Excerpt from vampire paper I wrote

[CyberGhostface]

My final thesis paper for college was on the vampire in literature and film. I wrote a small bit on LTROI. Here it is if you're interested.

One of the more recent vampire films, and one of the most acclaimed ever, was the Swedish horror film Let the Right One In, directed by Tomas Alfredson and based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist. The film was noted and praised for its “combining elements of the horror film, the coming-of-age story and the realistic socio-psychological drama to create a unique mix of the innovative and the familiar.” (Wright 56) The film is about a young outcast named Oskar who befriends a young girl named Eli, who is herself as bloodthirsty vampire. Eli lives with a mysterious older man who supplies her with blood by killing and draining victims for her. In contrast to the highly sexualized nature that the vampire genre has frequently employed, the film disregards it in favor of innocent love between children. Further adding to this is the androgyny of both children; Oskar is in many ways a soft and effeminate child, whereas Eli is considerably more masculine and even has a deeper voice than Oskar (which was a deliberate choice on the director, who had Eli’s actress dubbed with someone with a less feminine voice).

Another subversion to the modern vampire genre is the film’s depiction of how truly miserable life as a vampire must be. Eli is depicted as constantly being filthy and smelly, wearing old clothes from trash, and much of her life is a lonely one. Whereas The Lost Boys and Twilight treated vampirism as sort of a “superpower” of sorts—eternal youth, super strength, irresistible to the opposite sex—it’s treated like a disease here. Vampirism is not a metaphor for sex anymore but rather for psychological alienation and exclusion from society. (Wright 57) While the concept of a vampire as an outsider is not necessarily unique to the genre (going as far back as to Dracula), this element is usually used to provoke fear or disgust from the audience by having the vampire represent something sinister and alien. With Let the Right One In, the vampire’s exclusion is used to evoke sympathy and understanding from the viewer. Rochelle Wright notes that Eli, too, represents an immigrant like other vampires; whereas everyone else in the film are ethnic Swedes, Eli stands apart from “clean-cut, blonde Nordic types” with her tousled dark hair and almost foreign appearance. Rather than demonizing foreigners like Dracula might have done, it instead shows the difficulties that one might have in terms of adjusting to a different culture; only this time, the different culture Eli has trouble adapting to is that of the living.

[JToede]

Well said, I hope your professor likes it. You do bring up some things I haven't considered. Awesome

[a_contemplative_life]

Very thoughtful. Maybe at some point you can share your whole paper.

[CyberGhostface]

Thanks. It's already been got graded, I got an A.

I uploaded the whole thing on Google just now. Apologies in advance for some errors that I just noticed now on rereading.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=1_yt2uV ... tvyatDoYUK

Here's also a PowerPoint presentation I did that I had to show at an honors event. Funny story is that I was concerned that I didn't have material to fill ten minutes so I added some extra stuff to "pad it out". In the end I had too much and had to stop halfway through. Also the reason why the header font looks too big is because it doesn't read the special font that I used, and the three videoclips at the end (which don't work now) were for Nosferatu, Dracula '31, and of course LTROI (the scene was the one where Eli bleeds).

https://docs.google.com/open?id=1k0PEuq ... 0l9PpjadMG

[DarkGuyver]

That is very well written, CyberGhostface. May I ask what subject this thesis paper is for?

[J.J.]

Well done, dude!
Spreading the infection everywhere...

[CyberGhostface]

Thanks for the comments everybody.

That is very well written, CyberGhostface. May I ask what subject this thesis paper is for?

It was for the honor program although my advisor on the project was my Gothic Literature professor.

[gary13136]

Bravo! Well said!

[danielma]

Well done Cyber that excerpt was very well written and here's hoping the full essay does you well in your class

Can't wait to read the whole Essay when I get home from work this afternoon