Let Me In (Possible Spoilers)

[JediKnightButler]

Couple more interesting observations/questions about the movie (before the thread fades into oblivion):

1.)How many previous vampires might Abby have sired since she became a vampire and how many might have survived and are wandering around elsewhere? I'm speaking, of course, of the woman (that "survived" her attack) that we find out later that she unintentionally sired? Given the tragic fate of the woman/vampire that she sired as a result of her aborted attack, one might conclude that the survival rate of newborn vampires is probably pretty low due to the likelihood that most of them wouldn't be aware of their condition and able to protect themselves on their own (and avoid bursting into flames at the first ray of sunlight). SOMEBODY had to have sired Abby in the first place and protect her long enough for her to learn what she had to do to survive but, of course, we're never given much of her backstory though.

2.) When Abby's caretaker dies, did he willingly sacrifice himself for her (seeking "release from death) or did she decide to dispose of him because of his "failure" with his latest attempted attack. Based on what we had seen up to the point, my perception was that he was in torment and actually welcomed getting caught and wanted death at that point (foreshadowing of what will eventually happen to the boy?) and Abby basically "released" him from his responsibility to care (almost like putting down a sick pet). Did anybody else read that scene differently? I think that we can debate the point about whether or not Abby is a "monster" but she conveyed what seemed to be genuine care and sympathy for her "caregiver" at that particular moment.

[Worf2DS9]

el Chalupacabra wrote:

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+1

I picked up Let the Right One In from the library this weekend and gave it a look. It was good, but I much prefer Let Me In for its look and the way the various scenes were staged. And considering that bullying at school is one of Oskar's primary issues, these scenes were pretty tame in comparison to their more harrowing U.S. counterparts. With poor Owen, you could really feel his terror in those scenes.

[DeafPoet]

Dark Gilligan wrote:

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This. Any sympathy we feel for Abby is meant to echo the feelings that are stirred in the boys who try to "save" her. We want to believe that Owen is different from the other caretakers, that the love between he and Abby is real, but in truth we're shown no evidence of this. We're as much her victims as they are, which to me is brilliant filmmaking. Bravo to all. But yes, Abby is a monster... enormously skilled in manipulating those around her in order to survive. An author friend of mine (who loved the movie, btw) says that anyone who thinks this is a love story doesn't really understand what a healthy relationship truly is.

A lot of that is true, but I disagree that Abby is fundamentally manipulative. Her line "I'm 12, but I've been that way for a long time" is useful in that regard. Sure, she's chronologically very old, but she's still basically 12. There really isn't a lot of guile to what she does. It's a necessary that she has a caretaker but that's true of any 12 year old. It's simply a fact of her existence.

Sure, it's tragic and certainly not healthy, but I don't think she's selling Owen a bill of goods or anything. She genuinely does care for him and yeah, the whole thing's not going to end well, but she's simply doing what a vampire's gotta do, more out of habit and necessity than any sense of manipulation. It looks like manipulation to us, but how well did you really understand machiavellian stuff when you were 12?

[Robert Maxwell]

DeafPoet wrote:

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A lot of that is true, but I disagree that Abby is fundamentally manipulative. Her line "I'm 12, but I've been that way for a long time" is useful in that regard. Sure, she's chronologically very old, but she's still basically 12. There really isn't a lot of guile to what she does. It's a necessary that she has a caretaker but that's true of any 12 year old. It's simply a fact of her existence.

Sure, it's tragic and certainly not healthy, but I don't think she's selling Owen a bill of goods or anything. She genuinely does care for him and yeah, the whole thing's not going to end well, but she's simply doing what a vampire's gotta do, more out of habit and necessity than any sense of manipulation. It looks like manipulation to us, but how well did you really understand machiavellian stuff when you were 12?

I guess your perspective will be based on what kind of developmental stagnation vampirism causes. If you're "made" at a young age, will you ever mature emotionally, or will you maintain the mindset of a child forever? Given that her existence requires either killing or manipulating others into killing for her, there's a level of maturity involved that I think goes beyond whatever she had at the time of her death/undeath. I think even if you are stagnated in many ways, you would be unable to escape the reality of what you're doing and would have to make a conscious choice to draw others into your world to do your bidding. Yeah, she may actually care for him, but in the end his usefulness to her is tied directly to his ability to protect and feed her, and given that Owen's not the first person she's done this to, she should be fully aware of the consequences of their relationship even if he isn't. Their positions are utterly unequal--he would have no idea what he's getting into.

[Worf2DS9]

How exactly would their new arrangement begin during these early stages? I can't see Owen going out at night and killing people for a jug of blood at this point. Would Abby take him out for a while to "show him the ropes"? Or would she do the work herself until Owen is older and strong enough for the murdering and bloodletting?