removed, and his relationship with Eli was left open to interpretation. Alfredson felt that the film could not deal with such a serious theme as pedophilia in a satisfying manner, and that this element would detract from the story of the children and their relationship.[11]

A key passage in the novel details what happens when a vampire enters a room uninvited, an action that traditional vampire lore usually prohibits.[12] Alfredson originally wanted to omit this from the film, but Ajvide Lindqvist was adamant that it had to be included.[11] Alfredson was initially nervous about the scene. He realized in post-production that the sound effects and music made it "American, in a bad way", and had to be removed for the scene to work.[13] The end result, which shows Eli slowly beginning to bleed from her eyes, ears, and pores, received positive notices from many critics.[14][15][16] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian described it as a "haemophilia of rejection".[12]

The novel presents Eli as an androgynous boy, castrated centuries before by a sadistic vampire nobleman. The film handles the issue of Eli's gender more ambiguously: a brief scene in which Eli changes into a dress offers a glimpse of a suggestive scar but no explicit elaboration.[11] A female actress plays Eli's character, but her voice was considered to be too high pitched, so it was dubbed with the voice of voice actress Elif Ceylan. Also, Eli tries to tell Oskar "I'm not a girl" when Oskar asks that Eli be his girlfriend. According to an interview with the director, as the film was originally conceived, flashbacks explained this aspect in more detail, but these scenes were eventually cut.[17] In the end, Ajvide Lindqvist was satisfied with the adaptation. When Alfredson showed him eight minutes of footage for the first time, he "started to cry because it was so damn beautiful".[18] He subsequently described the film as a "masterpiece".[18] "It doesn't really matter that [Alfredson] didn't want to do it the way I wanted it in every respect. He could obviously never do that. The film is his creative process", he said.[11]

Casting

"Both Kåre and Lina who plays the leading parts are extremely intelligent, have exceptional integrity and are both kinds of strange old people. (...) It took us a year to find them, and I think they’re unprecedentedly fantastic."

—Tomas Alfredson, director[19]

Casting of the lead actors took almost a year,[20] with open castings held all over Sweden. Kåre Hedebrant, selected to audition for the role as Oskar after an initial screening at his school, eventually landed the role.[21] Lina Leandersson responded to an online advertisement seeking a 12-year old boy or girl "good at running".[22] After three more auditions, she was selected to play Eli.[21]

Alfredson has described the casting process as the most difficult part of making the film.[20] He had particular concerns about the interaction between the two leads,[5] and the fact that those who had read the book would have a preconceived notion of how the characters were supposed to look.[23] He wanted the actors to look innocent, and be able to interact in front of the camera. They were supposed to be "mirror images of each other. She is everything he isn't. Dark, strong, brave, and a girl. (...) Like two sides of the same coin."[11] On another occasion, Alfredson stated that "[c]asting is 70 percent of the job; it's not about picking the right people to make the roles. It is about creating chords, how a B and a Minor interact together, and are played together."[10]

In the end, Alfredson expressed satisfaction with the result, and has frequently lauded Hedebrant and Leandersson for being "extremely intelligent",[19] "incredibly wise",[23] and "unprecedentedly fantastic."[19]

Filming

The absence of ceilings made various overhead lighting techniques possible

Although the film takes place in Blackeberg, a suburb of Stockholm, principal photography took place in Luleå (in the north of Sweden) to ensure enough snow and cold weather. The area where the filming took place dated from around the same time as Blackeberg, and has similar architecture.[9] However, Alfredson shot a few scenes in the Blackeberg area. In particular, the scene where Eli leaps down on Virginia from a tree, was shot in the town square of Blackeberg.[13] Another scene, where Eli attacks Jocke in an underpass, was shot in the nearby suburb Råcksta.[9] The original Blackeberg underpass that Lindqvist had envisioned was deemed too high to fit in the picture.[13] Due to the extreme cold, many of the outdoor close-up scenes were made in a studio.[17] The town hall of Boden was used for the hospital exterior scenes.[citation needed]

The jungle gym where much of the interaction between Oskar and Eli takes place was constructed specifically for the film.[17] Its design was intended to suit the CinemaScope format[17] better than a regular jungle gym, which would typically have to be cropped height-wise.[13]

Most of the filming used a single, fixed, Arri 535B camera, with almost no handheld usage, and few cuts. Tracking shots relied on a track-mounted dolly, rather than Steadicam, to create calm, predictable camera movement.[24] The crew paid special attention to lighting. Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema and director Tomas Alfredson invented a technique they called "spray light". In an interview, van Hoytema describes it as follows: "If you could capture dull electrical light in a can and spray it like hairspray across Eli’s apartment, it would have the same result as what we created". For the emotional scenes between Oskar and Eli, van Hoytema consistently diffused the lighting.[24]

Post-production

The film contains around 50 shots with computer-generated imagery. Alfredson wanted to make them very subtle and almost unnoticeable.[17] The sequence where multiple cats attack Virginia, one of the most complicated scenes to film, required several weeks of drafting and planning. The crew used a combination of real cats, stuffed cats and computer-generated imagery.[13]

The film features analogue sound-effects exclusively throughout.[19] The lead sound-designer Per Sundström explained: "The key to good sound effects is working with natural and real sounds.(...) These analogue sounds can be digitally reworked as much as necessary, but the origin has to be natural".[25] Sundström designed the soundscape to come as close to the actors as possible, with audible heartbeats, breathing, and swallowing. Late in production it was also decided[by whom?] to overdub actress Lina Leandersson's voice with a less feminine one, to underline the backstory.[26] "She's 200 years old, not twelve. We needed that incongruity. Besides, it makes her menacing", Sundström said.[25] Both men and women up to the age of forty auditioned for the role. After a vote, the film team ended up selecting Elif Ceylan, who provides all of Eli's spoken dialogue.[27] Footage of Ceylan eating melon or sausage was combined with various animal noises to emulate the sound of Eli biting into her victims and drinking their blood.[19][25]

The sound crew won a Guldbagge Award for Best Achievement from the Swedish Film Institute, for the "nightmarishly great sound" in the film.[28]

Soundtrack

Swedish composer Johan Söderqvist wrote the score. Alfredson instructed him to write something that sounded hopeful and romantic, in contrast to the events that take place in the film.[11] Söderqvist has described the outcome as consisting of both darkness and light, and emphasized melody and harmony as the most important qualities of the music.[29]

The Slovak National Symphony Orchestra performs the score, two years earlier they had performed the score for first vampire movie, Frostbiten.[30] It placed fourth on Ain't it Cool News' Top 10 Best Scores Of 2008 List, being described as "scrupulously weaving together strains of bone-chillingly cold horror with the encompassing warmth of newly acquired love".[30] If magazine described the score as "the most beautifully emotional score yet to grace the undead. It’s a feeling of tender melancholy that delivers its scares in a subtle, chamber orchestra way".[31]

The song "Kvar i min bil", written and performed by Per Gessle, resonates repeatedly through the film. Originally an outtake from Gessle's solo album En Händig Man, the song was specially provided for the film, to resemble the sound of popular 1980s pop group Gyllene Tider.[32] Gessle has described the song as a "bluesy tune with a nice guitar hook”.[33] Other songs in the film include "Försonade" from 1968, written and performed by future ABBA member Agnetha Fältskog,[13] and "Flash in the Night" from 1981, written by Tim Norell and Björn Håkansson and performed by Secret Service.[13]

On November 11, 2008, MovieScore Media released the film soundtrack in a limited edition of 500 copies.[29] It contains 21 of Söderqvist's original scores from the film.

Release

Theatrical

Let the Right One In received its first performance at the Göteborg International Film Festival in Sweden on 26 January 2008[34] where Alfredson won the Festival's Nordic Film Prize.[35] It subsequently played at several other film festivals, including the Tribeca Film Festival in New York (24 April 2008), where it won the Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature,[36] the Edinburgh Film Festival on 25 Jun 2008[37] where it won the Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus Award,[38] and the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival in Switzerland on 3 July 2008 where it won the Méliès d'Argent (Silver Méliès).[39] The Swedish premiere was originally planned for 18 April 2008, but following the positive response from the festival screenings, the producers decided to postpone the release until autumn, to allow for a longer theatrical run.[40] At one time there was a plan to release the film for a special series of screenings in Luleå, beginning 24 September and lasting seven days. This was canceled when the Swedish Film Institute announced that Everlasting Moments had been selected over Let the Right One In as Sweden's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[41] The distributors released it on 24 October 2008 in Sweden, Norway, and as a limited release in the United States.[42] In Australia, the film was released on 19 March 2009.[43] The film was released in cinemas in the UK on 10 April 2009.[44]

Critical reception

Swedish critics generally expressed positive reactions to the film. In 26 reviews listed at the Swedish-language review site Kritiker.se it achieved an average rating of 4.0 out of 5.[45] Svenska Dagbladet gave the film a rating of 5 out of 6 and hailed Alfredson for his ability to "tell [stories] through pictures instead of words about a society where hearts are turned to icicles and everyone is left on their own, but also about love warm and red like blood on white melting snow".[46] Göran Everdahl for SVT's Gomorron Sverige gave the film 4 out of 5 and described the film as "kitchen sink fantasy" that "gives the vampire story back something it has been missing for a long time: the ability to really frighten us".[47] Expressen and Göteborgs-Posten were less impressed and gave the film 3 out of 5. Expressen criticized it for being unappealing to those uninitiated in vampire films while Göteborgs-Posten believed the supporting characters had lost the emotional depth that made the novel so successful.[48]

Let the Right One In was well received by US critics. As of 2010 the film has a 98% "Certified fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes based on 160 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2 out of 10, including a 97% "Cream of the Crop" rating from top critics, based on 29 reviews.[49] Additionally, Metacritic has reported an average score of 82 out of 100 based on 30 reviews which indicates "universal acclaim".[50] Reviewers have commented on the beautiful cinematography and its quiet, restrained approach to the sometimes bloody and violent subject matter.[51] KJ Doughton of Film Threat thought the visuals in the ending were fresh and inventive and would be talked about for years to come.[52] Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, calling it a vampire movie that takes vampires seriously, drawing comparisons to Nosferatu and to Nosferatu the Vampyre. He described it as a story of "two lonely and desperate kids capable of performing dark deeds without apparent emotion", and praised the actors for "powerful" performances in "draining" roles.[53] Ebert later called the film "The best modern vampire movie".[54] One negative review came from Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly, who gave the movie a "C", characterizing it as a "Swedish head-scratcher", with "a few creepy images but very little holding them together".[55]

Bloody Disgusting ranked the film first in their list of the 'Top 20 Horror Films of the Decade', with the article saying "It’s rare enough for a horror film to be good; even rarer are those that function as genuine works of art. Let the Right One In is one of those films – an austerely beautiful creation that reveals itself slowly, like the best works of art do. The simplicity of the story allows Swedish director Tomas Alfredson to focus on these two pre-teen characters with a penetrating insight that not only makes it a great vampire film but a great coming-of-age film as well. At its core, the film is, simply, a human story, a pensive meditation on the transcendent possibilities of human connection. Most of all, it’s a film that sticks with you, and whose stature will continue to grow in the decades to come."[56]

The film was ranked #15 in Empire magazine's 2010 list of "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema". In their rationale, the authors noted that, "in these days where every second movie seems to feature vampires, it takes a very special twist on the legend to surprise us - but this one knocked us out and then bit us in the jugular", and found that the "strange central friendship" between the two lead characters was what made the film "so frightening, and so magnetic".[57]

Top ten lists

The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008.[58] [59]

Home media

The film was released in North America on DVD and Blu-ray in March 2009 by Magnet Films, and in the UK in August by Momentum Pictures. The American discs feature both the original Swedish dialogue and an English dubbed version, while the European versions feature only the Swedish, and an audio-descriptive track in English. Icons of Fright reported that the American release had been criticized for using new, oversimplified English subtitles instead of the original theatrical subtitles.[60] This unattributed translation contained many mistakes and reductions, with many fans calling the release unwatchable. Following customer complaints, Magnet stated that they would release an updated version with the original theatrical subtitles, but will not exchange current discs.[61] Director Tomas Alfredson also expressed his dissatisfaction with the DVD subtitles, calling it a "turkey translation". "If you look on the 'net, people are furious about how bad it is done", he added.[62] The UK release retains the theatrical subtitles.

Awards and nominations

Alfredson won the Göteborg International Film Festival's Nordic Film Prize as director of Let the Right One In on the grounds that he "succeeds to transform a vampire movie to a truly original, touching, amusing and heart-warming story about friendship and marginalisation".[35] Let the Right One In was nominated in five categories for the Swedish Film Institute's 2008 Guldbagge Award, eventually winning for best directing, screenplay and cinematography as well as a Best Achievement-award to production designer Eva Norén.[63] In awarding the film the "Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature", the top award at the Tribeca Film Festival, the jury described the film as a "mesmerizing exploration of loneliness and alienation through masterful reexamination of the vampire myth".[36] The film also won the Méliès d'Argent (Silver Méliès) at the Swiss Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival[39] (NIFFF) and went on to win the Méliès d'Or (Golden Méliès) for the "Best European Fantastic Feature Film", awarded by the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation of which NIFFF is a part.[64] Other awards include the first Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus Award at the Edinburgh Film Festival.[38]

Despite being an internationally successful film, Let the Right One In was not submitted by Sweden for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The details surrounding the film's eligibility for the award resulted in some confusion.[65] Being released on 24 October 2008, the film would normally be eligible for submission for the 82nd Academy Awards. However, the producers decided to release it on 24 September as a seven day limited run only in Luleå. This would be exactly enough to meet the criteria for the 81st Academy Awards instead.[65] When the Swedish Film Institute on 16 September announced that Jan Troell's Everlasting Moments had been selected instead of Let the Right One In, the Luleå screenings were cancelled. Despite the fact that the film was released within the eligibility period for the 82nd Academy Awards, it wasn't among the films considered because the Swedish Film Institute doesn't allow a film to be considered twice.[65]

Award Category Recipients and nominees Outcome
Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival[66] Silver Scream Award Tomas Alfredson Won
Black Tulip Award Tomas Alfredson Won
Austin Fantastic Fest[67] Best Horror Feature - Won
Austin Film Critics Association[68] Best Foreign Language Film - Won
Australian Film Critics Association Best Overseas Film - Won
British Academy Film Awards[69] Best Film Not in the English Language - Nominated
Boston Society of Film Critics Awards[70] Foreign Language Film - Won
British Independent Film Awards[71] Best Foreign Film - Won
Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards[72] Best Foreign Language Film - Nominated
Calgary International Film Festival[73] Best International Feature Tomas Alfredson Won
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards[74] Most Promising Filmmaker Tomas Alfredson Won
Most Promising Performer Lina Leandersson Nominated
Chlotrudis Awards[75] Best Movie - Nominated
Best Director Tomas Alfredson Nominated
Best Actress Lina Leandersson Nominated
Best Adapted Screenplay John Ajvide Lindqvist Won
Best Cinematography Hoyte Van Hoytema Won
Edinburgh International Film Festival[38] Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus Award Tomas Alfredson Won
Fant-Asia Film Festival[76] Best European/North — South American Film Tomas Alfredson Won
Best Director Tomas Alfredson Won
Best Film Tomas Alfredson Won
Best Photography Hoyte Van Hoytema Won
Florida Film Critics Circle Awards[77] Best Foreign Language Film - Won
Empire Awards[78] Best Horror Film - Won
Goya Awards[79] Best European Film - Nominated
Irish Film & Television Awards 2010[80] International Film - Nominated
Guldbagge Awards[28] Best Achievement (Bästa prestation) Eva Norén Won
Best Achievement (Bästa prestation) Per Sundström
Jonas Jansson
Patrik Strömdahl
Won
Best Cinematography (Bästa foto) Hoyte Van Hoytema Won
Best Direction (Bästa regi) Tomas Alfredson Won
Best Screenplay (Bästa manuskript) John Ajvide Lindqvist Won
Best Film (Bästa film) John Nordling
Carl Molinder
Nominated
Best Supporting Actor (Bästa manliga biroll) Per Ragnar Nominated
Gérardmer Film Festival Critics Award Tomas Alfredson Won
Best Film Tomas Alfredson Won
Göteborg Film Festival[35] Nordic Film Prize Tomas Alfredson Won
Nordic Vision Award Hoyte Van Hoytema Won
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards[81] Best Foreign Language Film - Won
London Film Critics' Circle Awards[82] Foreign Language Film of the Year Tomas Alfredson Won
NatFilm Festival[83] Critics Award Tomas Alfredson Won
Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival Grand Prize of European Fantasy Film in Silver Tomas Alfredson Won
Special Mention Tomas Alfredson Won
Youth Jury Award Tomas Alfredson Won
Online Film Critics Society Awards[84] Best Foreign Language Film - Won
Best Screenplay, Adapted John Ajvide Lindqvist Won
Breakthrough Filmmaker Tomas Alfredson Won
Breakthrough Performance Lina Leandersson Won
Breakthrough Performance Kåre Hedebrant Nominated
Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards Best Foreign Language Film - Won
Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival[85] Best Director Tomas Alfredson Won
Citizen's Choice Award Tomas Alfredson Won
San Diego Film Critics Society Awards[86] Best Foreign Language Film - Won
San Francisco Film Critics Circle[87] Best Foreign Language Film - Won
Saturn Awards[88][89] Best International Film - Won
Best Performance by a Younger Actor Lina Leandersson Nominated
Best Writing John Ajvide Lindqvist Nominated
Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival[90] Grand Prize of European Fantasy Film in Gold Tomas Alfredson Won
Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards[91] Best Foreign Language Film - Won
Toronto After Dark Film Festival[92] Best Feature Film Tomas Alfredson Won
Toronto Film Critics Association Awards[93] Best Foreign-Language Film - Won
Tribeca Film Festival[36] Best Narrative Feature Tomas Alfredson Won
Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards[94] Best Foreign Language Film - Won
Woodstock Film Festival[95] Best Narrative Feature Tomas Alfredson Won

American version

Before the release of Let the Right One In took place, Cloverfield director Matt Reeves had signed to write and direct an English-language version for Overture Films and Hammer Films.[96] Hammer Films acquired the rights at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival and Overture films plans to release the film in 2010.[97] Alfredson has expressed unhappiness about the idea of a remake, saying that "Remakes should be made of movies that aren't very good, that gives you the chance to fix whatever has gone wrong" and expressing concern that the end result would be too mainstream.[17][98][99] Alfredson was initially asked to direct the remake, but he turned it down stating that "I am too old to make the same film twice and I have other stories that I want to tell."[100] Lindqvist, in contrast, said that Reeves "will make a new film based on the book, and not remake the Swedish film" and so "it'll be something completely different, but it's going to be really interesting to see."[9] Hammer Films producer Simon Oakes has referred to the project as a remake of the film and later not a remake, but just "Reeves' version". [101] the adaptation will stay relatively close to the original, except that it will be made "very accessible to a wider audience".[102] The film also omitted the subplot involving Eli's ambiguous gender.[103]

In an interview Reeves expressed his intent to retain the early 1980s setting and his admiration for the book and for Alfredson's adaptation. "It's a terrific movie and a fantastic book. I think it could be a really touching haunting and terrifying film. I'm really excited about what it could be."[104] The title of the film was changed to Let Me In,[105][106] and the names of Oskar and Eli were respectively changed to Owen and Abby.[105] In response to criticism about remaking Let the Right One In, Reeves commented: "I can understand because of people's love of the [original] film that there's this cynicism that I'll come in and trash it, when in fact I have nothing but respect for the film. I'm so drawn to it for personal and not mercenary reasons ... I hope people give us a chance."[106]

In comparing his adaptation to the Swedish one, Reeves admitted to not adding many different details from the book that weren't in the original film, stating that " the story was so big that you couldn't really add a lot of stuff in without taking away the focus of the coming of age story so I tried to have allusions and references to stuff in the book." Reeves also admitted to borrowing elements from the Swedish film, stating "There are things that [Lindqvist] adapted brilliantly in the movie and I borrowed from that because I thought he did a great adaptation. But there are some things that hopefully don't detract and fit into the context of the story. It's a mixture of details from the book, the original film and things that grew out of adapting it." [107]

On October 1, 2009, it was confirmed that Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloë Moretz would be playing the respective roles of Owen and Abby. It was also announced that Richard Jenkins would play the role of the character known as Håkan in the original film.[108] Principal photography began in New Mexico on November 2, 2009.[109] On that same day, Hammer officially announced the additions of Elias Koteas, Cara Buono, and Sasha Barrese to the cast, in the respective roles of a policeman, Owen's mother, and Virginia.[110]

References

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