Director: Tomas Alfredson
Starring: Lina Leandersson & Kare Hedebrant
More Info: IMDB
Tagline: Eli is 12 years old. She's been 12 for over 200 years and, she just moved in next door.
Plot: Oscar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl who turns out to be a vampire.
My Rating: 8.5/10
Would I watch it again? Does the Twilight saga suck?
I saw this on a double bill with MOON (2009) as the second feature. WOW! Finally, an intelligent, thought-provoking vampire film that doesn't suck or insult the viewer. Of course this didn't come from Hollywood (although the US remake is due soon) but from Sweden, the country that gave us the kick ass Nazi zombie movie, DEAD SNOW (2009).
LTROI is really about the relationship between two children, Oskar and Eli. Eli just happens to be a vampire. To really speak of the plot is to spoil it so there'll be none of that here. It's a beautifully quiet, serene and haunting picture that stays with you long after the credits have rolled. It pulls no punches when it comes to the gore and the relationship between the two leads is very tender and sweet. I'd LOVE to discuss the ending but then it's spoiler territory.
Fuck it.
MARK OF THE SPOILERS.....
I feel that while Oskar is completely taken with Eli, she is forward-looking, knowing that she needs a caretaker. She has been looking at Oskar almost from the beginning of the film as the successor for that role that she desperately needs to be filled. So it's a mutual love they share but it's quite lop-sided with Oskar not knowing his fate as he will likely spend his life serving her. It's a twisted take but that's what I took from it as I pondered the film in the days after seeing it.
END OF SPOILERS...YARRRRRRR!
So here's a great horror flick that doesn't insult its audience by leading it by the hand and spelling out every little detail, wrapping up in one nice, tight little package. It's thought-provoking and refreshing. We need more of these instead of the by-the-numbers Hollywood bullshit.
Posts
As a timid twelve year old boy, Oskar would seem an unlikely candidate to replace Håkan. It would be five or six years before he could even do something as simple as signing a lease or a rental agreement, let alone be able to procure blood for Eli. The film shows him unable to kill even in defense of Eli's life. How could she ever hope to convince him to hang a drugged boy by his ankles and slit his throat?
ReplyDeleteIndeed, at the time of Oskar and Eli's first meeting, it is not clear that Håkan needs replacing. When we first see him, he is washing out the jug that is part of his murder kit. The inside of the kit's case has blood stains, indicated that he has been successful in the past. Also, the rinse water from the jug comes out pinkish - indicated that he was successful on his previous attempt. Even the failed attempt that the film shows us would have been at least a modest success if he had simply remembered to grab the jug before running off.
We have been trained to view Eli cynically by decades of vampire stories where the vampires are preternatural manipulators, starting with Bram Stoker's seminal novel. I think that the expectations taught by that body of fiction fail you if you try to apply them to this film.
Ask yourself: If Eli could survive those five or six years until Oskar could possibly become a proficient replacement for Håkan, why would that time not extend to five or six decades if she truly loved Oskar? Why would she ever put him in that role?
Excellent point, Wolfchild. My first impression is likely to change upon future viewings. Since Eli is a couple of centuries old, she would have the experience to know the end was likely near for Hakan and it's possible that he had shown signs of slipping (ever so slight, perhaps) prior to the film.
ReplyDeleteAs to Oskar showing no signs of backbone for being able to care for her as Hakan did, it is possible that, also through her experience, she would know how to get him to overcome that. She's obviously been a survivor and having a caretaker has a certain advantage but I think that, should the need arise, she could take care of herself for a while. We just weren't privy to that knowledge. The cynic in me likes that idea but the romantic says, "just let it be what it appears to be." :)
Really, it could go in any number of directions. I completely agree with you about our preconceptions to vampirism.
Excellent comment. Very well said.
Hey, it's Erica. Glad to see you've done some new reviews.
ReplyDeleteYou know, as I thought more and more about the ending of the movie, I realized that it was not a happy ending. It was a potentially scary ending, BUT not as horrifying as if Eli had left Oskar on his own. Oskar is already on the way to being a socieopath. All he needed was a little push at the point we see him in the movie. If Eli hadn't picked him up and railroaded off with him in the sunset, he would have ended up going off the edge with the pool incident (where he definitely would have lost that eye, if he hadn't drowned). Eli has to have feelings for him though. There's little hints throughout that she does. I think that it's better that Eli takes him with her and if she's going to make him the next caretaker, at least she is getting him to hone his craft and focus on one victim at a time, rather than Oskar staying in his town and becoming a potential Columbine case.
So that turned out to be long... :) Give me a call sometime when you have a chance. I've been dying to chat about this movie and Inglourious Basterds. As well as catch up with you, of course.
Erica