The Opening

[gattoparde59]

It has been a while since I first saw Let the Right One In, so I am not sure I can answer my own question here. What did you think about the very beginning of the film? You have the credits rolling with nothing but black and no music and then you hear "Squeal like a pig!" (In what this forum has taught me is an "L cut") and then you see Oskar with his knife stabbing at the air. This was certainly not what I was expecting to see. I had a basic idea of the plot. A boy would meet a vampire girl and they would become friends, but I was not looking for this.

In hindsight, this is a brilliant opening for this story. We get this boy and his alarming behavior and we are not exactly sure what to make of him. Only as the film develops do we begin to understand what is going on with Oskar and why he behaves the way he does. I think this is also a short hand version of the opening chapter to the novel, where we get a very nasty portrait of Oskar who seems to be a little monster all on his own without any help from the supernatural world.

So what were your thoughts when you saw this film unreel for the first time and saw Oskar with his knife?

"Squeal like a Pig!"

[a_contemplative_life]

I thought the quiet and the snow falling told you this was going to be a kind of contemplative film. Something that you'd need to pay attention to. And starting with Oskar and his knife threw you right into a confusing scene and made you start to wonder what was going on, what it was all about. It was intriguing and pulled your interest into the film.

[El Defenestrator]

I'm pretty sure I chortled a little, which is probably not the reaction I was "meant to" have. Even so, like acl said, it was intriguing and helped to cultivate interest in the rest.

[ofelia]

I think the opening definitely informs you that this isn't just any film. It's going to infect you quietly and subtly... you don't know it's happening until it's too late.

[cory]

What drew me in was the haunting music. I think it comes on when Oskar takes his hand off the glass.

[cmfireflies]

Truthfully, my first thought was "he would make a perfect vampire" cuz Oskar was pale.

But I did feel that the opening showed that he was achingly lonely. But I also felt that it might have just be a phase, because Oskar was in his underwear while it was snowing outside. He is lonely, but safe and warm, and loved. Even when he was stabbing the tree I never felt that Oskar was sadistic, or naturally violent, just sad.

[TigerEyes]

Even when he was stabbing the tree I never felt that Oskar was sadistic, or naturally violent, just sad.

Same here. He has no true feeling of sadistic attitude, just angry of being bullied and sad and lonely.

[jetboy]

I knew it was a young love story but more than that was a horror story so I was squirming in the beginning, saying what I always say, "why do I watch these".

Oskar was a pleasant surprise because I only saw a picture of Eli with her dark hair and blood streaked face and I was thinking it was going to be some kind of, dark, gothic, bloody, depressing, artsy thing. Oskar's shock of blonde really contrasted that feeling. That and the snow really added a freshness to it.

[Ash]

Even when he was stabbing the tree I never felt that Oskar was sadistic, or naturally violent, just sad.

Same here. He has no true feeling of sadistic attitude, just angry of being bullied and sad and lonely.

"That was one of Oskar's dreams: to see someone executed in the electric chair."
It's hard to determine if this desire to see someone dying was just curiosity or something much more disturbing than that. Although I wouldn't consider it to be your average 12 year old's fantasy.

[ofelia]

Yes, but that's in the book. The book Oskar was a lot darker than most kids (probably) but the film Oskar was a lot sadder and more at a loss how to cope with the bullies.