Full Film analysis - Let The Right One In (2008)

I am analyzing a Swedish Horror film called “Let The Right One In” (2008) because of the codes and conventions broken within the film. This movie is a Romantic Vampire Horror film. This film doesn't fit with my horror trailer, as that is a psychological slasher horror, but some elements from this film could be used in my trailer.

Todorov theorized that every movie had a basic narrative structure consisting of five points: The equilibrium, at the beginning of the film when everything is calm; A disruption to the equilibrium, something happens to disturb this but the characters within the film haven’t noticed yet; Recognition of the disruption, the characters have noticed that something has happened which usually causes chaos of some sort; an attempt to repair the damage, resolve disruption somehow; back to an equilibrium of sorts, because of the chaos that has happened the equilibrium cannot be the same as before, instead a new equilibrium occurs.

Let The Right One In (LTROI) follows Todorov’s theory , the narrative structure of the story is as follows: Oskar lives with his mother in an apartment and is harassed by bullies at his school, this is the equilibrium; the equilibrium is disturbed when Eli and Haken move next door to Oskar and his mother; The disruption is noticed when the characters within the story are aware that someone (Haken) is killing young people and is draining their blood (later we find out this is to feed Eli), and Oskar’s bullying gets worse; The chaos is resolved when Oskar’s bullies try to drown him, and Eli saves him from the; A new equilibrium is installed when Oskar and Eli leave town on a train together, everything is calm.

Propp  also had a theory, his was about the character types within movies and how each one has characters that fit into these roles:
-The Villain, this character struggles against the hero

-The donor, this character prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object

-The (magical) helper, this character helps the hero on their quest

-The princess, this character is the person who the hero marries, often searched for throughout the narrative

-Her Father, this person usually dies during or before the film or book

-The dispatcher, this character sends the hero off on their quest

-The hero, this character reacts to the donor, marries the princess and kills the villain

-The false hero, this character falsely assumes the role of the hero

In LTROI, all of these character types are present, but instead of each type being separate characters, more than one type is applied to each character as this movie only has a few characters. ‘The villains’ in this movie are Oskar’s bullies, this is because of the chaos they bring to Oskar and Eli’s lives and they struggle against the hero at the end of the film. ‘The Donor’ is Hakan, he helps Eli survive by draining people’s blood for her and giving her somewhere safe to hide. ‘The helper’ is Oskar, he saves Eli’s life when Lacke tries to harm Eli. ‘The princess’ is Oskar, Oskar is a very feminine character and he and Eli become an item at the end of the film. ‘Her Father’ is Eli, she gives herself the task of protecting and caring for Oskar. ‘The dispatcher’ is Oskar, as he allows Eli to kill Lacke, but he needs Eli to protect him. ‘The hero’ is Eli, She saves Oskar and protects him throughout the movie. And lastly, the ‘false hero’ is Hakan, he tries to gain respect from Eli by killing people for her, but he fails.
Barthes theorised that all films also have a Binary opposition, where there is good and evil in every film. In this film, the evil is Oskar's bullies as they cause havoc to the main characters throughout the film until they are theorised. The Good in this film is Oskar and Eli, which challenges the codes and conventions of most films, as the 'monster' (Eli) is seen as a heroine in the film.

The target audience for this film is a lot broader that most other horror films, this is because this film’s story line has a lot of depth and a lot of the imagery within the film is representative, for example, most scenes are outside and everything is covered in snow, this is representative of the innocence of childhood. In my opinion, this film is aimed towards both males and females (especially males) aged 20+.

The messages conveyed in this film are that females can be masculine and be the hero, and that men can be feminine and require the help of a hero. Oskar has long hair and has a skinny figure, which leaves him looking very feminine, Eli is shown in the film attacking people, not caring about her appearance etc, which portrays her as very masculine.