Tommy’s Break from Childhood

Let the Right One In

This flow traces Tommy’s movement from teenage bravado and family resistance toward a violent experience that leaves him changed.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

The Tough Older Boy The Tough Older Boy from "Let the Right One In". The Tough Older Boy Confidence as performance Tommy runs a clubhouse with Robban and Lasse, smokes, and tries to appear indifferent to trouble.

The Tough Older Boy from "Let the Right One In". The Tough Older Boy Confidence as performance Tommy runs a clubhouse with Robban and Lasse, smokes, and tries to appear indifferent to trouble.

The Tough Older Boy Confidence as performance Tommy runs a clubhouse with Robban and Lasse, smokes, and tries to appear indifferent to trouble. His performance masks a desire to leave Blackeberg and an inability to imagine a reliable future. The older boys’ world offers freedom without direction.

Fighting Staffan’s Future Fighting Staffan’s Future from "Let the Right One In". Fighting Staffan’s Future A son’s resistance Tommy responds to Yvonne and Staffan’s marriage plans with sarcasm, then secretly removes Staffan’s trophy.

Fighting Staffan’s Future from "Let the Right One In". Fighting Staffan’s Future A son’s resistance Tommy responds to Yvonne and Staffan’s marriage plans with sarcasm, then secretly removes Staffan’s trophy.

Fighting Staffan’s Future A son’s resistance Tommy responds to Yvonne and Staffan’s marriage plans with sarcasm, then secretly removes Staffan’s trophy. His refusal is partly anger at losing his father’s place in the household. The theft gives him a temporary sense of power, not a way to speak honestly.

A Transaction He Cannot Explain

A Transaction He Cannot Explain Money and blood While intoxicated, Tommy agrees to let Eli take blood for money, unable to make sense of the request or its danger. The transaction awakens fear after the fact. His bravado cannot protect him from knowing that he has entered a world whose rules he does not understand.

The Safe Room Horror The Safe Room Horror from "Let the Right One In". The Safe Room Horror Fear becomes action Trapped with Hakan’s reanimated body, Tommy hears it moving in the darkness and finds Staffan’s trophy by touch.

The Safe Room Horror from "Let the Right One In". The Safe Room Horror Fear becomes action Trapped with Hakan’s reanimated body, Tommy hears it moving in the darkness and finds Staffan’s trophy by touch.

The Safe Room Horror Fear becomes action Trapped with Hakan’s reanimated body, Tommy hears it moving in the darkness and finds Staffan’s trophy by touch. He uses the trophy as a club and strikes repeatedly. The act saves him, but his later return to school shows that survival has not restored him.

The Wounded Return The Wounded Return from "Let the Right One In". The Wounded Return Home without explanation Tommy walks past Oskar’s window bent over, carrying the aftermath of the shelter encounter into ordinary daylight.

The Wounded Return from "Let the Right One In". The Wounded Return Home without explanation Tommy walks past Oskar’s window bent over, carrying the aftermath of the shelter encounter into ordinary daylight.

The Wounded Return Home without explanation Tommy walks past Oskar’s window bent over, carrying the aftermath of the shelter encounter into ordinary daylight. His mother’s concern and Oskar’s silence cannot supply an account of what happened. Tommy is alive, but something in his former ease has been lost.

Late October 1981

Friday, October 30, 1981

Sunday, November 8, 1981

Monday morning, November 9, 1981

Wednesday, November 11, 1981