Let The Right On Dracula

There are numerous aspects of Let the Right On In that show it to be traditional and yet untraditional when one considers vampire mythology—in essence a hybrid. As Jules Zanger describes modern vampires, it is easy to identify the how many traits of the story’s vampire, Eli, to be modern, and the story in general to be modernized. Despite the subtle references to Dracula, this movie desexualizes the vampire, accepting friendship as opposed to leading a solitary life, and shows her to be sympathetic and possible even gaining the audience’s (and Oskar’s) approval of her existence. The sexual overtones of many vampire stories, including recent ones, in which the vampire bite serves as a stand-in or metaphor for penetration, undergo a radical

Eli derives no pleasure from luring, attacking and killing human victims, preferring to let Håkan do the slaughtering for her – a choice that may not be morally superior but is nevertheless a measure of her reluctance. Initially she kills only when desperately thirsty, after Håkan fails to bring her the blood she subsists on. Afterward, as she leans forward over the limp body of Jocke, her posture conveying pain, regret and remorse, especially dissimilar to Dracula’s act in using Lucy. Eli’s sense of justice does seem unambiguously vengeful, though, and far from demonstrating a sense of fairness derived from disinterestedly-chosen principles like new vampires. Eli’s acts of vampirism are portrayed to be sexually unappealing, maladroit, but essential to her life as opposed to entertainment. As gruesome as her feeding attacks are, they remain understandable. This can also be understood during the final scenes at the swimming pool when we see Eli’s violence to be dark yet with good intention. When Oskar is on the point of drowning, Eli intervenes brutally. Zanger reveals that the audience sympathizes with the lesser-of-two-evils in recent vampire stories. In this movie though, since Eli rescues Oscar from mutilation or death, the characters that die are one’s the audience becomes unsympathetic with, thus reversing the pattern of reader/viewer identification with the victims. From under water we are aware of a commotion above the surface: then the ripped-off head of the principal bully appears, then his forearm and the hand, which previously had held Oskar under the water. We root for Oskar and Eli as she reaches beneath the surface to lift Oskar gently to safety which shows their mutual trust and loyalty to be unmistakably reinforced—very unlike old vampire