I finally got around to finishing this movie this weekend. I bought it on Blu-Ray a few months ago, started watching it late at night, and stopped because I got tired. I finally got to finish the second half this weekend.
I felt the movie was well-done, and quite faithful to vampire lore, but I have to admit I bought into the hype about it being the “best vampire movie ever”.
The problem I think is that we (and I am referring to U.S. audiences) have such a cookie cutter idea of what a horror movie is…usually shocking and explicit violence, and scenes that attempt to scare the audience. I felt that the end involving the kids at the pool was very shocking and horrific in itself
(as an aside, it’ll be interesting to see how the U.S. version adapts this…there’s no WAY I can see the MPAA stand for grade/middle school kids getting ripped apart, at least on screen).
I admit, the question of Eli’s true nature went over my head. When I saw the scene when Eli was changing, I thought “WTF was that?”
(Sorry, I’ve never seen or imagined what a castration looks like).
It’s clear from the posts here from those that read the books that there are more layers to this film than I thought. I know watching it in two parts didn’t help either.
What I am interested in is what others think about the nature of Eli’s and Oskar’s relationship. It is quite obvious (or at least alluded to) that Oskar will take over and fulfill Hakan’s role. The question is, do you feel that it was a genuine and reciprocated relationship, or a more manipulative one from Eli? The film (as well as the synopsis on the back)mostly alluded to the fact that the relationship was a reciprocated one based upon the marginalization of both characters; Eli as a vampire and Oskar as a loner who is bullied. I watched the extras on the Blu-Ray and the director said that the end was open to interpretation, and he felt that it was a happy ending. However (and this is the cynical side of me), part of me thinks it was a lot of manipulation of Eli’s part. Eli is a predator, and I don’t mean that in the obvious sense that she feeds on blood. Although she looks like a child in their early teens, we know that Eli has been around for longer than that, and her mind is beyond that of a child; Eli knows that she/he needs help to survive. Hakan is fairly old, and Eli may have been preparing for his eventual successor. Obviously Eli would choose someone who was fairly weak willed, or someone with vulnerabilities that could be exploited; Hakan with his predilection for children and Oskar with his loneliness and isolation. If I remember correctly, there was a scene where Eli was loudly admonishing Hakan (after he committed the first murder in the movie and forgot the blood). Essentially, do you think that Eli came back to help Oskar because Eli felt a connection with him, or because Eli saw in Oskar a successor to Hakan?