Comparing The Blair Witch Project And Let The Right One In

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The Blair Witch Project and Let the Right One In are two films that cover the spectrum of the human response in the face of adversity. Both of these films seem to be less about monsters in the traditional sense and more about human behavior in response to and in light of marginalization. In fact, the terror that the protagonists of these films are faced with is not truly a witch or a vampire, but their very placement in the periphery.
In Let the Right One In, the vampire trope is turned on its head. Instead of a film about citizens being under threat from a monster, it is a film about two children and their struggle to survive. Importantly, there is no "monster" in the film at all, no serial killer or supernatural being threatening the protagonists. If anything, the source of fear and horror for the main characters may be argued to be a group of school bullies. But even that is a limited perspective because the bullies are not the universal threat: they only threaten Oskar, not Eli. …show more content…

For Oskar, his monster is being the kid at school constantly picked on and tormented, he is very much alone in the world. For Eli, her monster is her existence as vampire, as pariah. Let the Right One In is a beautiful film about two very different children coming together (in a sort of love) to face off and defeat the terror that is their marginalization. Importantly, the protagonists are able to succeed in this task, to reach a happy ending, because they reject their instincts to attack each other. Eli is tempted to devour Oskar for his blood, but ultimately refuses. Oscar initially shuns Eli when he learns she kills people, but ultimately accepts her. As Colin Brookes point out, "Oskar and Eli both transcend their natural states for the sake of the other"