“You have to invite me in.” – Let the Right One In (2008)
Here’s a painting I did of Eli and Oskar, in one of the most chilling moments of a beautiful Swedish vampire film (that I highly recommend.) Limited edition prints are available here.
Tag Archives: eli
Hello! I hear there is actually a tv series in the making for ‘let the right one in’. The first people have been cast! I just read your thoughts on the swedish movie. Spoiler alert for Elis gender (it doesn’t influence the plot at all tho). Eli was born a boy and her full name is Elias. Eli got castrated while she was turned into a vampire by a vampire. She does say ‘I’m not a girl’ in the book and both movies. But it isn’t clear what she wants to be called or seen as.
Thanks for the info! Wow, we are going to be spoiled w/ all these TV adaptations… all the glorious bingeing…
The whole gender thing for Eli is ambiguous in the films, and, from what ppl who have read the books have told me, also ambiguous in the book.
From what I’ve heard about the book, the character is referred to with female pronouns until the ritual castration is revealed, and then the character is referred to with male pronouns. It is up to every reader’s interpretation to determine gender of the character at any point. If the author wanted us to have a definitive answer, I feel like that answer would have been made less open to interpretation.
- amadeo-child-of-the-renaissance said: //Adding it here: Eli himself doesn’t mind being addressed with female pronouns. Please keep that in mind. Best regards- a genderfluid person.
- skeletalroses said: I ~have~ read the book (and seen the Swedish film), and Eli did not seem to me to identify as a cis boy. I could certainly see agender or something as an alternative to the transgirl interpretation, but I’d be pretty skeptical of calling Eli a cis boy.
- Re: Eli saying “I’m not a girl,” in the films, annabellioncourt said: yeah the book (original and translation to english) and the american film call her “her/she” and its 90% clear she means “not human” in this film.
Hopefully, the TV series will clarify this debate, if it is important to the creators/director to do so. Even without an answer to this, the story is still very compelling and I’m excited to see more of these characters!
If Eli from let the right one in was some how come in to the vampire chronicles universe how would s(he) acted and how would the other vampires think of her(him). I thought I should let a expert of the vampire chronicles series decide on this. Plus I do love vampire crosssovers and let the right one is my favorite bookmovie.
I’m so flattered you consider me a VC expert, but I’m not a Let Me In/Let the Right One In expert, I’ve only seen the two movie adaptations, and from what I can tell, the vampire rules in it are different than the VC vampires rules.
I do have a post about my thoughts on Eli and that story here.
Among other great things, this vampire story also brought back the idea of having to be invited in, and without that permission, the vampire in question would start having physical reactions! Like a severe allergic reaction! We got the blood tears that not many vampire movies want (or are able) to tackle.
I think Lestat and Armand both would find Eli intriguing and would want to compare all the physiological differences in their vampirism, test those rules, and generally try to get Eli to push at the limits, and maybe learn something new. Whether they would embrace her and add her into the coven, that I don’t know. #Fanfic request! #Fanart request!
Eli seemed to need/prefer a human companion. I should read the book, it would be great to have some backstory re: if there had been any other vampires in Eli’s life, whether Eli had ever considered turning someone… whether that was even possible given Eli’s trapped-in-a-child/tween-body thing. I think Eli at least had a maker in the book version, but I don’t know why they were separated.
^More hugs and love for Eli would have been gr9 ❤
Anyone is free to comment/reblog.
Eli is a male, period. Whether the film explained it or not, it’s still a fact and you are being ignorant by misgendering and refusing the acknowledge it.
^This is not how you win someone over to your opinion.
[^X Logical Fallacy Referee] Not sharing your opinion is not a sign of “being ignorant.” As of now, all of your asks will be deleted. If an Ask sounds remotely like something from you, it will be deleted. This is a fandom blog for entertainment, not a US Presidential Debate.
Since this is our last exchange, I’ll answer for the sake of showing my followers that I will not be bullied by an anonymous person:
- As previously stated twice now: I did not read the book, I saw the 2 film adaptations. Based on my interpretation of them AND what readers of the book have told me privately, I concluded that Eli can be referred to with female pronouns. I’ve repeatedly stated that that’s just my opinion and I have NEVER tried to force it on anyone else.
- I added to the original post that Eli’s gender is ambiguous, which is a compromise, even though I disagreed with you.
- An anonymous person cannot convince me of a “fact” when even the author of the original book has not convinced 100% of their readers of said “fact.” The author could tell me to refer to Eli with male pronouns and I might still
politely
refuse. Why should the author care what one reader thinks? Anne Rice has had to deal with FAR worse from her readers.
- I linked to David Lowery, at least one example of another person who also found it ambiguous, so unfollow me and inform that blogger, and many others, of your truth.
I-want-my-IWTV 