Another thing I love about this movie

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ltroifanatic
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Another thing I love about this movie

Post by ltroifanatic » Thu May 04, 2017 10:57 am

I love that it's in the middle of suburbia.You can see car headlights just 20-30 metres away when Hakan kills the boy and when Eli gets Jocke and the truck rumbles past.There are people everywhere and none the wiser.I'm so used to seeing vampire movies that are set in deep dark forests or isolated castles or places it quite refreshing to see it set in the middle of a plain ordinary suburb.I love this movie for so many reasons.. :wub:
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Re: Another thing I love about this movie

Post by dongregg » Fri May 05, 2017 5:15 am

Agreed. It was the gritty realism that swept me off my feet. It was believable that a 12-year-old vampire would live like an orphaned street kid. Dirty, ill-fitting clothes. Needs a bath. Eli is scary without being particularly creepy, just a kid who could kill you in an instant.

I should add that I'm not a horror fan. Every vampire flick seems only a degree away from being a Leslie Nielson or Abbot and Costello spoof.
“For drama to deepen, we must see the loneliness of the monster and the cunning of the innocent.”

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Re: Another thing I love about this movie

Post by sauvin » Fri May 05, 2017 9:37 am

dongregg wrote:Agreed. It was the gritty realism that swept me off my feet. It was believable that a 12-year-old vampire would live like an orphaned street kid. Dirty, ill-fitting clothes. Needs a bath. Eli is scary without being particularly creepy, just a kid who could kill you in an instant.

I should add that I'm not a horror fan. Every vampire flick seems only a degree away from being a Leslie Nielson or Abbot and Costello spoof.
Ah, but while vampires might be horror, horror isn't vampires.

"Might be" because vampires (and other cartoony bads) constitute what's mostly a semicomical allegorical backdrop to an engaging teen dramedy in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" where the real (and often unseen) horror is in the teens' daylight hours. It only takes a single cheerleader to kill the biggest, baddest vampire in the sewers - along with all its minions - but it takes a whole army to fight City Hall and a state government to fight the school board.

I'm often bemused by folk who insist on conflating monster movies with horror, or confining horror to the slasher flick subgenre. Slasher flicks are horror of the commonest variety, but if mindless bloody violence is the defining characteristic of the horror genre, then what are The Haunting, Haunted or Invasion of the Body Snatchers that can scarcely be said to involve any blood at all?
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Re: Another thing I love about this movie

Post by a_contemplative_life » Fri May 05, 2017 4:25 pm

ltroifanatic wrote:I love that it's in the middle of suburbia.You can see car headlights just 20-30 metres away when Hakan kills the boy and when Eli gets Jocke and the truck rumbles past.There are people everywhere and none the wiser.I'm so used to seeing vampire movies that are set in deep dark forests or isolated castles or places it quite refreshing to see it set in the middle of a plain ordinary suburb.I love this movie for so many reasons.. :wub:
Yes, this carries through to many aspects of the film, like after Eli kills Lacke and the neighbor upstairs thumps on the ceiling and shouts at them to quiet down.
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Re: Another thing I love about this movie

Post by intrige » Mon May 08, 2017 4:57 pm

The downplay on everything is one of the most realistic aspects of the movie. Its realism is what have drawn people in, for sure. Thismovie, and the book too kinda, makes me almost believe that this could have happened.
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Re: Another thing I love about this movie

Post by ltroifanatic » Mon May 08, 2017 10:23 pm

Yes and how many times have you seen a grubby little kid and perhaps chuckled and thought "you naughty little thing,wait till ur mum sees you".That's the tragic part because Eli has no-one until he/she meets Oskar then she's as cute as a button trying to clean up for him.
Please Oskar.Be me for a little while.

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Re: Another thing I love about this movie

Post by PeteMork » Mon May 08, 2017 11:28 pm

intrige wrote:The downplay on everything is one of the most realistic aspects of the movie. Its realism is what have drawn people in, for sure. Thismovie, and the book too kinda, makes me almost believe that this could have happened.
QFT. This realism (among many other things, of course) makes this film stand heads above other vampire films. It's not only one of the things that made me love it so, it's the main reason I began writing FF.
We never stop reading, although every book comes to an end, just as we never stop living, although death is certain. (Roberto Bolaño)

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Re: Another thing I love about this movie

Post by jetboy » Wed Jun 21, 2017 1:42 am

ltroifanatic wrote:I love that it's in the middle of suburbia.You can see car headlights just 20-30 metres away when Hakan kills the boy and when Eli gets Jocke and the truck rumbles past.There are people everywhere and none the wiser.I'm so used to seeing vampire movies that are set in deep dark forests or isolated castles or places it quite refreshing to see it set in the middle of a plain ordinary suburb.I love this movie for so many reasons.. :wub:
Great to see this forum still alive and kicking with relevant topics still being discussed. I like this element in the story too. This doesn't have anything to do with the violence in the story but one thing with cars that resonated with me in a way I'm not sure why is after Oskar wakes up and opens his window to look outside, after yhe night Eli climbed into his bed, a car goes by. I don't know why that is good but it's like it's a brand new day. Alfredson is a great director with these touches.

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Re: Another thing I love about this movie

Post by PeteMork » Wed Jun 21, 2017 4:34 am

jetboy wrote:
ltroifanatic wrote:I love that it's in the middle of suburbia.You can see car headlights just 20-30 metres away when Hakan kills the boy and when Eli gets Jocke and the truck rumbles past.There are people everywhere and none the wiser.I'm so used to seeing vampire movies that are set in deep dark forests or isolated castles or places it quite refreshing to see it set in the middle of a plain ordinary suburb.I love this movie for so many reasons.. :wub:
Great to see this forum still alive and kicking with relevant topics still being discussed. I like this element in the story too. This doesn't have anything to do with the violence in the story but one thing with cars that resonated with me in a way I'm not sure why is after Oskar wakes up and opens his window to look outside, after yhe night Eli climbed into his bed, a car goes by. I don't know why that is good but it's like it's a brand new day. Alfredson is a great director with these touches.
Wasn't that the cab taking Eli away to parts unknown? :think:
We never stop reading, although every book comes to an end, just as we never stop living, although death is certain. (Roberto Bolaño)

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Re: Another thing I love about this movie

Post by dongregg » Wed Jun 21, 2017 5:12 am

But no, PeteMork. This was when Oskar woke up, opened his window, and looked for Eli. Through a space between blocks of flats, you just see a car going down a street. You have to look quick. But you see, I've watched the film two weird ways -- once with no sound (you see way more) and once with the screen reduced. Whoa! So many sounds I never heard before!
“For drama to deepen, we must see the loneliness of the monster and the cunning of the innocent.”

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