First time viewing experience stories

[eschelp]

First off I’m new to the forum and must apologize if this is already an established thread or topic of discussion. My guess is it would be, but I couldn’t find any recent posts so decided to start my own.

One weekend in September I was watching TV with my brother and a “Let Me In” preview came on. I saw bits and pieces of the trailers before but this was the first time it actually caught my attention, so I went online to see what it’s about. This led to the realization the movie is a remake and after reading some previews and watching some trailers of the original I knew I had to see it.

It just didn’t feel right to watch a vampire movie with the tag “Best. Vampire. Movie. Ever.” on the cover in the middle of the afternoon, so I waited until around 11pm to watch, and let me tell you it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. Having a self-imposed viewing time really built up the suspense, something I was worried about because I didn’t want to over-hype the movie and end up disappointed. Promptly at 11pm I sat down in my chair with my drink and popcorn and popped in the movie. Everyone in the house was in bed so I had to use headphones instead of speakers (I live in a small house), enabling me to turn up the volume as loud as I wanted.

Immediately when the movie was over I said to myself “hmm, that was pretty good.” About 15 minutes later it was more like “wow, how’d they pull off that last scene.” Nearly three hours later, lying in my bed, I knew this was not only the best horror movie I have ever seen, but one of the best movies period. I couldn’t get it out of my head the whole night. The next day I watched it again, and it was even better.

The reason why I’m sharing this story is because I’ll never forget that first viewing of LtROI for the rest of my life. Everyone has similar movie experiences, another of mine being my parents picking me up from school and going to see “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” on opening day. LtROI has truly affected, or more appropriately, infected me. The build up, the burnt popcorn, needing to use headphones, everything about that night was perfect. I even learned how to solve a Rubik’s Cube in the following weeks (which is surprisingly not very hard).

I’m glad I’m not the only one out there who appreciates this movie as much as I do. Because of that trailer I saw the original, shortly after read the book, went to the theater for “Let Me In,” and eventually found my way to this forum. With that said, any other stories out there? Please share.

[Harls]

Hi eschelp! Welcome to the forums. I'm sure you'll spend many hours reading through the well-written and thought-provoking topics here.

I've listed my first time of watching LTROI before, but I'll go through it again for you as topics have a habit of getting buried here.

I first heard about LTROI in May of this year as it was being shown on the FX channel here in the UK after the Season Two Finale of True Blood. The preview was presented as a mix of TB and LTROI, to the opening strains of Evanescence's 'Bring Me to Life' and it immediately grabbed my attention, one of the scenes being of Eli standing in the basement. I remember thinking to myself 'that girl looks unwell...'

Anyway, I recorded it and it sat on my Sky+ box for the next two months before I got around to watching it. There were a couple of times when I 'ummed and arred' about deleting it from the list as I wasn't really sure if I really wanted to see it. Early one Saturday evening prior to going down the pub, I suddenly thought to myself 'What the hell...' and started watching it. At the time, I wasn't too impressed with the opening scenes of the snow falling and got to thinking that if the action didn't start soon, I was going to turn it off and delete it. But I stuck with it and the first thing to really grab my attention was the first bullying scene between Oskar and Conny. I'd been through something similar during my school years and I could really feel for Oskar's plight.

The film progressed and then we had the scene where Oskar and Eli first meet. I've never mentioned this before, but the weird thing is, and people will probably say I'm bullshitting, but when Eli jumped down from the jungle gym I just knew she was going to stumble, without a shadow of a doubt. I'd never seen this scene before and it definitely wasn't on the preview, so I had no way of knowing it was going to happen. Furthermore, some of the dialogue in later scenes seemed very familiar although I'd not read the book and knew very little about the film either. I didn't really give it much thought at that point and I watched about two-thirds of the movie before popping down the pub for a few beers. However, while I was there, the movie kept coming back to my thoughts and I decided to watch the rest of it when I got home, which I did.

The next day, I decided to watch it in its entirety and it just blew me away. I spent many hours trawling the interweb for information about it and, naturally, came across this website. I spent another couple of months lurking here before I finally worked up the courage to make my first post and the rest, as they say, is history. I'm sure I have bored many a friend and colleague with my obsession about this movie and never miss the opportunity to ask people whether they have seen it.

Someone has previously mentioned on here that the movie appeals to a particular type of person and I believe there is some truth in this. To my mind, the fact that some of the dialogue and scenes seemed so familiar, makes it easy to believe that this was a film that was made just for me (in a general sense of course). Whatever the reason, the film has struck a similar chord in a great many people and that is what brings us together to celebrate it.

I'm sure there are people here who are more eloquent in articulating their feelings about this subject, but that is my two penn'orth, so take from it what you will...

Best wishes!

[moonvibe34]

Welcome among the Infected eschelp!

[ykeleven]

Welcome. Since you have now seen the movie and loved it, go ahead and buy the book "Let the Right One In". It is pretty darn good, awesome even. The book will fill in the missing pieces for you and than it'll inspire some more questions. And than there are fan fictions. They are quite good.

Anyway, enjoy your adventure.

[wolfshadow]

To echo other's, first, welcome. New faces = new perspectives, which is always enjoyable.

I had read snippets about the movie and seen the pool scene in one of those top 10 lists that float around the internet and happened to see the DVD at a local Best Buy for $10, so on a whim, I bought it. After getting home, having dinner and winding down for the night, I tried first to watch it with the English dubbing. I think I managed to get to Eli yelling at Hakan about the empty jug before I couldn't take the dullness of the dialog and switched it to Swedish/english subtitles. Thankfully, I had the theatrical subs so Oskar wasn't delivering chocolate. After the movie finished, it was about 1-2 am and I almost played it again then but responsibilities set in and I knew I had to go to bed. I watched it again the next night. And again the night after. By then I had read up on the book it was based on and found it at the local bookstore. I think I set a personal reading record with it because I was finished in a night and ended up reading it like 3 times before week's end.

I was looking for followup material and a link about the epilogue landed me here.

[Doosty]

Immediately when the movie was over I said to myself “hmm, that was pretty good.” About 15 minutes later it was more like “wow, how’d they pull off that last scene.” Nearly three hours later, lying in my bed, I knew this was not only the best horror movie I have ever seen, but one of the best movies period. I couldn’t get it out of my head the whole night. The next day I watched it again, and it was even better.

This is literally the exact same thing that I went through upon my first viewing. Same viewing times, same thoughts, everything. Crazy. The only difference was that when I first watched it, I watched the crappy subtitled version. After hours of sleeplessness and thinking about the film I went online only to find that there was a different version with "correct" theatrical subtitles. Upon reading this I was outraged and went and found and bought that version the next day and re-watched it. Thus beginning my infection.

Welcome by the way.

[N.R. Gasan]

Hello, eschelp, and welcome to Team Eli. Yes, you are thoroughly Infected. LTROI is the film version of peanut allergy: The relatively few people who are allergic to peanuts are VERY allergic, and those who see LTROI who get "hooked"...well, I don't have to tell you. And we all understand that here; it ain't called "We, The Infected" for nothin'. LOL Oh, you might as well order the original soundtrack to add to your collection. You will anyway. :)

As for my first time viewing experience, I got hooked on the story of Eli and Oskar late in 2008. At the time, I had to really search for what was available about the film. I read dozens of reviews, perused a number of websites (this one didn't exist at the time), and finally there was...::trumpets::...YouTube. There were a number of well-made fan videos incorporating scenes from the movie set to music, as well as snippets from the film with dialogue and subtitles. I learned what websites to use to download many of these videos, so I could keep them always in case they disappeared from YouTube (sadly, many did). Finally, someone -- a number of someones, actually -- uploaded the entire movie in 12 equal parts. These I downloaded and finally I was able to watch the entire film. This isn't a case of pirating, by the way: I eventually bought the DVD...and the book...and the soundtrack.

Like you -- and a number of others, I'm sure -- I made a kind of event of watching the movie in its entirety for the first time. On my next day off (after downloading the 12 parts), I cooked up a steak (one of my favorite eats), pulled up an extra-comfy chair in front of my 'puter, and was finally able to watch the whole movie instead of just bits and pieces. Interestingly, the fact that I pretty much knew the whole story and how it would play out didn't detract from the experience at all. I found the viewing completely satisfying. And there are still parts of the film, despite seeing them many times, that still move me. This really is a very special movie, a true work of art.

[intrige]

(In this summer 2010)
The school year had just ended, it was summer and I sat up all night on as many people does. I was on youtube and searched for something about vampires for sure. Anyway, I came across the trailer for Let the right one in. And I thought at first that it looked pretty strange. And that it was "Swedish." In Norway, we always make jokes about Swedes. And we have many prejudices against them, that they are stupid and that only blond-haired people who lives there. And the jokes are always Swede stupidest, while Norwegians always are the smartest. And always wins.

The family had decided that we were going to Luleå to go camping. (The town in northern Sweden where Let the right one in was shot.) And my brother said he was so tired of the Swedish language, and that he did not like the Swedes because of that. So to demonstrate to myself, I was going to see let the right one in order to refute him. And myself.

I found it out at Megvideo.com I think. And it was pretty low quality, but I thought it didn't mattered that much, just a Swedish movie. At first I thought the sound was broken so I turned it on full volume just to get a "SKRIK SOM EN GRIS!" very loud in my ear. When I saw Oskar put up his collection of newspaper articles about murdurs I thought: Boy, is he sick in his head! But I got so sad when he was picked on. When Eli jumped from the junglegym, I thought it was something about her. And when she said that they couldn't be friends, I realized it a little bit maybe. But when Håkan came and did what he did, and aftherwoards when Eli arguid woth him. I was completely blank, I realized that he was'nt her father. But that was he then?

When the film was finished, I just sat there, with the headset on my ears, deep in thought. What a movie! I thought. I ended up seeing it several times in a short peroid, with better quality and everything. I read alot about it online. Found out that Eli was a casterated boy, and that Håkan was a pedophile. I searched everywhere for the book, in several stores. where it was sold out in many places. But I found it at last, and read it all in 1.5 days. (Normally I do not read that fast.) I forced my mom to read it, and I've even read it several times afther that. Lent it to friends and recommended it to friends. In the school library, they have it, for example. So I could easely make my friends lent it.

On my way back from Luleå I came across the move on DVD in a ramdom Swedish foodstore. So, I have the DVD with the title: Låt den rätte komma in.

After reading the 3 long fan fictions on this website, I was finally logged in, became a member. And it's not so long ago. So, there you have it. I am a fellow infected.

[abner_mohl]

I came to LTROI indirectly thru LMI, when I saw Kick-Ass, I looked up Kick-Ass on Google, saw a news article about Chloe Moretz filming LMI and that it was a remake, watched LTROI via Netflix , and gradually watched it over and over again and fell in love with it and bought the DVD, and made certain it was the copy with the theatrical subtitles thanks to Wolfchild (which I was fortunate to find this site the same week I first started watching LTROI).

[ColBlair]

I found out about LTROI from LMI myself. I was researching the film and I found it that it was based off the book Let the Right One In and one of my friends told me about the Swedish version. So I watched the trailer and I have to say, it was pretty interesting and film itself looked like it could have been made in the 1960s or the late 1970s, even though it was made in 2008. Seen the movie and bought the movie a while later and i've been watching it from time to time. My favorite part was probably when they introduce each other and the Rubik's cube.