After chatting with Uncut’s Michael Bonner we turn to NME’s film writer Ben Hewitt for his take on Let The Right One In, horror films and deceased dinner party guests.
Describe ‘Let The Right One In’ for those who have not seen it.
It’s hard to do something so wonderful justice in just a few measly sentences, but the gist is this: it’s a Swedish horror/fantasy/coming-of-age/vampire film (and it manages to be all of those things at once, and yet something far more special at the same time) directed by Tomas Alfredson, who also later made the equally great ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’. At its heart, it’s the story of a lonely 12-year-old boy, Oskar, who’s bullied and belittled by his peers but finds solace in his friendship with Eli: an odd, mysterious girl (although that’s open to interpretation) with a secret who inspires him to stand up for himself. I’ve not read the novel it’s based on, but in the film version at least, it’s their relationship which takes centre stage, and it’s essentially a beautiful tale of two outcasts finding and saving one another.
What separates ‘Let The Right One In’ from other horror films?
I think it was Mark Kermode who originally summed up what’s so enchanting about ‘Let The Right One In’: it’s not a vampire film with children, but a film about children which just so happens to include vampires, too. It’s soft and slow-moving, it’s about character development rather than crash-bang-wallop scares, and its attitude towards violence is restrained and regretful instead of mindless gore. And I think the way it approaches the vampirism of Eli is unmatched, really, in modern cultural terms: she’s neither a heartless bloodsucker nor a swaggering sex-symbol a la ‘Twilight’. She’s conflicted and, ironically, very ‘human’, and that’s the key difference – for her, being undead and having to consume blood to survive is just as mundane an irritation as going to school and confronting his tormentors is for Oskar. And it’d be remiss not to mention the cinematography, too, because it looks wonderful.
You are spending Friday night in watching films. What would you line up to watch with ‘Let The Right One In?’
‘The Lost Boys’ is probably a natural companion, I think: it’s far funnier, of course, and it pits a gang of haphazard teens against a bunch of rampaging adolescent vampires, but it’s got that same strain of mixing the supernatural with the everyday problems, and the nice contrast of the struggles of growing up in a universe populated by characters who are going to stay young forever. And I’d say ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ would fit in nicely, too – again, it takes a weighty subject and translates it through the story of a lonely girl and her experiences (or dreams/make-believe experiences) with magical creatures and fearsome beasties. It’s very beautiful and very sad – you should probably watch ‘The Lost Boys’ third, otherwise it might be a bit of a depressing Friday evening in…
What continues to appeal about vampire fiction?
It’s hard to boil it down to just one factor, and it’s probably a mixture of things, but more than anything it’s the way it’s evolved culturally through the ages. They’ve been able to change with the times and transform from threat to comfort, from Penny Dreadful terrors to Hollywood pin-ups. If you look at Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’, for example – probably the definitive literary vampire text – it’s essentially a metaphorical warning about disease, to strike a chord with Victorian readers who would associate all the bloodletting and wasting away with tuberculosis, and the idea of dangerous sexual desire with syphilis. But then the 1992 film ‘Dracula’ with Gary Oldman, which is directed by Bram Stoker, goes to much greater lengths to make Dracula a tragic romantic hero, and that’s an idea that’s stuck in recent times: from Spike and Angel in ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ to ‘Twilight’, there’s a recurring theme of an unwilling vampire, a sort of noble anti-hero struggling to be decent in a decadent existence
What can staging the story offer that the film can’t?
John Tiffany is directing, I know, and he’s had a lot of success adapting projects before: he got loads of critical acclaim for his production of ‘Once’, which was originally an Irish musical film. And by all accounts he put on a great version of ‘The Glass Menagerie’ by Tennessee Williams, so I’m sure ‘Let The Right One In’ is in very safe hands! Onstage, I think it will be brilliant to see that relationship between Oskar and Eli develop with ‘live’ actors, so to speak, and to be privy to those small nuances and flashes of growing empathy and understanding. It’s a creepy, eerie story rather than being bombastic and scare-heavy, and that atmosphere should translate brilliantly to the stage.
What songs would go on your ‘LTROI’ playlist?
Well! It would be a shame not to include the Morrissey song ‘Let The Right One Slip In’, really – that’s the inspiration for the novel/film’s title, and there’s obviously the same morbid, luxuriant loneliness in The Smiths that there is in the book, too. So, in-keeping with that theme, ‘When I Grow Up’ by Fever Ray would be perfect: it’s the solo project of The Knife’s Karein Dreijer Anderson, and it’s an amazing song about the world from the odd, magical viewpoint of a child. For creepiness, you couldn’t go wrong with ‘Down By The Water’ by PJ Harvey, which is as sinister and unsettling as they come, and ‘Play Dead’ by Bjork, too. And then you’d need something to capture the Oskar and Eli relationship – maybe ‘There She Goes, My Beautiful World’ by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. Not exactly a party playlist, is it? A definite shortage of bangers there.
What stage adaptations of horror films would you like to see made?
There’s plans in the US to make a stage version of ‘The Shining’, which should be interesting if nothing else, although I’m not too sure how that will translate to the stage – I pity the poor sod who’s responsible for building the topiary maze. And although it’s currently being turned into a TV series in the US, I think ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ would be brilliant onstage: a story that’s genuinely scary, but the terrors of which mostly reside in your own mind and imagination.
Best stage to film adaptation?
‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ with Vivian Leigh and Marlon Brando is a classic, obviously, so that’d probably be top of my list. And it’d be closely followed by ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’ – originally a David Mamet play about loose morals in a real estate office in corporate America, brought to life by Kevin Spacey, Al Pacino and one of the best cameos ever from Alec Baldwin – and ‘Disco Pigs’, an Irish film about an unhealthy, destructive friendship which was one of Cillian Murphy’s first standout performances. It’s hard not to love anything which brought Cillian Murphy to the world’s attention.
You’re throwing a dinner party and you only have room for one more guest. Out of these you need to ‘Let The Right One In’ – who’s it going to be?
Werner Herzog, Mary Shelley, Morrissey, Danny Dyer or Lena Dunham?
Ha! It’s highly unlikely that any dinner party I threw would only have room for one more guest – believe me, there’d be lots of empty seats still available. I’m not sure I could whip up a menu that would be to Morrissey’s tastes, and Lena Dunham would have to be a no, too, because there’d only be room for one hapless, socially awkward 20-something at the table. I’m not sure it’d be a nawty enough evening for Danny Dyer, either, so it’s a toss-up between Werner and Mary… given the latter’s been dead for over 150 years, I’ll choose her. She’d probably enjoy a good night out, all things considered.