The Stars of 'Let the Right One In' on New SHOWTIME Adaptation
The thing about vampire shows is that they’re not really about vampires. Some are about sexual and social repression, some are about liberation, some are about the anachronisms that come with immortality. So what is the new SHOWTIME adaptation of the Swedish horror classic Let the Right One In about?
“One of [the themes], without a doubt, is love. Love is a main element,” says Demián Bichir, who plays Mark Kane, father of Eleanor (Madison Taylor Baez), a vampire who was turned at age 12. “The love for your family in different scenarios. Not only my love for my kid, the love of a father, and what we are capable of doing for our children, but also the fraternal love between Claire (Grace Gummer) and Peter (Jacob Buster) and their dad [Arthur] (Zeljko Ivanek).”
The latter trio are at the center of a new subplot not featured in the original film, or its American adaptation Let Me In. As a pharmaceutical executive desperate to cure his son Peter’s vampirism, Arthur Logan and his daughter Claire serve as a fascinating counterpoint to Mark and Eleanor. Both storylines underscore the moral compromises that become necessary to protect the ones they love, but without the wealth and privilege of the Logan family, Mark and Eleanor are forced into itinerance. Here too, Bichir sees parallels to the real world.
“This is about people who are always transient and they’re moving constantly from one place to another, that have to cross rivers, that have to cross deserts….in search of a better future for their families,” says Bichir, who earned an Academy Award nomination for his role as an undocumented immigrant in the 2011 film A Better Life. “We see that all the time. In this time and place where millions of immigrants are still living in the shadows, they can not come out into the sun properly and freely.”
Kevin Carroll, who plays Mark’s confidant Zeke Dawes, emphasizes a different theme.
“For me the biggest thing about watching the original film and one thing I hope we preserved was the notion of unconditional acceptance,” Carroll says. “We put it in the backdrop of this world of vampirism and some of these other things, but as Demián is talking about the notion of love, I’d like to expound on that with the notion of acceptance. These things are so immediate and they’re so palpable in our culture now, that we have a show that can mirror some elements of healing that need to take place, and it doesn’t have to be from a preachy standpoint. It can be through the work that the cast has committed ourselves to, but we still get a chance to speak to the immediacy of the moment.”
The theme of acceptance doesn’t just apply to the circumstances the characters find themselves in, but to their own character flaws and shortcomings.
“The very first thing that anyone has to do in order to accept others is to accept yourself,” Bichir says. “Accept who you are and accept your faults and your flaws, and accept that you are not perfect. And this is something that my character struggles with the entire season. We see that when the season begins, because he’s still carrying this burden and these ghosts and these demons. He’s still trying to expiate his own blame and his own sins, and trying to be a better person through the experiences that he’s living. And I think everybody around me helps me do that.”
These descriptions create the impression that Let the Right One In is exceptionally high-minded. But it doesn’t take longer than the first scene to establish that it’s also a well-crafted horror-thriller. The balance of, as Carroll puts it, “to not only be entertaining but educating and healing,” is a credit to the show’s creator, Andrew Hinderaker. According to Bichir, the trust required of the cast and crew was quickly rewarded.
“When you do TV, it’s like a leap of faith, because you say yes to many years of commitment – hopefully we’re thinking 17 seasons or maybe 25 [laughs] – you say yes to that based on maybe 50 pages, 60 pages,” says Bichir. “You don’t know what’s going to happen. So every time we read a new script, it was like, ‘Yes! This kid [Hinderaker], he keeps nailing it.’ So the world he created around the original film and original novel, I think as Andrew has put it before, [it’s] a love letter to the original story.”
Whether you’re a fan of the original film or are new to the struggles of raising a child vampire, Let the Right One In is haunting and powerful. You can watch the entire first season during the Sling TV SHOWTIME Freeview for all Sling Orange, Blue, or Sling Orange + Blue subscribers from Friday, Dec. 9 through Monday, Dec. 12. Use the link below to sign up for Sling Orange + Blue; new subscribers can get a free month of SHOWTIME by selecting the "Premium Pass" in the cart checkout.