Dealing with the Uncanny? Cultural Adaptation in Matt Reeves’s Vampire Movie <i>Let Me In</i>

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine cultural adaptation and uncanny potential in Matt Reeves’s vampire movie Let Me In (2010), which is an adaptation of John Ajvide Lindqvist’s vampire novel Låt den rätte komma in (2004) – in English translation, Let the Right One In (2007) – and the Swedish film adaptation (2008), for which Lindqvist wrote the screenplay. The article draws on Linda Hutcheon’s theoretical account of “transculturating” and “transcultural adaptations” as well as on different discussions of the uncanny. My analysis establishes that both films evoke the uncanny by introducing horror into the familiar and ordinary as represented by the geographical setting; however, it also shows that there are significant ideological differences between the American film and the Swedish film and novel concerning gender and sexuality, particularly related to the two central figures of the boy and the vampire, but also in relationships that can be regarded as part of the general social and cultural setting. In short, gender-bending and sexual ambiguities, in addition to the uncanny aspects of the human protagonist, are omitted in the American version. In these respects, Reeves’s adaptation is less complex, less uncanny, and much more ideologically conservative than the Swedish versions.