The best romantic horror movie ever made. I love how natural the relationship between Oskar and Eli happens. I like that they had a better ending than I expected because I thought the whole time this wouldn't end well. This movie does something that revisionist vampire movies such as Thirst have done. It shows that being a vampire kinda sucks. Never aging is just as much of a curse as a blessing for Eli, she has to keep secrets from people she cares about, she can never see the sunlight, she is always looking for blood like a drug addict and acts withdrawn and sick without it. I enjoy the contrast between her relationship with the innocent Oskar and what seems like an ambiguous tragic romance with the older Hakan. I love the style of this movie as well. There are some magnificent wide shots. The wintery and snowy setting hits close to home. The orchestral score by Johan Soderqvist is great. So I loved this in all three phases. The filmmaking, the story and the characters.
The movie starts with Oskar (Kare Hedebrant) talking and making a possible Deliverance reference by saying, "squeal like a pig." This is something his bullies frequently say to him as we find out. The movie quickly gives you a sense of geography as we see it mostly takes place around some balcony apartments in a very snowy area of Norway. The scene moves to Oskar at school. It shows how smart he is early on. A cop comes to the school for something and he talks about how they knew a murder happened even after someone's body was in a fire. He asks why. Oskar responds that there would have been no smoke in the lungs. The scene then transitions to two men near a highway near some woods. The old man who lives in the apartments, Hakan (Per Ragnar) stabs and kills the other man. He hangs him upside down nearby and starts draining his blood. A woman's dog interrupts him and he is forced to run away. A girl chastises for not finishing the job. Oskar is outside stabbing a knife with a tree. Eli (Lina Leanderssen) meets Oksar outside. They have a cute moment talking about a rubik's cube. There are a group of people who live in the apartments who gather in a restaurant. Eli kills one of them, Jocke (Mikael Rahm), beneath the underpass that night. Gosta (Karl Robert Lindgren) sees it but doesn't seem to believe his eyes. Eli and Oskar have another conversation about her age and how she doesn't know her birthday.
The relationship between Oskar and Eli makes this just as dramatic and romantic as it is horrific. Any scene between them seems natural and makes you feel just as happy as the viewer as they do.
Hakan drags the body of Jocke on a sled and hides it in an ice hole at the local lake. Oskar is beaten up by three bullies lead by Conny (Patrik Rydmark). Eli and Oskar see each other again that night and they have a cute moment where Oskar buys her candy and she gets sick after eating one of them. She looks emaciated here. Eli asks Oskar if he would like her if she wasn't a girl. He says yes. Hakan doesn't want Eli seeing Oskar. Hakan abducts a basketball player from the school but is caught in the locker room before he can get the blood. He uses some kind of acid to disfigure his face so the police cannot identify him. That night Eli is seen climbing the walls to his room in the hospital. They share a goodbye as Eli kills him to get his blood and he falls out of the window.
What I love about this movie early on is some of the style. There are so many great wide shots including in the first two kill scenes. In the first kill scene you see Hakan and the guy he kills from far away through the trees. In the second kill there is an awesome overhead angle and another long shot. I like the visual of Eli with the red blood on her shirt. There is an interesting contrast between her relationship with Hakan and Oskar. She seems attracted to Oskar's innocence. I'm not entirely sure if this relationship should be seen as appropriate. It would seem that Hakan and Eli may have been in love once, though it is never spelled out. Since she can't age you can make the assumption that they have known each other a long time. Oskar seems to make her feel her physical age, something she is stuck with. There are scenes where she looks pale and that isn't only because of lack of food but also lack of sunlight. I like how this movie shows what it might be like on a vampire physically to live. I also love the setting. As a Mainer I'm familiar with long and cold winters and this feels like home and it feels like seasonal depression with all the snowy scenes at night. There are even little things I love like Eli's eyes changing in the dark and her eyes changing when she sucks blood.
Spoiler Section
Oskar starts taking weight training classes after school after Eli tells him to fight back against his bullies. On a field trip near the ice two girls find Jocke's body. More importantly, Oskar beats up Conny with a stick. Oskar tells Eli about this and he suggests they make a blood pact. After he cuts his hand she licks up his blood and runs away. Virginia (Ika Nord) is attacked by Eli. Eli goes to see Oskar and confirms she is a vampire. She almost dies after she enters his house without being invited. Virginia gets out of the hospital after finding out she is sensitive to sunlight. Gosta's cats, sensing her vampirism, attack her. She goes back to the hospital and lights on fire when the curtains are opened during daylight. Her boyfriend Lacke (Peter Carlberg) puts two and two together. He sees a something covering Oskar's bathroom. In a very suspenseful scene he sneaks into the bathroom while Eli sleeps in the tub. Oskar distracts him and Eli is able to kill him. Again the bathroom door shuts and you view this kill in a long shot like a spectator. I like how Lacke was able to find out about them from the window being covered. That is the only way he could have known. Good writing.
Eli eventually says she will leave as it is no longer safe. Oskar is tricked into being alone at the swimming pool. Jimmy, Conny's older brother forces him to breathe underwater or he will cut out his eye. In another interesting way to film kills, Eli shows up and kills all of the bullies besides the one who is more sympathetic. She reaches into the pool to drag up Oskar. I like how you just hear some commotion and see limbs going into the water and then you see the aftermath. After this Oskar and her leave on a train together. Eli taps on the box to say "kiss," in morse code. He taps back, "small kiss."
I couldn't decide which scene I loved most in this movie. Anything with Oskar and Eli together is good and that moment of them listening to music is cute. As people know I enjoy any scenes where two people connect for happy moments in a movie where you know it won't end well. This movie however did. In a way it feels like a circle as it seems Hakan and Eli could have had this stage in their relationship at some point. This movie is in some ways about moving on from one friend and finding another to live for. I think anyone looking for a dramatic romance in a horror movie with some interesting vampire mythos would enjoy this.
Rating: 10/10
Trivia: Tricks were used for sound effects. Biting into sausages was used for biting into skin and flesh. Eating yogurt was used for sucking blood.
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