Books vs. Movies
In this podcast we set out to answer the age old question: is the book really always better than the movie?
Books vs. Movies
Ep. 44 Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist vs. Let the Right One In (2008)
In a snow-covered suburb of 1981 Sweden, a bullied boy finds an unlikely ally in the mysterious girl next door who only appears after dark. This seemingly simple premise launches us into the haunting world of "Let the Right One In," a vampire tale unlike any other.
John Ajvide Lindqvist's 2004 novel and its acclaimed 2008 Swedish film adaptation both weave an unforgettable story of childhood loneliness, predation, and the desperate human need for connection. While most vampire narratives glamorize immortality, this story presents it as a tragic, isolated existence—where a centuries-old being trapped in a child's body must constantly relocate and depend on others to survive.
The genius of both versions lies in their emotional authenticity. Oscar's bullied existence feels painfully real, while Eli's otherworldly presence comes with genuine consequences rather than supernatural perks. Their relationship exists in a morally gray territory that challenges readers and viewers alike—is this friendship, manipulation, or something altogether more complex?
What makes this episode particularly fascinating is exploring how the film adaptation differs from its source material. Certain disturbing elements from the novel were wisely modified for the screen, yet the Swedish film maintains the story's emotional core and bleak atmosphere far better than its later American remake. The performances by child actors Kåre Hedebrant and Lina Leandersson are nothing short of extraordinary, conveying complex emotions through minimal dialogue and haunting expressions.
Whether you're drawn to psychological horror, coming-of-age narratives, or vampire mythology that breaks from tired tropes, "Let the Right One In" delivers a story that will linger in your thoughts long after the final page is turned or the credits roll. Have you experienced both versions? Which aspect of this dark fairy tale resonated most with you?
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Welcome to Books vs Movies, the podcast where I set out to answer the age-old question is the book really always better than the movie? I'm Yuvia, an actress and book lover based out of New York City, and today I will be discussing Let the Right One In by John Ashvidh Linkvist and its 2008 adaptation. Let the right one in All right. So seriously. I know I say this every episode, but I'm so excited for this one because I just absolutely loved the book and I absolutely loved this film and I cannot wait to talk about it because they are both so incredible. I've been very fortunate so far. I feel this year that I've been excited about all the books and movies that have brought to you, but so far, I'd have to say I mean, the episodes I've released this year are the only adaptations that I've watched so far. So I mean, we're still only in April, so I have a lot of time, but definitely recommend Queenie so far. That is my favorite TV adaptation that I've seen. And Let the Right One In technically I saw it last year, but that's okay, it is so good. So I'm so excited to talk about this. So Let the Right One In. I was actually first introduced to the concept of this story through the American remake of this film called Let Me In that came out in 2010 and stars Cody Smith-McPhee and Chloe Grace Moritz as Oscar and Ellie. And that was good, but there was something about it that was like it left me feeling kind of unsatisfied after, like once the film ended like I liked it but I didn't love it and it kind of just disappeared into the memory, into my memory. This one definitely stuck with me a lot more, but the book. I just I highly recommend the book. I do recommend the film, but, that's being said, let's go ahead and get started. So Let the Right One In. By John Ashford Lindqvist, was first published in 2004.
Speaker 1:This takes place in 1981 in Blackburg, which is a suburb in Sweden. It starts off after the body of a teenage boy is found. He's been completely emptied of blood and the murder seems to be part of some sort of ritual killing. Our protagonist, 12-year-old Oscar, is hoping that one of these days his bullies will be targeted to be a part of one of these ritual killings. That is until he meets the girl who has just moved in next door, a very peculiar girl who doesn't seem to know what a lot of modern day things are, and despite this, she's incredibly smart and able to pick up on things very quickly. She's very odd, though. There's something definitely off about her, and the thing is that's even weirder is that Oscar only seems to see her at night. The 2008 adaptation, let the Right One In, follows the story of Oscar, who is an overlooked and bullied boy who finds love and revenge through Ellie, a beautiful but peculiar girl.
Speaker 1:So, as always, there's going to be spoilers in this episode, but before we go into spoiler territory, I just want to talk a little bit about Let the Right One In, because I didn't realize that it has had so many adaptations. So it's actually been adapted in the form of three independent films, a play and television series. So, first off, we have the Swedish language film Let the Right One In, which is the one I will be talking about today that was directed by Thomas Alfredson and was released in 2008. Then, in 2010, we got the English adaptation titled Let Me In, directed by Matt Reeves, and then there was also an English language stage adaptation that premiered in 2013. There's also a 2021 Irish horror comedy film called Let the Wrong One In, which was loosely based on the novel, and then in 2017, tnt, the TV channel TNT, ordered a pilot episode for the television based on the novel. Ultimately, tnt passed on the series, but in 2021, showtime gave a Let the Write One in TV series a 10 episode order and it premiered in 2022 and it stars the man Be Cheat.
Speaker 1:So you know, and I remember seeing the advertisements for this and I knew it was more than likely based on the book, but it didn't really catch my attention, maybe because I'd only seen Let Me In at this point and I hadn't read the book. But now I'm very interested in watching the TV series, especially more because I absolutely adore Demian Bichid. I think he's a fantastic actor and he's from Mexico, so let's go with Demian, he's great. So, yeah, I didn't realize that this book actually had this many adaptations, which is I'm not surprised. This is a really good book and I can see how there's you can play with it in all of these mediums. I feel like the film handled it really well. The TV series allows you to go into even more depth.
Speaker 1:The stage play would make for some really cool ambience and horror play, which I feel like you don't really see too many horror plays on stage. Shout out to Orlando. That's one of his goals. He's trying to change that. He's so passionate about writing horror plays and I think he has the knack for it and I'm not just being biased, like he's good. So there's that. And I mean we saw the Woman in Black. I mean I had already seen it in back in 2018, when I went to London for the first time and I wanted to make sure I saw a show on the West End. I ended up watching two shows because it's so affordable over there. Like, learn something from this, please Broadway. So yeah, there's a lot of potential here. So, with all of that being said, let's go ahead and get started.
Speaker 1:This is your official spoiler alert. If you are interested in watching the film, which you absolutely should, if you are interested in reading the book, which you really absolutely should, then turn it off. Come back to it later. There is a lot that happens in the book that does not happen in the film, especially not the American remake. So it's one of those things where the Swedish film is dark and like the American remake kind of sanitizes it a little bit. Like there were some things that made me uncomfortable watching the Swedish film, and I think it's more because there's children involved Nothing like graphic. But it still made me a little bit uncomfortable. That does not compare to what's in the content of the book, so I will go ahead and let you know about that. The book is incredibly, incredibly dark. Go ahead and let you know about that. The book is incredibly, incredibly dark.
Speaker 1:One of the characters, who is a very important character to the story, to the plotline of the book, is a pedophile. So some of the things I will be talking about are not going to be kind of uncomfortable or not kind of. They're going to be very uncomfortable, which makes sense because I'm talking about a ped and it's not. I'm not going to go into like graphic descriptions. I do try to keep graphic descriptions to a minimum, but it's, I can't avoid it completely. So just letting you know, just throwing that out there. Yeah, so this pedophile character was sanitized a little bit, was actually actually sanitized for the film, the Swedish film version as well. There was no indication that he was a pedophile and, of course, obviously, the American film sanitized it even more. So I'm not saying the American remake was bad, like I said it was, it was fine. I know I did remember, like once it was over I was like that's it, like I was expecting so much more. Definitely watch the Swedish version. Definitely watch the Swedish version. All right.
Speaker 1:So our main players in this story are Oscar he is our protagonist we have Ellie, his mysterious new neighbor, and Hakon, who is Ellie's father, or father figure, I should say We'll get into that. So the beginning of the book and the film, or towards the beginning of the book and the film, hakon kills someone and is in the middle of draining the body of blood to give back to Ellie. In the film he's discovered Well, he's not discovered, but he gets interrupted by passersby. So he's not able to complete the job and he gets in trouble with Ellie. Ellie needs the blood to survive because, you might have guessed it already, ellie is a vampire. So Hakann in the film gets interrupted and is unable to complete the job. But since he is unable to complete the job, he gets in trouble with Ellie and that leads Ellie to kill Jock. He's important in the sense that it drives one of his friends to really find out what happened to him, especially after Ellie ends up attacking his girlfriend as well. So he's important in that sense, but he's not an important character. Outside of that, in the book, hakann isn't caught in the middle of draining the body. The body is eventually discovered but by then Hakon has collected all the blood he needs and takes it to Ellie and Ellie has strength and satisfied.
Speaker 1:What leads Ellie to killing Jock in the book is it's just been a while since she's eaten and Hakon is kind of dragging his feet in terms of killing another body or killing another body, killing another person. So yeah, ellie is, ellie is kind of forced. Well, in both situations she's forced. But in the film it's kind of dire because Hakon doesn't, isn't able to collect any blood for her. But in the book she is able to. She does drink and finish that blood and then she just once she starts running, once she's running out and Hakun hasn't killed another person, she has to go and that's when she kills.
Speaker 1:Ja, and it's kind of ironic that Hakun struggles to kill people. He does feel a certain guilt towards it, especially because he goes for younger people because they're easier to first of all kill, they're easier to trap and they're easier to kill and they're easier to transport, should he need to transport them, as opposed to a full-grown adult. So he does struggle with the killing because he feels guilty about it. But it is a little ironic that he feels guilty because Hakann is our pedophile and there are scenes in the book in which we actually see him pay for children, and the way we do have moments in the story is told in third person, so we are able to gather some of the thoughts of the different characters, and so the way Hakann describes Ellie is, yeah, it's very uncomfortable, it's very uncomfortable to read.
Speaker 1:But that is why Hakann has taken on the role of Ellie's father figure, because Ellie is ideal. He knows that Ellie is a vampire, so she's about 200-ish years old. So you know, it's one of those things. She's in the body of a child and she's technically a child, but she doesn't think and act like a child because 200 years of life experience will kind of do that to you. So Ellie's kind of like the perfect, it is like the ideal, because she has the body of a child but she has more of an understanding of the, you know, basically the mind of an adult, kind of in the body of a child. So it, yeah, just she's not, it's just yeah, just it's uncomfortable to talk about because it's gross, but kind of like that's how he sees it, and so he's happy to take on this father figure role to ellie, because, while ellie doesn't allow him to touch her or do anything sexual with her, like he gets off on the fact that he, like he can still get really close to her and smell her.
Speaker 1:And yeah, it's gross, it's gross, it's gross, but this is our character, this is Hakon, and so, yeah, it's definitely ironic that he feels guilty about killing these younger kids. They're not like little little, they're like teenagers and he's like sometimes he even like he doesn't get off on the fact that he's killing them, but he like gets off on the chase and being near them and then, once they're dead, like he feels guilty. Yeah, so it's, yeah, it's, it's dark, it's dark, it's dark. All right, it's very dark, but it's good. It really is, I promise, but anyway. So, after Ellie kills, jock Hawken is like you, like I can't believe you killed this person, like you were not careful about this at all, you just left his body out in plain sight.
Speaker 1:Now I'm the one that has to dispose of it. This is a large man. I'm going to struggle to dispose of the body and he struggles a little bit more in the film than he does in the book. Like I felt, in the book it was kind of like ugh, annoying, he was annoyed but he was able to dispose of the body easily. And the film, like he struggled so much to like dispose of this poor body, so, but anyway. So finally he attempts. So in the book he goes to a public pool and the film he goes. It looks like it's just a school, like a school that has a pool in it for their swim team. So he goes to the school's pool for in the film to find his next victim. In the book he goes to the public pool, which, like I'm wondering why he went to the public pool in the first place like the school pool is like a little bit dangerous but at least like he's waiting in the locker rooms of the school for the swim practice to be over and then, once all the boys but one have left, then he attacks that boy. So what ends up happening is that he like knocks this kid out and attempts to start draining his blood. But he, well, he knocks the kid out, thinking like by the time I'm done draining the blood, this kid is going to be dead. He does not. He knocks him out.
Speaker 1:But in the in the film, like he, the boy, comes to like he's hanging upside down and his friends actually come back looking for him, but the school's locked up at this point. So they go to like the windows of the locker which are of the locker room, which are what's it called? Kind of like how bathroom windows are, that like frostiness, so you can't see in, but there's still windows to let light in. So they start like knocking on the locker room walls and at this point, like the kid wakes up and he starts yelling for his friends, like oh my gosh, like I'm in here, help me, I'm being attacked. And so, like his friends, hakan has no way of I feel like he could have escaped, but maybe there's only one way into the locker room. And he's like if I try to escape, they're gonna see me. So he goes into like the shower area and throws acid on his face so that he won't be recognizable. So that's how he gets caught in the film.
Speaker 1:But in the book he's literally in a public pool. So like he has a gas canister. So what he does is he puts a mask over the victim's face and then they breathe in the gas and they get knocked out. So he's literally at a public pool and it's the way this the it's described in this public pool is that there's like changing areas, like private changing areas, like you go behind, like a curtain area, except it's, yeah you know, like for privacy. So it's like like a little sectioned off area where you change and then you're, you exit and you're like the main locker room area. So he's literally in one of those and he hears, like it happens to be no one else in this public pool except some kids, and then he hears one of the like two of the kids head out towards the exit and then one of the kids starts walking in his direction. So as the kid starts walking in his direction, he pops out of the changing area, puts the gas on the kid. There is a little bit of a struggle, so he's not able to put as much gas into the kid as he wants, because this machine also makes a lot of noise and there's a little bit of a struggle, and so, like someone comes in and is like what was that? And he's like, oh, I'm fine, you know, and then they exit, and so he's not able to pump this kid up with as much gas as he wants to, but again he's like that's enough gas to keep him knocked out until I cut him open and start draining his blood and and by that time he'll be he'll be dead. But he really did not get a chance to like pump this kid full of gas because like the kid isn't even knocked out for five minutes, I want to say, before he's awake and obviously he starts screaming and they're in a public pool, so they're discovered immediately and Hakon still throws acid on his face.
Speaker 1:One thing I found interesting that we don't see in the film is that Ellie actually shows signs of aging in the book. So at this time Ellie hasn't it's been a while since she killed Jock and she drank his blood and she's been waiting for Hakon to bring her the blood from the pool kid. But she doesn't realize that Hakon has thrown acid on his face and been arrested at this point. So she shows up to see Oscar and she has like her hair is a little bit white, she looks, she just looks like she's aged. Her hair is a little bit white, she looks, she just looks like she's aged. She looks like an old woman kind of, and she looks very sickly. So that's something we don't in the film, but in the book it is described that Ellie does start to show signs of aging if she doesn't eat, and so as soon as she eats she goes back to looking like a little girl.
Speaker 1:So there is another victim in the book that isn't in the film and that is an old woman. So Ellie kind of like she still doesn't know that Hawken has been arrested for attempted murder, but she's showing signs of aging, she's dying because she's so hungry. So she finds a random old woman living by herself and she knocks on the door and says that she needs to call her mom, and the old woman lets her in and she pretends to use the phone, and then she sits on the couch and then eventually attacks the old woman, and as she's tasting the woman's blood, she tastes that it's diseased, and that's when she figures out that the woman is dying of cancer. So Ellie does feel bad, but it's like, well, maybe I'm doing her favors and she was dying anyway. So yeah, there is an old woman that is killed in the book that is not killed in the film. Eventually, though, ellie does realize where Hakon is, and so she goes to the hospital In the film she watches the news and like the same night or like the next day and sees the news that Hakon has been arrested and that he's at the hospital. So this is like immediate.
Speaker 1:It takes Ellie a little bit while, a little bit in the book to figure out where Hakon is in the in the film she realizes right away after watching the news. So she goes to the hospital and again she can't enter without being invited in. So she goes to visit Hakon and in the film he's basically like just kill me. He can't speak anymore because of the acid, but he like indicates his throat and it's like obviously he's saying like just kill me, drink my blood. And Ellie's like I don't want to do this, but okay, like otherwise you're going to spend the rest of your life in jail, so might as well just kill you. And so she drinks Hakon's blood and as someone is coming in, she like throws his body out the window and so people think that he committed suicide.
Speaker 1:In the book, however, ellie is again drinking his blood. She does go to like eventually, when she figures out where he is, she goes to the hospital and he's like kill me, drink my blood. But also, like he wants. He does want that, but he also like one of the conditions again, because he feels so guilty. He's pretty much like I'm not gonna kill for you anymore unless you let me like. You know I'm a pedophile. You can probably guess what he's asking for. And ellie's like absolutely not, but I will let you lay in bed with me and, um, you can, we won't actually do anything, but you can lay in bed with me and yes, so he's like all right. So that's when he goes to public pool to kill the kid. But while he's there, when he shows up, so he, he essentially wants to. He's been dreaming of like feeling Ellie on him and so it's kind of like this is I just want to die and die happy. You know what I mean. And so Ellie's like all right and as she's, she's drinking his blood, but she's unable to finish because they get interrupted and she throws his body out the window.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, in the film this does kill Hakon. In the book, unfortunately, this does not kill him. Instead he turns into a vampire and he goes after her and, yeah, what ends up happening is there's a character that is not in the film, that is in the book, and I think why he's not in the film because he plays a pretty important part in the book. Like he's, he's a pretty important character. If I had to make a guess as to why he's not in the film is because there's a character called Tommy, who is one of Oscar's bullies, and then there's Thomas. So we have Tommy and a Thomas, so like there would be times and I was like wait, which one's which? Again, yeah. So I think that's why he wasn't included in the film. So Thomas is, he plays a pretty important part in the book, like I said. But I'm not going to talk about him too much outside of this because he's not in the film, so there isn't really much to compare him to.
Speaker 1:But at one point, hakon, as I said, now he's a vampire he goes back to his old apartment building looking for Ellie because he's finally he's a vampire, now he can like looking for Ellie because he's finally he's a vampire, now he can like he has like leverage, now he's not really. So, hey, what are you doing? Sorry, voldemort, has he had gotten so much better about eating things off of the floor? He knows he's not allowed to do that, but he's been getting in this habit again where he's starting to eat things off the floor again. So trying to get back on him. But sorry about that. So you know he didn't dare to attempt anything on Ellie because it's like at the end of the day she's a vampire and despite being in the body of a little girl, like she can she's stronger than me and she can kill me but now he's like I'm a vampire, now I'm going to get what I want. So he like goes and attempts to get Ellie but is thwarted, thankfully, and she injures him pretty badly and she escapes and she has no idea that this whole time Thomas has been hiding in.
Speaker 1:So Hakon and Ellie have the little confrontation in kind of like the storage area of the apartment building. So it's like you have the, the units, the apartment units, and then there's like a basement area where there's like individual storage lockers for each apartment and then there's also just like a general storage hangout area where Thomas hangs out and like smoke cigarettes and other people hang out in there to be debaucherous and whatever, but anyway. So Thomas like gets scared because he sees like this monster figure and he hides in his storage locker and then after Ellie escapes and he attempts to get out of the storage locker he discovers that Hakann is blocking the entrance and I mean he sees, like he heard the struggle. He sees this horrifying, like disfigured by acid man, and so he's terrified and Hakannan, at this point is still pretty injured and out of sorts. So Thomas is able to. He has a trophy that he stole from his mom's boyfriend and he just starts bashing Hakannan's head in and he kills him and that's how he's discovered he's singing.
Speaker 1:I don't even know what it's called, but we have the Spanish equivalent which is like and it's kind of like a counting thing, kind of like 99 bottles of beer on the wall, but it's elephants. So he like every single time it's like. The only difference is like 99 bottles of the beer on the wall. You say 99 bottles, like you go 99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer, take one down, pass it around. Now you got 98 bottles of beer. So you say 99 bottles or whatever number. You're on twice and the elephants one. You only say the number of elephants and instead of going counting down, you count up. So he's every single time he counts like how many elephants he's reached. So he goes like one elephant and on the number he smashes down on the head and he just does that over and over and over until he's discovered by his mom's boyfriend who's a cop. And by the time he's discovered he's like on 2000 or 3000 something. So he's like in shock, just not even realizing he's like on 3,000 elephants. As he continues bashing, it wouldn't even be a head at that point, like after 3,000 hits, like it's just, it's just mush, it's just brain mush that he's smashing. But yeah, so that is how Hakon ultimately dies in the book, versus just falling out the window and Ellie successfully draining him of blood in the film. In the book we also get much more of Ellie's backstory.
Speaker 1:So there is a line in the film in which Oscar says like oh, do you want to go steady with me? Again, this takes place in the 80s and he's like do you want to go steady with me? And Ellie's like, yeah, but would you still want to go steady with me if I wasn't a girl? And Oscar's like huh. And it kind of just stays that way until later, in which this is one of the parts of the film that made me uncomfortable, because at one point, you know, she says, oh, like you want to go steady with me. And then she's like but would you still want to go steady with me if I was a, if I wasn't a girl? And Oscar's like, uh, it's a kind of a weird question. And then there's a moment in which, further on after this conversation, ellie's visiting Oscar and it's just him.
Speaker 1:His mom's working and she needs a change of clothes and so he's like you can take one of my mom's dresses, like she wouldn't even notice it's gone. And at one point while she's changing, he like peeks in through crack in the door to see her change and we get a glimpse of where. We get a glimpse of the genital area, but it's all sewed up and Oscar's like he gasps and then he like looks away. So in the film they used a mannequin to get the shot. There was no child being exposed, it was a mannequin, but it's still like kind of it was still uncomfortable to see, just because you think you're looking at like the genital area of an actual child. But it was. They used a mannequin as a stand-in for that shot. But yeah, so he. That's how it stays in the film. You just see like she asks that question and then you just see that image and it's yeah, it's just sewn up.
Speaker 1:In the book we actually do get the revelation that Ellie was born a boy and when she was transformed into a vampire she was castrated. But she looks like a girl. Everyone thinks of her as a girl and she wants to be known as a girl. But yes, she was born a boy. And in the book and we do get that actual backstory Like there is no, it's kind of up for interpretation in the film, but in the book it's like very, it's very clear, like no, she was born a boy. And I will say at this point the author maybe because the primary point of view is Oscar's point of view and he starts calling Ellie a he like he stops referring to Ellie as a she at that point and starts saying he, blah, blah, blah. I don't remember if he ends up switching back to calling her a she at that point and starts saying he, blah, blah, blah. I don't remember if he ends up switching back to calling her she once, like by the end of it, but I do know that there was like a few, there was like after the revelation, there was like periods of time in which it was like he, yeah. So in the film.
Speaker 1:I not that Oscar has a bad relationship with his mother, but it's not necessarily a good one either. It's like she's a single parent and she works a lot. The film makes it seem a lot more like Oscar's overlooked and kind of neglected though unintentionally by his mother because she has to work so much. He has a much better relationship with his mother in the book. She's very supportive and they spend a lot of time together. They spend when she's not working. They spend time together. That is until he meets Ellie and he starts choosing to spend time with Ellie versus his mom. But she does like when he goes out to hang out with Ellie she's like oh I mean, if you're sure, but today's Thursday and today's the day we watch whatever on television. So it is hinted that he does have a much better relationship with his mother in the book and she's a lot more present in his life than she is in the film.
Speaker 1:The film also. So Oscar's parents are divorced and there is one instance in which he goes to visit his father after he stands up to his bullies and causes one of them to be like he hits his. He stands up to his bully and and causes one of them to be like he hits his. He stands up to his bully and he ends up hitting his bully on the head, causing like some permanent damage to his ear, and so after this happened, obviously he gets in a lot of trouble and his mom is like you need to go spend a weekend with your dad, maybe your dad can talk some sense into you. And the film actually takes a different route with the father than the book does.
Speaker 1:In the film you kind of get the it's kind of hinted at that oscar's father could be gay, like oscar's, having a really good time spending spending time with his dad, and then one of his dad's friends show up and then like the atmosphere kind of changes and it kind of you get the sense of like oh, that's not actually his friend, that's his boyfriend and that. So you do get kind of that hint in the film that his dad is is actually might actually be closeted or out, and because his dad lives in a different town so he might be out in that town but it's the 80s so I doubt he would be out. So he's either like out in just this town and still closeted with Oscar, or he's just closeted. But you get the sense that the man that comes in is actually his boyfriend and not his friend In the book. He's straight, he's not gay at all and he's just a raging alcoholic. Well, not raging, does raging alcoholic mean he's just like a severe alcoholic or he's an angry alcoholic? So I'm just going to say he's an alcoholic, he's not an angry one, he's. He's an alcoholic, he's a severe alcoholic. And so once his, his friend shows up, it is just his friend. His friend shows up with like bottles of alcohol and they just start drinking and they completely forget about Oscar and completely start ignoring Oscar. So Oscar's like well, my time with my dad is ruined. Like I know he's not going to pay attention to me, he's just going to be trying to get drunk, so I'm going to head back home. So he heads home. He's supposed to spend the weekend with his dad, but he ends up leaving early because his dad has started his binge drinking for the weekend and there's no point for Oscar to stick around.
Speaker 1:So, as I said, after Hakon dies, obviously Ellie is now in charge of feeding herself. So she ends up attacking Lachs. So Lach is the one who's friends with Jock and he's also boyfriend to Virginia. So Ellie ends up attacking Virginia and Lach sees that Ellie's attacking Virginia. So again, ellie is unable to kill Virginia, so she flees and Jock takes Virginia to the hospital and then, after she's released, she starts feeling sick and she doesn't know what's going on. But she knows that like going out into the sunlight kind of hurts. And then she goes to the store and she just she tries eating but she's unable to hold anything down and then she ends up cutting herself, unable to hold anything down. And then she ends up cutting herself accidentally while at the store and as she starts sucking her blood she realizes that all she wants is blood and more blood. And so she there's more of a discovery for her in the book than in the film. Like in the film I think she does realize what she is, but it's really just like my there isn't. Like she, she knows that like going out into the sun hurts and then, and then that's pretty much it.
Speaker 1:In the in the film, in the book there's more of a realization of like the sun hurts, I can't hold anything down, blood tastes really good. Oh my gosh, I am a vampire and she doesn't want to be a vampire. So in both the film and the book, she, they go visit. She and Lack go visit another friend who owns a bunch of cats Like he's has an unhealthy amount of cats Like. This is a cat hoarding situation which is very, very bad for humans and cats alike. And so he they go visit. And cats in this universe have an aversion to vampires. They know what a vampire is and they attack. So in both the book and the film they go visit this mutual friend, the cat's attacker. So Virginia ends up back in the hospital.
Speaker 1:Like I said, in the film it seems like Virginia knows what she is, but it's more of like the sun hurts. I was just attacked by so many cats, I don't want to live anymore. And then she asks the one of the nurses to open the blinds and they the next morning and they open the blinds and obviously she goes up in flames. In the book there is, like I said, more of a discovery, more of like I'm a monster, I'm a vampire. And then she gets attacked by the cats and ends up at the hospital and she's like I am a vampire, I don't want to be a vampire, I'm choosing to end my life because I don't want to live my life like this. So she again asks so Lack is actually spending the night in her room, or actually spent the night in her room, and she keeps trying to get the nurses to like get him to leave.
Speaker 1:And the nurses are like she keeps hinting at it, like oh you know, can we be alone? And or like can you get him to leave? And the nurses, like are just not picking up on the hints. Obviously she wasn't saying what I was just saying. She was like being a lot more ambiguous about it. So she was like she keeps trying to get them to leave because she knows what's going to happen when, when they open the blinds and she doesn't want Lack to be in the room with her when that happens. But they just refuse to like they're just not picking up on the hints and she's like all right, like if I don't do it now, I'm, it's not going to happen. Open the blinds please. And they open the blinds and she dies and Lack sees this and this prompts him to to look for Ellie, because he saw what Ellie looks like.
Speaker 1:But yeah, so there's, there's there's stuff that happens between Ellie and Locke and Oscar and basically Ellie's time here in Blackburg has reached an end and she knows she has to move on. There's just too much speculation, too much. She's going to be discovered eventually. There's been like too many suspicious things happening around and it's just not safe for her to stick around Blackburg. So she she's like I need to leave, and so before she leaves, so she leaves, sorry, and Oscar thinks it's completely.
Speaker 1:Until he the bullies. Obviously Oscar stood up for himself. That's not a good thing. So they have to teach Oscar a a lesson. So they lure oscar to the public pool by saying like oh, our teacher is like, because they're, they're like pe teacher also teaches at swimming, at the, at the public pool. So they like they're like the teacher was asking for you and the teacher does check up on him a little bit, but obviously like and is excited to see him. But the, the teacher had no reason like did not ask for Oscar specifically to be there. So then they tell the teacher like oh, the phone's ringing.
Speaker 1:And then once he like gets to his office, there's another, another one of the bullies is there to like knock him out. So he knocks him out and then once there are absolutely no adults in the pool, they start holding Oscar down underwater. One of the bullies kind of starts feeling regret towards it. And so then Ellie shows up and is like, say that I can come in, and he's like you can come in. And then Ellie ends up beheading the bullies. Not all of them. The one that let her in is allowed to escape with his life, but the other two bullies are beheaded. In the film she like full on dismembers them, like we in the book, like Ellie says let me come in. And then she comes in. And then it cuts to the epilogue in which the police are just like oh, these two beheaded boys, blah, blah, blah, and there's a witness. And then in the film we actually like they're holding Oscar underwater and we just see him being held underwater and then, as he's being held underwater, you just start seeing like an arm and legs start floating in the pool and then you realize Ellie showed up and saved Oscar. So that is Let the Right One In Trying to think. If there's anything else I need to say, I guess yeah.
Speaker 1:So the relationship between Oscar and his mother in the book made me really sad. When he ends up just leaving her behind, because it's like they do like in the film, it makes it made absolute sense for me, to me that he would just leave her because it's like she wasn't a very present parent in the first place and, like I said, you can only argue that she works so much in her. In this mom's instance you can only argue that she works a little bit too much to have a relationship with Oscar, only so much because then, yeah, so you can only argue it so much Like otherwise she wasn't a very present parent and in the film she I mean in the book she is like she's present as much as she can be and they do have a pretty strong relationship. So it just made me sad that he chose Ellie over his mom. So that was really really sad to me.
Speaker 1:But one thing that like really kind of left me haunted by the film that I really didn't like because it left me feeling kind of icky. It's just like obviously we don't get Hakon's backstory. So it's kind of like I was like has Hawken been with her since he was a little boy? And now that he's I mean not that Hawken's like super old, but it's like is she starting to see Hawken's mortality? And so now she's going after Oscar, and so I feel like there was almost like a grooming. That happened in the film, that didn't happen in the book on Ellie's like from Ellie to Oscar. Again, she's 200 something years old. So I feel like even though they're technically the same age, she has the ability to to groom him into being her next Hakon essentially.
Speaker 1:So that kind of just left me, that kind of just haunted me and left me feeling kind of icky. And I understand why she does that, because at the end of the day she is 12 years old. There's only so much she can do in the body of a 12 year old. But it's just just like this oh, like you're you, you choose a little boy and you kind of groom him to like you and then he just grows up killing people for you and then once he reaches a certain age you look for like the next little boy to groom. So that's kind of more of the feeling that I got in the film and I didn't get that in the book. In the book it's very much like their connection seems genuine. And Hakon literally you find out that Hakon has not been around since he was a little boy. He's been around. It doesn't say how long he's been around, but he chose Ellie and is happy to stick by Ellie's side because he gets some disgusting pleasure out of it. So, yeah, that was something in the film that was kind of like in the book.
Speaker 1:I felt so sad for Oscar's mom In the film. I just felt so sad for Oscar and the future that awaits him with Ellie and kind of what's awaiting him. And yeah, it's just really interesting how they were. Maybe that's not what the filmmakers were going for at all, but that's kind of how I like the way they. That was just how I interpreted some of the moments and between Ellie and Oscar and it just made me really sad for Oscar in the film. I mean, he already was living a very sad life, to be honest. But but the child actors in the film I mean, he already was living a very sad life, to be honest, but the child actors in the film, let me see, we have okay, I apologize because these are Swedish names, but we have Kare Hedebrandt who plays Oscar and Lena Leanderson who plays Ellie. They're both really really great. Honestly, the acting from everyone was really good and, yeah, it's a really really great dark film.
Speaker 1:Like I said, I would totally recommend this one over Let Me In. Let Me In was just really unsatisfying and I would need to watch it again, I think, to really fully encapsulate what made me kind of just be like so meh about it. And I didn't feel that after watching this film and I did see this film before reading the book. So, yeah, the film did not leave me feeling that way. And then the book started and it was so good and it's really disgusting and twisted, but it's really really good and I I recommend it. I recommend both for sure. But the book was definitely a page turner. It was. It kept me very, very engaged. I it's a pretty long book but it kept me engaged from beginning to end.
Speaker 1:It's definitely worth the read if you don't mind the extreme darkness of it, the extreme twistedness of it. But at least, at least I will say what I don't like is when, like, for example, we have Hawkeye and's a pedophile and it's kind of like. I can't think of books that do this necessarily, but you can argue that some of them like, do glorify this, like this does not glorify it. You feel very uncomfortable reading the passages with Hakon. So it's definitely like. So it is very, very dark and very twisted, but it makes you feel all the emotions you're supposed to feel, which is like this is so wrong and so gross on so many levels. So I will say that about it. If you're kind of hesitant to read it based on some of that subject matter and if you don't want to read it at all based on the subject matter, completely understand, but that's kind of how I'm able to get over like uncomfortable subject matter.
Speaker 1:But anyway, I rated the film four stars and I rated the book four stars, but I do have the winner. The winner is the book. I mean, you probably could have guessed that because I was gushing about how good the book was pretty much since the episode started. Yes, I do recommend both. The film is still a solid adaptation, despite the changes that were made, and I feel like it added certain elements, like I said, that aren't in the book, or it reinterpreted some things that were not in the book, and I'm just curious to see if you interpreted the same, if you interpreted it the same way I did, or if you interpret it completely different, or if you think it's like a lot more faithful to the book in terms of its messaging and I just looked way deep into it. But yeah, let me know, but I still recommend the film.
Speaker 1:But the book was just so good. It was so good it was hard for me to put it down. It's very, very engaging even though it's long. It's such a good book. Yes, so good. I have, despite my feeling of uncomfortableness in certain aspects, I have nothing but good things to say about the film, about the book. So definitely check them both out. But that is it for this episode of books versus movies. I don't know when the next episode will be, but I'm currently reading the material for the next episode, and the next episode will be all about the Handmaid's Tale. So looking forward to that and I will see you next time. Bye.