April 3, 2025 • 42 mins
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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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Books vs Movies, the podcast where I set
out to answer the age-oldquestion is the book really
always better than the movie?
I'm Yuvia, an actress and booklover based out of New York City
, and today I will be discussingLet the Right One In by John
Ashvidh Linkvist and its 2008adaptation.
(00:20):
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 absolutelyloved the book and I absolutely
loved this film and I cannotwait to talk about it because
they are both so incredible.
(00:41):
I've been very fortunate so far.
I feel this year that I've beenexcited 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 releasedthis year are the only
adaptations that I've watched sofar.
So I mean, we're still only inApril, so I have a lot of time,
(01:02):
but definitely recommend Queenieso far.
That is my favorite TVadaptation that I've seen.
And Let the Right One Intechnically I saw it last year,
but that's okay, it is so good.
So I'm so excited to talk aboutthis.
So Let the Right One In.
I was actually first introducedto the concept of this story
(01:23):
through the American remake ofthis film called Let Me In that
came out in 2010 and stars CodySmith-McPhee and Chloe Grace
Moritz as Oscar and Ellie.
And that was good, but therewas something about it that was
like it left me feeling kind ofunsatisfied after, like once the
film ended like I liked it butI didn't love it and it kind of
(01:45):
just disappeared into the memory, into my memory.
This one definitely stuck withme a lot more, but the book.
I just I highly recommend thebook.
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, wasfirst published in 2004.
(02:08):
This takes place in 1981 inBlackburg, which is a suburb in
Sweden.
It starts off after the body ofa teenage boy is found.
He's been completely emptied ofblood and the murder seems to
be part of some sort of ritualkilling.
Our protagonist, 12-year-oldOscar, is hoping that one of
(02:30):
these days his bullies will betargeted to be a part of one of
these ritual killings.
That is until he meets the girlwho has just moved in next door
, a very peculiar girl whodoesn't seem to know what a lot
of modern day things are, anddespite this, she's incredibly
smart and able to pick up onthings very quickly.
(02:52):
She's very odd, though.
There's something definitelyoff about her, and the thing is
that's even weirder is thatOscar only seems to see her at
night.
The 2008 adaptation, let theRight One In, follows the story
of Oscar, who is an overlookedand bullied boy who finds love
(03:14):
and revenge through Ellie, abeautiful but peculiar girl.
So, as always, there's going tobe spoilers in this episode, but
before we go into spoilerterritory, I just want to talk a
little bit about Let the RightOne In, because I didn't realize
that it has had so manyadaptations.
So it's actually been adaptedin the form of three independent
(03:37):
films, a play and televisionseries.
So, first off, we have theSwedish language film Let the
Right One In, which is the one Iwill be talking about today
that was directed by ThomasAlfredson and was released in
2008.
Then, in 2010, we got theEnglish adaptation titled Let Me
(04:00):
In, directed by Matt Reeves,and then there was also an
English language stageadaptation that premiered in
2013.
There's also a 2021 Irishhorror comedy film called Let
the Wrong One In, which wasloosely based on the novel, and
(04:20):
then in 2017, tnt, the TVchannel TNT, ordered a pilot
episode for the television basedon the novel.
Ultimately, tnt passed on theseries, but in 2021, showtime
gave a Let the Write One in TVseries a 10 episode order and it
premiered in 2022 and it starsthe man Be Cheat.
(04:44):
So you know, and I rememberseeing the advertisements for
this and I knew it was more thanlikely based on the book, but
it didn't really catch myattention, maybe because I'd
only seen Let Me In at thispoint and I hadn't read the book
.
But now I'm very interested inwatching the TV series,
especially more because Iabsolutely adore Demian Bichid.
(05:05):
I think he's a fantastic actorand he's from Mexico, so let's
go with Demian, he's great.
So, yeah, I didn't realize thatthis book actually had this
many adaptations, which is I'mnot surprised.
This is a really good book andI can see how there's you can
play with it in all of thesemediums.
I feel like the film handled itreally well.
(05:27):
The TV series allows you to gointo even more depth.
The stage play would make forsome really cool ambience and
horror play, which I feel likeyou 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 aboutwriting horror plays and I think
(05:48):
he has the knack for it and I'mnot just being biased, like
he's good.
So there's that.
And I mean we saw the Woman inBlack.
I mean I had already seen it inback in 2018, when I went to
London for the first time and Iwanted to make sure I saw a show
on the West End.
I ended up watching two showsbecause it's so affordable over
there.
Like, learn something from this, please Broadway.
(06:09):
So yeah, there's a lot ofpotential here.
So, with all of that being said, let's go ahead and get started
.
This is your official spoileralert.
If you are interested inwatching the film, which you
absolutely should, if you areinterested in reading the book,
which you really absolutelyshould, then turn it off.
Come back to it later.
There is a lot that happens inthe book that does not happen in
(06:33):
the film, especially not theAmerican remake.
So it's one of those thingswhere the Swedish film is dark
and like the American remakekind of sanitizes it a little
bit.
Like there were some thingsthat made me uncomfortable
watching the Swedish film, and Ithink it's more because there's
children involved Nothing likegraphic.
But it still made me a littlebit uncomfortable.
(06:55):
That does not compare to what'sin the content of the book, so
I will go ahead and let you knowabout that.
The book is incredibly,incredibly dark.
Go ahead and let you know aboutthat.
The book is incredibly,incredibly dark.
One of the characters, who is avery important character to the
story, to the plotline of thebook, is a pedophile.
So some of the things I will betalking about are not going to
(07:16):
be kind of uncomfortable or notkind of.
They're going to be veryuncomfortable, which makes sense
because I'm talking about a pedand it's not.
I'm not going to go into likegraphic descriptions.
I do try to keep graphicdescriptions to a minimum, but
it's, I can't avoid itcompletely.
So just letting you know, justthrowing that out there.
(07:37):
Yeah, so this pedophilecharacter was sanitized a little
bit, was actually actuallysanitized for the film, the
Swedish film version as well.
There was no indication that hewas a pedophile and, of course,
obviously, the American filmsanitized it even more.
So I'm not saying the Americanremake was bad, like I said it
(07:58):
was, it was fine.
I know I did remember, likeonce it was over I was like
that's it, like I was expectingso much more.
Definitely watch the Swedishversion.
Definitely watch the Swedishversion.
All right.
So our main players in thisstory are Oscar he is our
protagonist we have Ellie, hismysterious new neighbor, and
(08:19):
Hakon, who is Ellie's father, orfather figure, I should say
We'll get into that.
So the beginning of the bookand the film, or towards the
beginning of the book and thefilm, hakon kills someone and is
in the middle of draining thebody of blood to give back to
Ellie.
In the film he's discoveredWell, he's not discovered, but
(08:42):
he gets interrupted by passersby.
So he's not able to completethe job and he gets in trouble
with Ellie.
Ellie needs the blood tosurvive because, you might have
guessed it already, ellie is avampire.
So Hakann in the film getsinterrupted and is unable to
complete the job.
But since he is unable tocomplete the job, he gets in
(09:05):
trouble with Ellie and thatleads Ellie to kill Jock.
He's important in the sensethat it drives one of his
friends to really find out whathappened to him, especially
after Ellie ends up attackinghis 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 eventuallydiscovered but by then Hakon has
(09:28):
collected all the blood heneeds and takes it to Ellie and
Ellie has strength and satisfied.
What leads Ellie to killing Jockin the book is it's just been a
while since she's eaten andHakon is kind of dragging his
feet in terms of killing anotherbody or killing another body,
killing another person.
So yeah, ellie is, ellie iskind of forced.
(09:51):
Well, in both situations she'sforced.
But in the film it's kind ofdire because Hakon doesn't,
isn't able to collect any bloodfor her.
But in the book she is able to.
She does drink and finish thatblood and then she just once she
starts running, once she'srunning out and Hakun hasn't
killed another person, she hasto go and that's when she kills.
Ja, and it's kind of ironic thatHakun struggles to kill people.
(10:16):
He does feel a certain guilttowards it, especially because
he goes for younger peoplebecause they're easier to first
of all kill, they're easier totrap and they're easier to kill
and they're easier to transport,should he need to transport
them, as opposed to a full-grownadult.
So he does struggle with thekilling because he feels guilty
(10:36):
about it.
But it is a little ironic thathe feels guilty because Hakann
is our pedophile and there arescenes in the book in which we
actually see him pay forchildren, and the way we do have
moments in the story is told inthird person, so we are able to
gather some of the thoughts ofthe different characters, and so
(10:58):
the way Hakann describes Ellieis, yeah, it's very
uncomfortable, it's veryuncomfortable to read.
But that is why Hakann has takenon the role of Ellie's father
figure, because Ellie is ideal.
He knows that Ellie is avampire, so she's about 200-ish
years old.
So you know, it's one of thosethings.
(11:19):
She's in the body of a childand she's technically a child,
but she doesn't think and actlike a child because 200 years
of life experience will kind ofdo that to you.
So Ellie's kind of like theperfect, it is like the ideal,
because she has the body of achild but she has more of an
understanding of the, you know,basically the mind of an adult,
(11:43):
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 aboutbecause it's gross, but kind of
like that's how he sees it, andso he's happy to take on this
father figure role to ellie,because, while ellie doesn't
allow him to touch her or doanything sexual with her, like
(12:04):
he gets off on the fact that he,like he can still get really
close to her and smell her.
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 aboutkilling these younger kids.
They're not like little little,they're like teenagers and he's
like sometimes he even like hedoesn't get off on the fact that
(12:26):
he's killing them, but he likegets off on the chase and being
near them and then, once they'redead, like he feels guilty.
Yeah, so it's, yeah, it's, it'sdark, it's dark, it's dark.
All right, it's very dark, butit's good.
It really is, I promise, butanyway.
So, after Ellie kills, jockHawken is like you, like I can't
(12:53):
believe you killed this person,like you were not careful about
this at all, you just left hisbody out in plain sight.
Now I'm the one that has todispose of it.
This is a large man.
I'm going to struggle todispose of the body and he
struggles a little bit more inthe film than he does in the
book.
Like I felt, in the book it waskind of like ugh, annoying, he
was annoyed but he was able todispose of the body easily.
And the film, like he struggledso much to like dispose of this
(13:14):
poor body, so, but anyway.
So finally he attempts.
So in the book he goes to apublic pool and the film he goes
.
It looks like it's just aschool, like a school that has a
pool in it for their swim team.
So he goes to the school's poolfor in the film to find his
(13:35):
next victim.
In the book he goes to thepublic pool, which, like I'm
wondering why he went to thepublic pool in the first place
like the school pool is like alittle bit dangerous but at
least like he's waiting in thelocker rooms of the school for
the swim practice to be over andthen, once all the boys but one
have left, then he attacks thatboy.
So what ends up happening isthat he like knocks this kid out
(13:59):
and attempts to start draininghis blood.
But he, well, he knocks the kidout, 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.
But in the in the film, like he,the boy, comes to like he's
hanging upside down and hisfriends actually come back
looking for him, but theschool's locked up at this point
.
So they go to like the windowsof the locker which are of the
(14:22):
locker room, which are what's itcalled?
Kind of like how bathroomwindows are, that like
frostiness, so you can't see in,but there's still windows to
let light in.
So they start like knocking onthe locker room walls and at
this point, like the kid wakesup and he starts yelling for his
friends, like oh my gosh, likeI'm in here, help me, I'm being
(14:42):
attacked.
And so, like his friends, hakanhas no way of I feel like he
could have escaped, but maybethere's only one way into the
locker room.
And he's like if I try toescape, they're gonna see me.
So he goes into like the showerarea and throws acid on his
face so that he won't berecognizable.
So that's how he gets caught inthe film.
But in the book he's literallyin a public pool.
(15:03):
So like he has a gas canister.
So what he does is he puts amask over the victim's face and
then they breathe in the gas andthey get knocked out.
So he's literally at a publicpool and it's the way this the
it's described in this publicpool is that there's like
changing areas, like privatechanging areas, like you go
behind, like a curtain area,except it's, yeah you know, like
(15:26):
for privacy.
So it's like like a littlesectioned off area where you
change and then you're, you exitand you're like the main locker
room area.
So he's literally in one ofthose and he hears, like it
happens to be no one else inthis public pool except some
(15:47):
kids, and then he hears one ofthe like two of the kids head
out towards the exit and thenone of the kids starts walking
in his direction.
So as the kid starts walking inhis direction, he pops out of
the changing area, puts the gason the kid.
There is a little bit of astruggle, so he's not able to
put as much gas into the kid ashe wants, because this machine
also makes a lot of noise andthere's a little bit of a
(16:08):
struggle, and so, like someonecomes 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 pumpthis kid up with as much gas as
he wants to, but again he's likethat's enough gas to keep him
knocked out until I cut him openand start draining his blood
and and by that time he'll behe'll be dead.
But he really did not get achance to like pump this kid
(16:31):
full of gas because like the kidisn't even knocked out for five
minutes, I want to say, beforehe's awake and obviously he
starts screaming and they're ina public pool, so they're
discovered immediately and Hakonstill throws acid on his face.
One thing I found interestingthat we don't see in the film is
that Ellie actually shows signsof aging in the book.
(16:52):
So at this time Ellie hasn'tit's been a while since she
killed Jock and she drank hisblood and she's been waiting for
Hakon to bring her the bloodfrom the pool kid.
But she doesn't realize thatHakon has thrown acid on his
face and been arrested at thispoint.
So she shows up to see Oscarand she has like her hair is a
(17:14):
little bit white, she looks, shejust 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 womankind of, and she looks very
sickly.
So that's something we don't inthe film, but in the book it is
described that Ellie does startto show signs of aging if she
doesn't eat, and so as soon asshe eats she goes back to
looking like a little girl.
So there is another victim inthe book that isn't in the film
(17:36):
and that is an old woman.
So Ellie kind of like she stilldoesn't know that Hawken has
been arrested for attemptedmurder, but she's showing signs
of aging, she's dying becauseshe's so hungry.
So she finds a random old womanliving by herself and she
knocks on the door and says thatshe needs to call her mom, and
(17:57):
the old woman lets her in andshe pretends to use the phone,
and then she sits on the couchand then eventually attacks the
old woman, and as she's tastingthe woman's blood, she tastes
that it's diseased, and that'swhen she figures out that the
woman is dying of cancer.
So Ellie does feel bad, butit's like, well, maybe I'm doing
her favors and she was dyinganyway.
(18:18):
So yeah, there is an old womanthat is killed in the book that
is not killed in the film.
Eventually, though, ellie doesrealize where Hakon is, and so
she goes to the hospital In thefilm she watches the news and
like the same night or like thenext day and sees the news that
Hakon has been arrested and thathe's at the hospital.
So this is like immediate.
(18:40):
It takes Ellie a little bitwhile, a little bit in the book
to figure out where Hakon is inthe in the film she realizes
right away after watching thenews.
So she goes to the hospital andagain she can't enter without
being invited in.
So she goes to visit Hakon andin the film he's basically like
just kill me.
He can't speak anymore becauseof the acid, but he like
(19:01):
indicates his throat and it'slike obviously he's saying like
just kill me, drink my blood.
And Ellie's like I don't wantto do this, but okay, like
otherwise you're going to spendthe rest of your life in jail,
so might as well just kill you.
And so she drinks Hakon's bloodand as someone is coming in,
she like throws his body out thewindow and so people think that
(19:22):
he committed suicide.
In the book, however, ellie isagain drinking his blood.
She does go to like eventually,when she figures out where he
is, she goes to the hospital andhe's like kill me, drink my
blood.
But also, like he wants.
He does want that, but he alsolike one of the conditions again
, because he feels so guilty.
He's pretty much like I'm notgonna kill for you anymore
(19:43):
unless you let me like.
You know I'm a pedophile.
You can probably guess whathe's asking for.
And ellie's like absolutely not, but I will let you lay in bed
with me and, um, you can, wewon't actually do anything, but
you can lay in bed with me andyes, so he's like all right.
So that's when he goes topublic pool to kill the kid.
But while he's there, when heshows up, so he, he essentially
(20:06):
wants to.
He's been dreaming of likefeeling Ellie on him and so it's
kind of like this is I justwant to die and die happy.
You know what I mean.
And so Ellie's like all rightand as she's, she's drinking his
blood, but she's unable tofinish because they get
interrupted and she throws hisbody out the window.
(20:29):
Unfortunately, in the film thisdoes kill Hakon.
In the book, unfortunately,this does not kill him.
Instead he turns into a vampireand he goes after her and, yeah
, what ends up happening isthere'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 apretty important part in the
(20:50):
book.
Like he's, he's a prettyimportant character.
If I had to make a guess as towhy he's not in the film is
because there's a charactercalled Tommy, who is one of
Oscar's bullies, and thenthere's Thomas.
So we have Tommy and a Thomas,so like there would be times and
I was like wait, which one'swhich?
Again, yeah.
So I think that's why he wasn'tincluded in the film.
(21:13):
So Thomas is, he plays a prettyimportant part in the book,
like I said.
But I'm not going to talk abouthim too much outside of this
because he's not in the film, sothere isn't really much to
compare him to.
But at one point, hakon, as Isaid, now he's a vampire he goes
back to his old apartmentbuilding looking for Ellie
(21:34):
because he's finally he's avampire, now he can like looking
for Ellie because he's finallyhe's a vampire, now he can like
he has like leverage, now he'snot really.
So, hey, what are you doing?
Sorry, voldemort, has he hadgotten so much better about
eating things off of the floor?
He knows he's not allowed to dothat, but he's been getting in
this habit again where he'sstarting to eat things off the
(21:54):
floor again.
So trying to get back on him.
But sorry about that.
So you know he didn't dare toattempt anything on Ellie
because it's like at the end ofthe day she's a vampire and
despite being in the body of alittle girl, like she can she's
stronger than me and she cankill me but now he's like I'm a
vampire, now I'm going to getwhat I want.
So he like goes and attempts toget Ellie but is thwarted,
(22:18):
thankfully, and she injures himpretty badly and she escapes and
she has no idea that this wholetime Thomas has been hiding in.
So Hakon and Ellie have thelittle confrontation in kind of
like the storage area of theapartment building.
So it's like you have the, theunits, the apartment units, and
then there's like a basementarea where there's like
(22:39):
individual storage lockers foreach apartment and then there's
also just like a general storagehangout area where Thomas hangs
out and like smoke cigarettesand other people hang out in
there to be debaucherous andwhatever, but anyway.
So Thomas like gets scaredbecause he sees like this
monster figure and he hides inhis storage locker and then
(23:01):
after Ellie escapes and heattempts to get out of the
storage locker he discovers thatHakann is blocking the entrance
and I mean he sees, like heheard the struggle.
He sees this horrifying, likedisfigured by acid man, and so
he's terrified and Hakannan, atthis point is still pretty
injured and out of sorts.
(23:22):
So Thomas is able to.
He has a trophy that he stolefrom his mom's boyfriend and he
just starts bashing Hakannan'shead in and he kills him and
that's how he's discovered he'ssinging.
I don't even know what it'scalled, but we have the Spanish
equivalent which is like andit's kind of like a counting
(23:47):
thing, kind of like 99 bottlesof beer on the wall, but it's
elephants.
So he like every single timeit's like.
The only difference is like 99bottles of the beer on the wall.
You say 99 bottles, like you go99 bottles of beer on the wall,
99 bottles of beer, take onedown, pass it around.
Now you got 98 bottles of beer.
So you say 99 bottles orwhatever number.
You're on twice and theelephants one.
(24:08):
You only say the number ofelephants and instead of going
counting down, you count up.
So he's every single time hecounts like how many elephants
he's reached.
So he goes like one elephantand on the number he smashes
down on the head and he justdoes that over and over and over
until he's discovered by hismom's boyfriend who's a cop.
(24:30):
And by the time he's discoveredhe's like on 2000 or 3000
something.
So he's like in shock, just noteven realizing he's like on
3,000 elephants.
As he continues bashing, itwouldn'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'ssmashing.
But yeah, so that is how Hakonultimately dies in the book,
(24:53):
versus just falling out thewindow and Ellie successfully
draining him of blood in thefilm.
In the book we also get muchmore of Ellie's backstory.
So there is a line in the filmin which Oscar says like oh, do
you want to go steady with me?
Again, this takes place in the80s and he's like do you want to
go steady with me?
And Ellie's like, yeah, butwould you still want to go
(25:14):
steady with me if I wasn't agirl?
And Oscar's like huh.
And it kind of just stays thatway until later, in which this
is one of the parts of the filmthat 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 wouldyou still want to go steady with
me if I was a, if I wasn't agirl?
And Oscar's like, uh, it's akind of a weird question.
(25:36):
And then there's a moment inwhich, further on after this
conversation, ellie's visitingOscar and it's just him.
His mom's working and she needsa change of clothes and so he's
like you can take one of mymom's dresses, like she wouldn't
even notice it's gone.
And at one point while she'schanging, he like peeks in
through crack in the door to seeher change and we get a glimpse
(25:57):
of where.
We get a glimpse of the genitalarea, but it's all sewed up and
Oscar's like he gasps and thenhe like looks away.
So in the film they used amannequin to get the shot.
There was no child beingexposed, it was a mannequin, but
it's still like kind of it wasstill uncomfortable to see, just
(26:17):
because you think you'relooking at like the genital area
of an actual child.
But it was.
They used a mannequin as astand-in for that shot.
But yeah, so he.
That's how it stays in the film.
You just see like she asks thatquestion and then you just see
that image and it's yeah, it'sjust sewn up.
In the book we actually do getthe revelation that Ellie was
(26:40):
born a boy and when she wastransformed into a vampire she
was castrated.
But she looks like a girl.
Everyone thinks of her as agirl and she wants to be known
as a girl.
But yes, she was born a boy.
And in the book and we do getthat actual backstory Like there
(27:00):
is no, it's kind of up forinterpretation in the film, but
in the book it's like very, it'svery clear, like no, she was
born a boy.
And I will say at this pointthe author maybe because the
primary point of view is Oscar'spoint of view and he starts
calling Ellie a he like he stopsreferring to Ellie as a she at
that point and starts saying he,blah, blah, blah.
(27:22):
I don't remember if he ends upswitching back to calling her a
she at that point and startssaying he, blah, blah, blah.
I don't remember if he ends upswitching 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 afterthe revelation, there was like
periods of time in which it waslike he, yeah.
So in the film.
I not that Oscar has a badrelationship with his mother,
but it's not necessarily a goodone either.
(27:44):
It's like she's a single parentand she works a lot.
The film makes it seem a lotmore like Oscar's overlooked and
kind of neglected thoughunintentionally by his mother
because she has to work so much.
He has a much betterrelationship with his mother in
the book.
She's very supportive and theyspend a lot of time together.
(28:05):
They spend when she's notworking.
They spend time together.
That is until he meets Ellieand he starts choosing to spend
time with Ellie versus his mom.
But she does like when he goesout 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 watchwhatever on television.
So it is hinted that he doeshave a much better relationship
(28:25):
with his mother in the book andshe's a lot more present in his
life than she is in the film.
The film also.
So Oscar's parents are divorcedand there is one instance in
which he goes to visit hisfather after he stands up to his
bullies and causes one of themto be like he hits his.
He stands up to his bully andand causes one of them to be
like he hits his.
He stands up to his bully andhe ends up hitting his bully on
(28:47):
the head, causing like somepermanent damage to his ear, and
so after this happened,obviously he gets in a lot of
trouble and his mom is like youneed to go spend a weekend with
your dad, maybe your dad cantalk some sense into you.
And the film actually takes adifferent route with the father
than the book does.
In the film you kind of get theit's kind of hinted at that
(29:07):
oscar's father could be gay,like oscar's, having a really
good time spending spending timewith his dad, and then one of
his dad's friends show up andthen like the atmosphere kind of
changes and it kind of you getthe sense of like oh, that's not
actually his friend, that's hisboyfriend and that.
So you do get kind of that hintin the film that his dad is is
(29:30):
actually might actually becloseted or out, and because his
dad lives in a different townso he might be out in that town
but it's the 80s so I doubt hewould be out.
So he's either like out in justthis town and still closeted
with Oscar, or he's justcloseted.
But you get the sense that theman that comes in is actually
(29:50):
his boyfriend and not his friendIn the book.
He's straight, he's not gay atall and he's just a raging
alcoholic.
Well, not raging, does ragingalcoholic mean he's just like a
severe alcoholic or he's anangry alcoholic?
So I'm just going to say he'san alcoholic, he's not an angry
one, he's.
He's an alcoholic, he's asevere alcoholic.
(30:10):
And so once his, his friendshows up, it is just his friend.
His friend shows up with likebottles of alcohol and they just
start drinking and theycompletely forget about Oscar
and completely start ignoringOscar.
So Oscar's like well, my timewith my dad is ruined.
Like I know he's not going topay attention to me, he's just
going to be trying to get drunk,so I'm going to head back home.
(30:31):
So he heads home.
He's supposed to spend theweekend with his dad, but he
ends up leaving early becausehis dad has started his binge
drinking for the weekend andthere's no point for Oscar to
stick around.
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'sfriends with Jock and he's also
(30:53):
boyfriend to Virginia.
So Ellie ends up attackingVirginia and Lach sees that
Ellie's attacking Virginia.
So again, ellie is unable tokill Virginia, so she flees and
Jock takes Virginia to thehospital and then, after she's
released, she starts feelingsick and she doesn't know what's
going on.
But she knows that like goingout into the sunlight kind of
(31:15):
hurts.
And then she goes to the storeand she just she tries eating
but she's unable to holdanything down and then she ends
up cutting herself, unable tohold anything down.
And then she ends up cuttingherself accidentally while at
the store and as she startssucking her blood she realizes
that all she wants is blood andmore blood.
And so she there's more of adiscovery for her in the book
(31:36):
than in the film.
Like in the film I think shedoes realize what she is, but
it's really just like my thereisn't.
Like she, she knows that likegoing out into the sun hurts and
then, and then that's prettymuch it.
In the in the film, in the bookthere's more of a realization of
like the sun hurts, I can'thold anything down, blood tastes
(31:56):
really good.
Oh my gosh, I am a vampire andshe doesn't want to be a vampire
.
So in both the film and thebook, she, they go visit.
She and Lack go visit anotherfriend who owns a bunch of cats
Like he's has an unhealthyamount of cats Like.
This is a cat hoardingsituation which is very, very
(32:17):
bad for humans and cats alike.
And so he they go visit.
And cats in this universe havean aversion to vampires.
They know what a vampire is andthey attack.
So in both the book and thefilm they go visit this mutual
friend, the cat's attacker.
So Virginia ends up back in thehospital.
Like I said, in the film itseems like Virginia knows what
(32:38):
she is, but it's more of likethe sun hurts.
I was just attacked by so manycats, I don't want to live
anymore.
And then she asks the one ofthe nurses to open the blinds
and they the next morning andthey open the blinds and
obviously she goes up in flames.
In the book there is, like Isaid, more of a discovery, more
of like I'm a monster, I'm avampire.
(32:59):
And then she gets attacked bythe cats and ends up at the
hospital and she's like I am avampire, I don't want to be a
vampire, I'm choosing to end mylife because I don't want to
live my life like this.
So she again asks so Lack isactually spending the night in
her room, or actually spent thenight in her room, and she keeps
trying to get the nurses tolike get him to leave.
(33:22):
And the nurses are like shekeeps hinting at it, like oh you
know, can we be alone?
And or like can you get him toleave?
And the nurses, like are justnot picking up on the hints.
Obviously she wasn't sayingwhat I was just saying.
She was like being a lot moreambiguous about it.
So she was like she keepstrying to get them to leave
because she knows what's goingto happen when, when they open
(33:43):
the blinds and she doesn't wantLack to be in the room with her
when that happens.
But they just refuse to likethey're just not picking up on
the hints and she's like allright, 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 andshe dies and Lack sees this and
this prompts him to to look forEllie, because he saw what Ellie
(34:06):
looks like.
But yeah, so there's, there'sthere's stuff that happens
between Ellie and Locke andOscar and basically Ellie's time
here in Blackburg has reachedan end and she knows she has to
move on.
There's just too muchspeculation, too much.
She's going to be discoveredeventually.
There's been like too manysuspicious things happening
(34:27):
around and it's just not safefor her to stick around
Blackburg.
So she she's like I need toleave, and so before she leaves,
so she leaves, sorry, and Oscarthinks it's completely.
Until he the bullies.
Obviously Oscar stood up forhimself.
That's not a good thing.
So they have to teach Oscar a alesson.
So they lure oscar to thepublic pool by saying like oh,
(34:48):
our teacher is like, becausethey're, they're like pe teacher
also teaches at swimming, atthe, at the public pool.
So they like they're like theteacher was asking for you and
the teacher does check up on hima little bit, but obviously
like and is excited to see him.
But the, the teacher had noreason like did not ask for
Oscar specifically to be there.
So then they tell the teacherlike oh, the phone's ringing.
(35:10):
And then once he like gets tohis office, there's another,
another one of the bullies isthere to like knock him out.
So he knocks him out and thenonce there are absolutely no
adults in the pool, they startholding Oscar down underwater.
One of the bullies kind ofstarts feeling regret towards it
.
And so then Ellie shows up andis like, say that I can come in,
and he's like you can come in.
And then Ellie ends upbeheading the bullies.
(35:34):
Not all of them.
The one that let her in isallowed to escape with his life,
but the other two bullies arebeheaded.
In the film she like full ondismembers them, like we in the
book, like Ellie says let mecome in.
And then she comes in.
And then it cuts to theepilogue in which the police are
just like oh, these twobeheaded boys, blah, blah, blah,
(35:54):
and there's a witness.
And then in the film weactually like they're holding
Oscar underwater and we just seehim being held underwater and
then, as he's being heldunderwater, you just start
seeing like an arm and legsstart floating in the pool and
then you realize Ellie showed upand saved Oscar.
So that is Let the Right One InTrying to think.
(36:15):
If there's anything else I needto say, I guess yeah.
So the relationship betweenOscar and his mother in the book
made me really sad.
When he ends up just leavingher behind, because it's like
they do like in the film, itmakes it made absolute sense for
me, to me that he would justleave her because it's like she
wasn't a very present parent inthe first place and, like I said
, you can only argue that sheworks so much in her.
(36:38):
In this mom's instance you canonly argue that she works a
little bit too much to have arelationship with Oscar, only so
much because then, yeah, so youcan only argue it so much Like
otherwise she wasn't a verypresent parent and in the film
she I mean in the book she islike she's present as much as
she can be and they do have apretty strong relationship.
(37:00):
So it just made me sad that hechose Ellie over his mom.
So that was really really sadto me.
But one thing that like reallykind of left me haunted by the
film that I really didn't likebecause it left me feeling kind
of icky.
It's just like obviously wedon't get Hakon's backstory.
So it's kind of like I was likehas Hawken been with her since
(37:23):
he was a little boy?
And now that he's I mean notthat Hawken's like super old,
but it's like is she starting tosee Hawken's mortality?
And so now she's going afterOscar, and so I feel like there
was almost like a grooming.
That happened in the film, thatdidn't happen in the book on
Ellie's like from Ellie to Oscar.
(37:45):
Again, she's 200 somethingyears old.
So I feel like even thoughthey're technically the same age
, she has the ability to togroom him into being her next
Hakon essentially.
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 doesthat, because at the end of the
day she is 12 years old.
(38:05):
There's only so much she can doin 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 groomhim to like you and then he
just grows up killing people foryou and then once he reaches a
certain age you look for likethe next little boy to groom.
(38:26):
So that's kind of more of thefeeling that I got in the film
and I didn't get that in thebook.
In the book it's very much liketheir connection seems genuine.
And Hakon literally you findout that Hakon has not been
around since he was a little boy.
He's been around.
It doesn't say how long he'sbeen around, but he chose Ellie
(38:50):
and is happy to stick by Ellie'sside because he gets some
disgusting pleasure out of it.
So, yeah, that was something inthe film that was kind of like
in the book.
I felt so sad for Oscar's mom Inthe film.
I just felt so sad for Oscarand the future that awaits him
with Ellie and kind of what'sawaiting him.
And yeah, it's just reallyinteresting how they were.
Maybe that's not what thefilmmakers were going for at all
, but that's kind of how I likethe way they.
(39:10):
That was just how I interpretedsome of the moments and between
Ellie and Oscar and it justmade me really sad for Oscar in
the film.
I mean, he already was living avery sad life, to be honest.
But but the child actors in thefilm I mean, he already was
living a very sad life, to behonest, but the child actors in
the film, let me see, we haveokay, I apologize because these
are Swedish names, but we haveKare Hedebrandt who plays Oscar
(39:35):
and Lena Leanderson who playsEllie.
They're both really reallygreat.
Honestly, the acting fromeveryone was really good and,
yeah, it's a really really greatdark film.
Like I said, I would totallyrecommend this one over Let Me
In.
Let Me In was just reallyunsatisfying and I would need to
watch it again, I think, toreally fully encapsulate what
(39:57):
made me kind of just be like someh about it.
And I didn't feel that afterwatching this film and I did see
this film before reading thebook.
So, yeah, the film did notleave me feeling that way.
And then the book started andit was so good and it's really
disgusting and twisted, but it'sreally really good and I I
recommend it.
(40:18):
I recommend both for sure.
But the book was definitely apage turner.
It was.
It kept me very, very engaged.
I it's a pretty long book butit kept me engaged from
beginning to end.
It's definitely worth the readif you don't mind the extreme
darkness of it, the extremetwistedness of it.
But at least, at least I willsay what I don't like is when,
(40:39):
like, for example, we haveHawkeye and's a pedophile and
it's kind of like.
I can't think of books that dothis necessarily, but you can
argue that some of them like, doglorify this, like this does
not glorify it.
You feel very uncomfortablereading the passages with Hakon.
So it's definitely like.
So it is very, very dark andvery twisted, but it makes you
feel all the emotions you'resupposed to feel, which is like
(41:01):
this is so wrong and so gross onso many levels.
So I will say that about it.
If you're kind of hesitant toread it based on some of that
subject matter and if you don'twant to read it at all based on
the subject matter, completelyunderstand, but that's kind of
how I'm able to get over likeuncomfortable subject matter.
But anyway, I rated the filmfour stars and I rated the book
four stars, but I do have thewinner.
(41:23):
The winner is the book.
I mean, you probably could haveguessed that because I was
gushing about how good the bookwas pretty much since the
episode started.
Yes, I do recommend both.
The film is still a solidadaptation, despite the changes
that were made, and I feel likeit added certain elements, like
I said, that aren't in the book,or it reinterpreted some things
(41:45):
that were not in the book, andI'm just curious to see if you
interpreted the same, if youinterpreted it the same way I
did, or if you interpret itcompletely different, or if you
think it's like a lot morefaithful to the book in terms of
its messaging and I just lookedway deep into it.
But yeah, let me know, but Istill recommend the film.
But the book was just so good.
It was so good it was hard forme to put it down.
(42:08):
It's very, very engaging eventhough it's long.
It's such a good book.
Yes, so good.
I have, despite my feeling ofuncomfortableness in certain
aspects, I have nothing but goodthings to say about the film,
about the book.
So definitely check them bothout.
But that is it for this episodeof books versus movies.
I don't know when the nextepisode will be, but I'm
(42:29):
currently reading the materialfor the next episode, and the
next episode will be all aboutthe Handmaid's Tale.
So looking forward to that andI will see you next time.
Bye.
Welcome to Books vs Movies, the podcast where I set
out to answer the age-oldquestion is the book really
always better than the movie?
I'm Yuvia, an actress and booklover based out of New York City
, and today I will be discussingLet the Right One In by John
Ashvidh Linkvist and its 2008adaptation.
(00:20):
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 absolutelyloved the book and I absolutely
loved this film and I cannotwait to talk about it because
they are both so incredible.
(00:41):
I've been very fortunate so far.
I feel this year that I've beenexcited 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 releasedthis year are the only
adaptations that I've watched sofar.
So I mean, we're still only inApril, so I have a lot of time,
(01:02):
but definitely recommend Queenieso far.
That is my favorite TVadaptation that I've seen.
And Let the Right One Intechnically I saw it last year,
but that's okay, it is so good.
So I'm so excited to talk aboutthis.
So Let the Right One In.
I was actually first introducedto the concept of this story
(01:23):
through the American remake ofthis film called Let Me In that
came out in 2010 and stars CodySmith-McPhee and Chloe Grace
Moritz as Oscar and Ellie.
And that was good, but therewas something about it that was
like it left me feeling kind ofunsatisfied after, like once the
film ended like I liked it butI didn't love it and it kind of
(01:45):
just disappeared into the memory, into my memory.
This one definitely stuck withme a lot more, but the book.
I just I highly recommend thebook.
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, wasfirst published in 2004.
(02:08):
This takes place in 1981 inBlackburg, which is a suburb in
Sweden.
It starts off after the body ofa teenage boy is found.
He's been completely emptied ofblood and the murder seems to
be part of some sort of ritualkilling.
Our protagonist, 12-year-oldOscar, is hoping that one of
(02:30):
these days his bullies will betargeted to be a part of one of
these ritual killings.
That is until he meets the girlwho has just moved in next door
, a very peculiar girl whodoesn't seem to know what a lot
of modern day things are, anddespite this, she's incredibly
smart and able to pick up onthings very quickly.
(02:52):
She's very odd, though.
There's something definitelyoff about her, and the thing is
that's even weirder is thatOscar only seems to see her at
night.
The 2008 adaptation, let theRight One In, follows the story
of Oscar, who is an overlookedand bullied boy who finds love
(03:14):
and revenge through Ellie, abeautiful but peculiar girl.
So, as always, there's going tobe spoilers in this episode, but
before we go into spoilerterritory, I just want to talk a
little bit about Let the RightOne In, because I didn't realize
that it has had so manyadaptations.
So it's actually been adaptedin the form of three independent
(03:37):
films, a play and televisionseries.
So, first off, we have theSwedish language film Let the
Right One In, which is the one Iwill be talking about today
that was directed by ThomasAlfredson and was released in
2008.
Then, in 2010, we got theEnglish adaptation titled Let Me
(04:00):
In, directed by Matt Reeves,and then there was also an
English language stageadaptation that premiered in
2013.
There's also a 2021 Irishhorror comedy film called Let
the Wrong One In, which wasloosely based on the novel, and
(04:20):
then in 2017, tnt, the TVchannel TNT, ordered a pilot
episode for the television basedon the novel.
Ultimately, tnt passed on theseries, but in 2021, showtime
gave a Let the Write One in TVseries a 10 episode order and it
premiered in 2022 and it starsthe man Be Cheat.
(04:44):
So you know, and I rememberseeing the advertisements for
this and I knew it was more thanlikely based on the book, but
it didn't really catch myattention, maybe because I'd
only seen Let Me In at thispoint and I hadn't read the book
.
But now I'm very interested inwatching the TV series,
especially more because Iabsolutely adore Demian Bichid.
(05:05):
I think he's a fantastic actorand he's from Mexico, so let's
go with Demian, he's great.
So, yeah, I didn't realize thatthis book actually had this
many adaptations, which is I'mnot surprised.
This is a really good book andI can see how there's you can
play with it in all of thesemediums.
I feel like the film handled itreally well.
(05:27):
The TV series allows you to gointo even more depth.
The stage play would make forsome really cool ambience and
horror play, which I feel likeyou 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 aboutwriting horror plays and I think
(05:48):
he has the knack for it and I'mnot just being biased, like
he's good.
So there's that.
And I mean we saw the Woman inBlack.
I mean I had already seen it inback in 2018, when I went to
London for the first time and Iwanted to make sure I saw a show
on the West End.
I ended up watching two showsbecause it's so affordable over
there.
Like, learn something from this, please Broadway.
(06:09):
So yeah, there's a lot ofpotential here.
So, with all of that being said, let's go ahead and get started
.
This is your official spoileralert.
If you are interested inwatching the film, which you
absolutely should, if you areinterested in reading the book,
which you really absolutelyshould, then turn it off.
Come back to it later.
There is a lot that happens inthe book that does not happen in
(06:33):
the film, especially not theAmerican remake.
So it's one of those thingswhere the Swedish film is dark
and like the American remakekind of sanitizes it a little
bit.
Like there were some thingsthat made me uncomfortable
watching the Swedish film, and Ithink it's more because there's
children involved Nothing likegraphic.
But it still made me a littlebit uncomfortable.
(06:55):
That does not compare to what'sin the content of the book, so
I will go ahead and let you knowabout that.
The book is incredibly,incredibly dark.
Go ahead and let you know aboutthat.
The book is incredibly,incredibly dark.
One of the characters, who is avery important character to the
story, to the plotline of thebook, is a pedophile.
So some of the things I will betalking about are not going to
(07:16):
be kind of uncomfortable or notkind of.
They're going to be veryuncomfortable, which makes sense
because I'm talking about a pedand it's not.
I'm not going to go into likegraphic descriptions.
I do try to keep graphicdescriptions to a minimum, but
it's, I can't avoid itcompletely.
So just letting you know, justthrowing that out there.
(07:37):
Yeah, so this pedophilecharacter was sanitized a little
bit, was actually actuallysanitized for the film, the
Swedish film version as well.
There was no indication that hewas a pedophile and, of course,
obviously, the American filmsanitized it even more.
So I'm not saying the Americanremake was bad, like I said it
(07:58):
was, it was fine.
I know I did remember, likeonce it was over I was like
that's it, like I was expectingso much more.
Definitely watch the Swedishversion.
Definitely watch the Swedishversion.
All right.
So our main players in thisstory are Oscar he is our
protagonist we have Ellie, hismysterious new neighbor, and
(08:19):
Hakon, who is Ellie's father, orfather figure, I should say
We'll get into that.
So the beginning of the bookand the film, or towards the
beginning of the book and thefilm, hakon kills someone and is
in the middle of draining thebody of blood to give back to
Ellie.
In the film he's discoveredWell, he's not discovered, but
(08:42):
he gets interrupted by passersby.
So he's not able to completethe job and he gets in trouble
with Ellie.
Ellie needs the blood tosurvive because, you might have
guessed it already, ellie is avampire.
So Hakann in the film getsinterrupted and is unable to
complete the job.
But since he is unable tocomplete the job, he gets in
(09:05):
trouble with Ellie and thatleads Ellie to kill Jock.
He's important in the sensethat it drives one of his
friends to really find out whathappened to him, especially
after Ellie ends up attackinghis 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 eventuallydiscovered but by then Hakon has
(09:28):
collected all the blood heneeds and takes it to Ellie and
Ellie has strength and satisfied.
What leads Ellie to killing Jockin the book is it's just been a
while since she's eaten andHakon is kind of dragging his
feet in terms of killing anotherbody or killing another body,
killing another person.
So yeah, ellie is, ellie iskind of forced.
(09:51):
Well, in both situations she'sforced.
But in the film it's kind ofdire because Hakon doesn't,
isn't able to collect any bloodfor her.
But in the book she is able to.
She does drink and finish thatblood and then she just once she
starts running, once she'srunning out and Hakun hasn't
killed another person, she hasto go and that's when she kills.
Ja, and it's kind of ironic thatHakun struggles to kill people.
(10:16):
He does feel a certain guilttowards it, especially because
he goes for younger peoplebecause they're easier to first
of all kill, they're easier totrap and they're easier to kill
and they're easier to transport,should he need to transport
them, as opposed to a full-grownadult.
So he does struggle with thekilling because he feels guilty
(10:36):
about it.
But it is a little ironic thathe feels guilty because Hakann
is our pedophile and there arescenes in the book in which we
actually see him pay forchildren, and the way we do have
moments in the story is told inthird person, so we are able to
gather some of the thoughts ofthe different characters, and so
(10:58):
the way Hakann describes Ellieis, yeah, it's very
uncomfortable, it's veryuncomfortable to read.
But that is why Hakann has takenon the role of Ellie's father
figure, because Ellie is ideal.
He knows that Ellie is avampire, so she's about 200-ish
years old.
So you know, it's one of thosethings.
(11:19):
She's in the body of a childand she's technically a child,
but she doesn't think and actlike a child because 200 years
of life experience will kind ofdo that to you.
So Ellie's kind of like theperfect, it is like the ideal,
because she has the body of achild but she has more of an
understanding of the, you know,basically the mind of an adult,
(11:43):
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 aboutbecause it's gross, but kind of
like that's how he sees it, andso he's happy to take on this
father figure role to ellie,because, while ellie doesn't
allow him to touch her or doanything sexual with her, like
(12:04):
he gets off on the fact that he,like he can still get really
close to her and smell her.
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 aboutkilling these younger kids.
They're not like little little,they're like teenagers and he's
like sometimes he even like hedoesn't get off on the fact that
(12:26):
he's killing them, but he likegets off on the chase and being
near them and then, once they'redead, like he feels guilty.
Yeah, so it's, yeah, it's, it'sdark, it's dark, it's dark.
All right, it's very dark, butit's good.
It really is, I promise, butanyway.
So, after Ellie kills, jockHawken is like you, like I can't
(12:53):
believe you killed this person,like you were not careful about
this at all, you just left hisbody out in plain sight.
Now I'm the one that has todispose of it.
This is a large man.
I'm going to struggle todispose of the body and he
struggles a little bit more inthe film than he does in the
book.
Like I felt, in the book it waskind of like ugh, annoying, he
was annoyed but he was able todispose of the body easily.
And the film, like he struggledso much to like dispose of this
(13:14):
poor body, so, but anyway.
So finally he attempts.
So in the book he goes to apublic pool and the film he goes
.
It looks like it's just aschool, like a school that has a
pool in it for their swim team.
So he goes to the school's poolfor in the film to find his
(13:35):
next victim.
In the book he goes to thepublic pool, which, like I'm
wondering why he went to thepublic pool in the first place
like the school pool is like alittle bit dangerous but at
least like he's waiting in thelocker rooms of the school for
the swim practice to be over andthen, once all the boys but one
have left, then he attacks thatboy.
So what ends up happening isthat he like knocks this kid out
(13:59):
and attempts to start draininghis blood.
But he, well, he knocks the kidout, 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.
But in the in the film, like he,the boy, comes to like he's
hanging upside down and hisfriends actually come back
looking for him, but theschool's locked up at this point
.
So they go to like the windowsof the locker which are of the
(14:22):
locker room, which are what's itcalled?
Kind of like how bathroomwindows are, that like
frostiness, so you can't see in,but there's still windows to
let light in.
So they start like knocking onthe locker room walls and at
this point, like the kid wakesup and he starts yelling for his
friends, like oh my gosh, likeI'm in here, help me, I'm being
(14:42):
attacked.
And so, like his friends, hakanhas no way of I feel like he
could have escaped, but maybethere's only one way into the
locker room.
And he's like if I try toescape, they're gonna see me.
So he goes into like the showerarea and throws acid on his
face so that he won't berecognizable.
So that's how he gets caught inthe film.
But in the book he's literallyin a public pool.
(15:03):
So like he has a gas canister.
So what he does is he puts amask over the victim's face and
then they breathe in the gas andthey get knocked out.
So he's literally at a publicpool and it's the way this the
it's described in this publicpool is that there's like
changing areas, like privatechanging areas, like you go
behind, like a curtain area,except it's, yeah you know, like
(15:26):
for privacy.
So it's like like a littlesectioned off area where you
change and then you're, you exitand you're like the main locker
room area.
So he's literally in one ofthose and he hears, like it
happens to be no one else inthis public pool except some
(15:47):
kids, and then he hears one ofthe like two of the kids head
out towards the exit and thenone of the kids starts walking
in his direction.
So as the kid starts walking inhis direction, he pops out of
the changing area, puts the gason the kid.
There is a little bit of astruggle, so he's not able to
put as much gas into the kid ashe wants, because this machine
also makes a lot of noise andthere's a little bit of a
(16:08):
struggle, and so, like someonecomes 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 pumpthis kid up with as much gas as
he wants to, but again he's likethat's enough gas to keep him
knocked out until I cut him openand start draining his blood
and and by that time he'll behe'll be dead.
But he really did not get achance to like pump this kid
(16:31):
full of gas because like the kidisn't even knocked out for five
minutes, I want to say, beforehe's awake and obviously he
starts screaming and they're ina public pool, so they're
discovered immediately and Hakonstill throws acid on his face.
One thing I found interestingthat we don't see in the film is
that Ellie actually shows signsof aging in the book.
(16:52):
So at this time Ellie hasn'tit's been a while since she
killed Jock and she drank hisblood and she's been waiting for
Hakon to bring her the bloodfrom the pool kid.
But she doesn't realize thatHakon has thrown acid on his
face and been arrested at thispoint.
So she shows up to see Oscarand she has like her hair is a
(17:14):
little bit white, she looks, shejust 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 womankind of, and she looks very
sickly.
So that's something we don't inthe film, but in the book it is
described that Ellie does startto show signs of aging if she
doesn't eat, and so as soon asshe eats she goes back to
looking like a little girl.
So there is another victim inthe book that isn't in the film
(17:36):
and that is an old woman.
So Ellie kind of like she stilldoesn't know that Hawken has
been arrested for attemptedmurder, but she's showing signs
of aging, she's dying becauseshe's so hungry.
So she finds a random old womanliving by herself and she
knocks on the door and says thatshe needs to call her mom, and
(17:57):
the old woman lets her in andshe pretends to use the phone,
and then she sits on the couchand then eventually attacks the
old woman, and as she's tastingthe woman's blood, she tastes
that it's diseased, and that'swhen she figures out that the
woman is dying of cancer.
So Ellie does feel bad, butit's like, well, maybe I'm doing
her favors and she was dyinganyway.
(18:18):
So yeah, there is an old womanthat is killed in the book that
is not killed in the film.
Eventually, though, ellie doesrealize where Hakon is, and so
she goes to the hospital In thefilm she watches the news and
like the same night or like thenext day and sees the news that
Hakon has been arrested and thathe's at the hospital.
So this is like immediate.
(18:40):
It takes Ellie a little bitwhile, a little bit in the book
to figure out where Hakon is inthe in the film she realizes
right away after watching thenews.
So she goes to the hospital andagain she can't enter without
being invited in.
So she goes to visit Hakon andin the film he's basically like
just kill me.
He can't speak anymore becauseof the acid, but he like
(19:01):
indicates his throat and it'slike obviously he's saying like
just kill me, drink my blood.
And Ellie's like I don't wantto do this, but okay, like
otherwise you're going to spendthe rest of your life in jail,
so might as well just kill you.
And so she drinks Hakon's bloodand as someone is coming in,
she like throws his body out thewindow and so people think that
(19:22):
he committed suicide.
In the book, however, ellie isagain drinking his blood.
She does go to like eventually,when she figures out where he
is, she goes to the hospital andhe's like kill me, drink my
blood.
But also, like he wants.
He does want that, but he alsolike one of the conditions again
, because he feels so guilty.
He's pretty much like I'm notgonna kill for you anymore
(19:43):
unless you let me like.
You know I'm a pedophile.
You can probably guess whathe's asking for.
And ellie's like absolutely not, but I will let you lay in bed
with me and, um, you can, wewon't actually do anything, but
you can lay in bed with me andyes, so he's like all right.
So that's when he goes topublic pool to kill the kid.
But while he's there, when heshows up, so he, he essentially
(20:06):
wants to.
He's been dreaming of likefeeling Ellie on him and so it's
kind of like this is I justwant to die and die happy.
You know what I mean.
And so Ellie's like all rightand as she's, she's drinking his
blood, but she's unable tofinish because they get
interrupted and she throws hisbody out the window.
(20:29):
Unfortunately, in the film thisdoes kill Hakon.
In the book, unfortunately,this does not kill him.
Instead he turns into a vampireand he goes after her and, yeah
, what ends up happening isthere'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 apretty important part in the
(20:50):
book.
Like he's, he's a prettyimportant character.
If I had to make a guess as towhy he's not in the film is
because there's a charactercalled Tommy, who is one of
Oscar's bullies, and thenthere's Thomas.
So we have Tommy and a Thomas,so like there would be times and
I was like wait, which one'swhich?
Again, yeah.
So I think that's why he wasn'tincluded in the film.
(21:13):
So Thomas is, he plays a prettyimportant part in the book,
like I said.
But I'm not going to talk abouthim too much outside of this
because he's not in the film, sothere isn't really much to
compare him to.
But at one point, hakon, as Isaid, now he's a vampire he goes
back to his old apartmentbuilding looking for Ellie
(21:34):
because he's finally he's avampire, now he can like looking
for Ellie because he's finallyhe's a vampire, now he can like
he has like leverage, now he'snot really.
So, hey, what are you doing?
Sorry, voldemort, has he hadgotten so much better about
eating things off of the floor?
He knows he's not allowed to dothat, but he's been getting in
this habit again where he'sstarting to eat things off the
(21:54):
floor again.
So trying to get back on him.
But sorry about that.
So you know he didn't dare toattempt anything on Ellie
because it's like at the end ofthe day she's a vampire and
despite being in the body of alittle girl, like she can she's
stronger than me and she cankill me but now he's like I'm a
vampire, now I'm going to getwhat I want.
So he like goes and attempts toget Ellie but is thwarted,
(22:18):
thankfully, and she injures himpretty badly and she escapes and
she has no idea that this wholetime Thomas has been hiding in.
So Hakon and Ellie have thelittle confrontation in kind of
like the storage area of theapartment building.
So it's like you have the, theunits, the apartment units, and
then there's like a basementarea where there's like
(22:39):
individual storage lockers foreach apartment and then there's
also just like a general storagehangout area where Thomas hangs
out and like smoke cigarettesand other people hang out in
there to be debaucherous andwhatever, but anyway.
So Thomas like gets scaredbecause he sees like this
monster figure and he hides inhis storage locker and then
(23:01):
after Ellie escapes and heattempts to get out of the
storage locker he discovers thatHakann is blocking the entrance
and I mean he sees, like heheard the struggle.
He sees this horrifying, likedisfigured by acid man, and so
he's terrified and Hakannan, atthis point is still pretty
injured and out of sorts.
(23:22):
So Thomas is able to.
He has a trophy that he stolefrom his mom's boyfriend and he
just starts bashing Hakannan'shead in and he kills him and
that's how he's discovered he'ssinging.
I don't even know what it'scalled, but we have the Spanish
equivalent which is like andit's kind of like a counting
(23:47):
thing, kind of like 99 bottlesof beer on the wall, but it's
elephants.
So he like every single timeit's like.
The only difference is like 99bottles of the beer on the wall.
You say 99 bottles, like you go99 bottles of beer on the wall,
99 bottles of beer, take onedown, pass it around.
Now you got 98 bottles of beer.
So you say 99 bottles orwhatever number.
You're on twice and theelephants one.
(24:08):
You only say the number ofelephants and instead of going
counting down, you count up.
So he's every single time hecounts like how many elephants
he's reached.
So he goes like one elephantand on the number he smashes
down on the head and he justdoes that over and over and over
until he's discovered by hismom's boyfriend who's a cop.
(24:30):
And by the time he's discoveredhe's like on 2000 or 3000
something.
So he's like in shock, just noteven realizing he's like on
3,000 elephants.
As he continues bashing, itwouldn'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'ssmashing.
But yeah, so that is how Hakonultimately dies in the book,
(24:53):
versus just falling out thewindow and Ellie successfully
draining him of blood in thefilm.
In the book we also get muchmore of Ellie's backstory.
So there is a line in the filmin which Oscar says like oh, do
you want to go steady with me?
Again, this takes place in the80s and he's like do you want to
go steady with me?
And Ellie's like, yeah, butwould you still want to go
(25:14):
steady with me if I wasn't agirl?
And Oscar's like huh.
And it kind of just stays thatway until later, in which this
is one of the parts of the filmthat 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 wouldyou still want to go steady with
me if I was a, if I wasn't agirl?
And Oscar's like, uh, it's akind of a weird question.
(25:36):
And then there's a moment inwhich, further on after this
conversation, ellie's visitingOscar and it's just him.
His mom's working and she needsa change of clothes and so he's
like you can take one of mymom's dresses, like she wouldn't
even notice it's gone.
And at one point while she'schanging, he like peeks in
through crack in the door to seeher change and we get a glimpse
(25:57):
of where.
We get a glimpse of the genitalarea, but it's all sewed up and
Oscar's like he gasps and thenhe like looks away.
So in the film they used amannequin to get the shot.
There was no child beingexposed, it was a mannequin, but
it's still like kind of it wasstill uncomfortable to see, just
(26:17):
because you think you'relooking at like the genital area
of an actual child.
But it was.
They used a mannequin as astand-in for that shot.
But yeah, so he.
That's how it stays in the film.
You just see like she asks thatquestion and then you just see
that image and it's yeah, it'sjust sewn up.
In the book we actually do getthe revelation that Ellie was
(26:40):
born a boy and when she wastransformed into a vampire she
was castrated.
But she looks like a girl.
Everyone thinks of her as agirl and she wants to be known
as a girl.
But yes, she was born a boy.
And in the book and we do getthat actual backstory Like there
(27:00):
is no, it's kind of up forinterpretation in the film, but
in the book it's like very, it'svery clear, like no, she was
born a boy.
And I will say at this pointthe author maybe because the
primary point of view is Oscar'spoint of view and he starts
calling Ellie a he like he stopsreferring to Ellie as a she at
that point and starts saying he,blah, blah, blah.
(27:22):
I don't remember if he ends upswitching back to calling her a
she at that point and startssaying he, blah, blah, blah.
I don't remember if he ends upswitching 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 afterthe revelation, there was like
periods of time in which it waslike he, yeah.
So in the film.
I not that Oscar has a badrelationship with his mother,
but it's not necessarily a goodone either.
(27:44):
It's like she's a single parentand she works a lot.
The film makes it seem a lotmore like Oscar's overlooked and
kind of neglected thoughunintentionally by his mother
because she has to work so much.
He has a much betterrelationship with his mother in
the book.
She's very supportive and theyspend a lot of time together.
(28:05):
They spend when she's notworking.
They spend time together.
That is until he meets Ellieand he starts choosing to spend
time with Ellie versus his mom.
But she does like when he goesout 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 watchwhatever on television.
So it is hinted that he doeshave a much better relationship
(28:25):
with his mother in the book andshe's a lot more present in his
life than she is in the film.
The film also.
So Oscar's parents are divorcedand there is one instance in
which he goes to visit hisfather after he stands up to his
bullies and causes one of themto be like he hits his.
He stands up to his bully andand causes one of them to be
like he hits his.
He stands up to his bully andhe ends up hitting his bully on
(28:47):
the head, causing like somepermanent damage to his ear, and
so after this happened,obviously he gets in a lot of
trouble and his mom is like youneed to go spend a weekend with
your dad, maybe your dad cantalk some sense into you.
And the film actually takes adifferent route with the father
than the book does.
In the film you kind of get theit's kind of hinted at that
(29:07):
oscar's father could be gay,like oscar's, having a really
good time spending spending timewith his dad, and then one of
his dad's friends show up andthen like the atmosphere kind of
changes and it kind of you getthe sense of like oh, that's not
actually his friend, that's hisboyfriend and that.
So you do get kind of that hintin the film that his dad is is
(29:30):
actually might actually becloseted or out, and because his
dad lives in a different townso he might be out in that town
but it's the 80s so I doubt hewould be out.
So he's either like out in justthis town and still closeted
with Oscar, or he's justcloseted.
But you get the sense that theman that comes in is actually
(29:50):
his boyfriend and not his friendIn the book.
He's straight, he's not gay atall and he's just a raging
alcoholic.
Well, not raging, does ragingalcoholic mean he's just like a
severe alcoholic or he's anangry alcoholic?
So I'm just going to say he'san alcoholic, he's not an angry
one, he's.
He's an alcoholic, he's asevere alcoholic.
(30:10):
And so once his, his friendshows up, it is just his friend.
His friend shows up with likebottles of alcohol and they just
start drinking and theycompletely forget about Oscar
and completely start ignoringOscar.
So Oscar's like well, my timewith my dad is ruined.
Like I know he's not going topay attention to me, he's just
going to be trying to get drunk,so I'm going to head back home.
(30:31):
So he heads home.
He's supposed to spend theweekend with his dad, but he
ends up leaving early becausehis dad has started his binge
drinking for the weekend andthere's no point for Oscar to
stick around.
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'sfriends with Jock and he's also
(30:53):
boyfriend to Virginia.
So Ellie ends up attackingVirginia and Lach sees that
Ellie's attacking Virginia.
So again, ellie is unable tokill Virginia, so she flees and
Jock takes Virginia to thehospital and then, after she's
released, she starts feelingsick and she doesn't know what's
going on.
But she knows that like goingout into the sunlight kind of
(31:15):
hurts.
And then she goes to the storeand she just she tries eating
but she's unable to holdanything down and then she ends
up cutting herself, unable tohold anything down.
And then she ends up cuttingherself accidentally while at
the store and as she startssucking her blood she realizes
that all she wants is blood andmore blood.
And so she there's more of adiscovery for her in the book
(31:36):
than in the film.
Like in the film I think shedoes realize what she is, but
it's really just like my thereisn't.
Like she, she knows that likegoing out into the sun hurts and
then, and then that's prettymuch it.
In the in the film, in the bookthere's more of a realization of
like the sun hurts, I can'thold anything down, blood tastes
(31:56):
really good.
Oh my gosh, I am a vampire andshe doesn't want to be a vampire
.
So in both the film and thebook, she, they go visit.
She and Lack go visit anotherfriend who owns a bunch of cats
Like he's has an unhealthyamount of cats Like.
This is a cat hoardingsituation which is very, very
(32:17):
bad for humans and cats alike.
And so he they go visit.
And cats in this universe havean aversion to vampires.
They know what a vampire is andthey attack.
So in both the book and thefilm they go visit this mutual
friend, the cat's attacker.
So Virginia ends up back in thehospital.
Like I said, in the film itseems like Virginia knows what
(32:38):
she is, but it's more of likethe sun hurts.
I was just attacked by so manycats, I don't want to live
anymore.
And then she asks the one ofthe nurses to open the blinds
and they the next morning andthey open the blinds and
obviously she goes up in flames.
In the book there is, like Isaid, more of a discovery, more
of like I'm a monster, I'm avampire.
(32:59):
And then she gets attacked bythe cats and ends up at the
hospital and she's like I am avampire, I don't want to be a
vampire, I'm choosing to end mylife because I don't want to
live my life like this.
So she again asks so Lack isactually spending the night in
her room, or actually spent thenight in her room, and she keeps
trying to get the nurses tolike get him to leave.
(33:22):
And the nurses are like shekeeps hinting at it, like oh you
know, can we be alone?
And or like can you get him toleave?
And the nurses, like are justnot picking up on the hints.
Obviously she wasn't sayingwhat I was just saying.
She was like being a lot moreambiguous about it.
So she was like she keepstrying to get them to leave
because she knows what's goingto happen when, when they open
(33:43):
the blinds and she doesn't wantLack to be in the room with her
when that happens.
But they just refuse to likethey're just not picking up on
the hints and she's like allright, 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 andshe dies and Lack sees this and
this prompts him to to look forEllie, because he saw what Ellie
(34:06):
looks like.
But yeah, so there's, there'sthere's stuff that happens
between Ellie and Locke andOscar and basically Ellie's time
here in Blackburg has reachedan end and she knows she has to
move on.
There's just too muchspeculation, too much.
She's going to be discoveredeventually.
There's been like too manysuspicious things happening
(34:27):
around and it's just not safefor her to stick around
Blackburg.
So she she's like I need toleave, and so before she leaves,
so she leaves, sorry, and Oscarthinks it's completely.
Until he the bullies.
Obviously Oscar stood up forhimself.
That's not a good thing.
So they have to teach Oscar a alesson.
So they lure oscar to thepublic pool by saying like oh,
(34:48):
our teacher is like, becausethey're, they're like pe teacher
also teaches at swimming, atthe, at the public pool.
So they like they're like theteacher was asking for you and
the teacher does check up on hima little bit, but obviously
like and is excited to see him.
But the, the teacher had noreason like did not ask for
Oscar specifically to be there.
So then they tell the teacherlike oh, the phone's ringing.
(35:10):
And then once he like gets tohis office, there's another,
another one of the bullies isthere to like knock him out.
So he knocks him out and thenonce there are absolutely no
adults in the pool, they startholding Oscar down underwater.
One of the bullies kind ofstarts feeling regret towards it
.
And so then Ellie shows up andis like, say that I can come in,
and he's like you can come in.
And then Ellie ends upbeheading the bullies.
(35:34):
Not all of them.
The one that let her in isallowed to escape with his life,
but the other two bullies arebeheaded.
In the film she like full ondismembers them, like we in the
book, like Ellie says let mecome in.
And then she comes in.
And then it cuts to theepilogue in which the police are
just like oh, these twobeheaded boys, blah, blah, blah,
(35:54):
and there's a witness.
And then in the film weactually like they're holding
Oscar underwater and we just seehim being held underwater and
then, as he's being heldunderwater, you just start
seeing like an arm and legsstart floating in the pool and
then you realize Ellie showed upand saved Oscar.
So that is Let the Right One InTrying to think.
(36:15):
If there's anything else I needto say, I guess yeah.
So the relationship betweenOscar and his mother in the book
made me really sad.
When he ends up just leavingher behind, because it's like
they do like in the film, itmakes it made absolute sense for
me, to me that he would justleave her because it's like she
wasn't a very present parent inthe first place and, like I said
, you can only argue that sheworks so much in her.
(36:38):
In this mom's instance you canonly argue that she works a
little bit too much to have arelationship with Oscar, only so
much because then, yeah, so youcan only argue it so much Like
otherwise she wasn't a verypresent parent and in the film
she I mean in the book she islike she's present as much as
she can be and they do have apretty strong relationship.
(37:00):
So it just made me sad that hechose Ellie over his mom.
So that was really really sadto me.
But one thing that like reallykind of left me haunted by the
film that I really didn't likebecause it left me feeling kind
of icky.
It's just like obviously wedon't get Hakon's backstory.
So it's kind of like I was likehas Hawken been with her since
(37:23):
he was a little boy?
And now that he's I mean notthat Hawken's like super old,
but it's like is she starting tosee Hawken's mortality?
And so now she's going afterOscar, and so I feel like there
was almost like a grooming.
That happened in the film, thatdidn't happen in the book on
Ellie's like from Ellie to Oscar.
(37:45):
Again, she's 200 somethingyears old.
So I feel like even thoughthey're technically the same age
, she has the ability to togroom him into being her next
Hakon essentially.
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 doesthat, because at the end of the
day she is 12 years old.
(38:05):
There's only so much she can doin 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 groomhim to like you and then he
just grows up killing people foryou and then once he reaches a
certain age you look for likethe next little boy to groom.
(38:26):
So that's kind of more of thefeeling that I got in the film
and I didn't get that in thebook.
In the book it's very much liketheir connection seems genuine.
And Hakon literally you findout that Hakon has not been
around since he was a little boy.
He's been around.
It doesn't say how long he'sbeen around, but he chose Ellie
(38:50):
and is happy to stick by Ellie'sside because he gets some
disgusting pleasure out of it.
So, yeah, that was something inthe film that was kind of like
in the book.
I felt so sad for Oscar's mom Inthe film.
I just felt so sad for Oscarand the future that awaits him
with Ellie and kind of what'sawaiting him.
And yeah, it's just reallyinteresting how they were.
Maybe that's not what thefilmmakers were going for at all
, but that's kind of how I likethe way they.
(39:10):
That was just how I interpretedsome of the moments and between
Ellie and Oscar and it justmade me really sad for Oscar in
the film.
I mean, he already was living avery sad life, to be honest.
But but the child actors in thefilm I mean, he already was
living a very sad life, to behonest, but the child actors in
the film, let me see, we haveokay, I apologize because these
are Swedish names, but we haveKare Hedebrandt who plays Oscar
(39:35):
and Lena Leanderson who playsEllie.
They're both really reallygreat.
Honestly, the acting fromeveryone was really good and,
yeah, it's a really really greatdark film.
Like I said, I would totallyrecommend this one over Let Me
In.
Let Me In was just reallyunsatisfying and I would need to
watch it again, I think, toreally fully encapsulate what
(39:57):
made me kind of just be like someh about it.
And I didn't feel that afterwatching this film and I did see
this film before reading thebook.
So, yeah, the film did notleave me feeling that way.
And then the book started andit was so good and it's really
disgusting and twisted, but it'sreally really good and I I
recommend it.
(40:18):
I recommend both for sure.
But the book was definitely apage turner.
It was.
It kept me very, very engaged.
I it's a pretty long book butit kept me engaged from
beginning to end.
It's definitely worth the readif you don't mind the extreme
darkness of it, the extremetwistedness of it.
But at least, at least I willsay what I don't like is when,
(40:39):
like, for example, we haveHawkeye and's a pedophile and
it's kind of like.
I can't think of books that dothis necessarily, but you can
argue that some of them like, doglorify this, like this does
not glorify it.
You feel very uncomfortablereading the passages with Hakon.
So it's definitely like.
So it is very, very dark andvery twisted, but it makes you
feel all the emotions you'resupposed to feel, which is like
(41:01):
this is so wrong and so gross onso many levels.
So I will say that about it.
If you're kind of hesitant toread it based on some of that
subject matter and if you don'twant to read it at all based on
the subject matter, completelyunderstand, but that's kind of
how I'm able to get over likeuncomfortable subject matter.
But anyway, I rated the filmfour stars and I rated the book
four stars, but I do have thewinner.
(41:23):
The winner is the book.
I mean, you probably could haveguessed that because I was
gushing about how good the bookwas pretty much since the
episode started.
Yes, I do recommend both.
The film is still a solidadaptation, despite the changes
that were made, and I feel likeit added certain elements, like
I said, that aren't in the book,or it reinterpreted some things
(41:45):
that were not in the book, andI'm just curious to see if you
interpreted the same, if youinterpreted it the same way I
did, or if you interpret itcompletely different, or if you
think it's like a lot morefaithful to the book in terms of
its messaging and I just lookedway deep into it.
But yeah, let me know, but Istill recommend the film.
But the book was just so good.
It was so good it was hard forme to put it down.
(42:08):
It's very, very engaging eventhough it's long.
It's such a good book.
Yes, so good.
I have, despite my feeling ofuncomfortableness in certain
aspects, I have nothing but goodthings to say about the film,
about the book.
So definitely check them bothout.
But that is it for this episodeof books versus movies.
I don't know when the nextepisode will be, but I'm
(42:29):
currently reading the materialfor the next episode, and the
next episode will be all aboutthe Handmaid's Tale.
So looking forward to that andI will see you next time.
Bye.
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