Let The Right One In is more than a vampire flick. It’s more than a horror movie. It’s a love story, as beautiful as it is violent and full of suspense; about a lonely boy and his relationship with his new and only friend.
Swedish acclaimed director Tomas Alfredson obviously had no clue that 2008 would turn out to be The Year of the Vampire when he started working on the adaptation of John Ajvide Lindqvist’s Let The Right One In a few years ago. Yet it truly felt like something someone up there had planned for a very long time.
I guess there exists a certain kind of universal synchronism. If someone’s doing something on one side of the planet, someone else is doing more or less the same thing on the other side. When we started this I never felt we jumped on the vampire wagon. The vampire theme felt very original at the time but then all of a sudden all sorts of vampire related things popped up, Tomas Alfredson explains.
Why is that, do you think? Why the sudden vampire craze?
I think it might have something to do with us being fed up with alternative realities. Our bodies are screaming to get heard while our heads are stuck with this. The vampire represents the animal inside that wants to break free, I guess.
How come this story caught your attention?
I was caught, first and foremost, by the story about the bullied boy and his bravery. I was fascinated with how everything was described in such an unsentimental way. I believed in it – based on my own experiences. For me there is much more anger involved for the victim and far less sorrow than normally described in these kind of stories. Ajvide Lindqvists’ image was more accurate and truthful, I believe.
What do you mean by “own experience”? How was your own upbringing?
I went through some periods in my early teens when I experienced some social isolation.
Did you ever think you would make a horror movie?
Well, I don’t consider Let the Right One In a horror movie, but no, I never thought I would do a movie with horror elements. On the other hand I’ve been quite free in my choices and open-minded when I look back at what I’ve done throughout the years.
The two main characters were only twelve years old when you were shooting the movie. How did you manage to get their parent’s consent to do this?
We never had any problems with the parents. It’s very important when you work with children to get the parents involved at an early stage. I think they realized the importance of raising the serious issues that the story brings up.
There’s an American remake on the way, how do you feel about that?
At first I didn’t like it at all, but soon I realized that it isn’t my story. You tend to get very possessive when you get involved in a project like this. I do think it’s sad though that foreign movies aren’t shown more than they are in America. I hope they take it seriously – the story deserves it.
Let The Right One In is on general release now.
