Why does Abby Undress in Owen's bedroom?

[lombano]

It is also implied (At lest in the book), that Eli can't urinate.

IIRC, Oskar asks himself how he pees, but that doesn't mean he doesn't.

I maintain the answer to this topic will always be that Abby was doing what evil vampires do best: seducing and testing Owen's loyalty at the same time.

After all, all evil vampires know that the first requirement of a human servant is that they obey your whims without question...

I haven't seen LMI for quite a while now, but iirc there is that recurring element of Owen pondering the question of evil. Is it this element who finally convinces you about Abby being an evil manipulator?

Owen seems even less of a useful helper than Oskar. Abby is more reckless than Eli, true, but still the manipulative take doesn't make sense - he's more of a burden than any real help. Unless, of course, Abby is manipulating him not as a helper, but as a companion.

I will say, though, that while it's probably no big deal for Eli to get into bed with Oskar in this manner (as this is Sweden, and Eli is a

I wonder if Eli's thought process when asked to go steady was "Huh? Oh. OH."

In the United States, what Abby did wouldn't be considered such an innocent move, although we are talking about an individual who hasn't exactly led a conventional life. While I applaud the decision to keep this scene pretty much intact in a U.S. film, I think I would have liked to have seen more of a reaction from Owen. Personally, I would have been gobsmacked in that situation, but that's just my opinion.

Yes, one would be, as I know more or less from experience.

[cmfireflies]

Apart from "bli mig lite", what scene does LTROI have that LMI doesn't?

Abby doesn't cry over the body of the jogger, in fact, she high tails it out of there...Eli lingers over a victim and cries, definitely not the optimal move for a calculating predator.

Abby killed Thomas, that's true, but a fairly convincing argument could be made for euthanasia in this case to people whose minds remain open. The rules for life, death and everything in between when you're an Abby or you're living with an Abby are apt to be very different from what you or I grew up with, no matter how rough was your hometown. It doesn't make her evil, it just makes what she has to live with evil.

Oh, I may have said "killed" for ease of comparison, but what damns Abby in my eyes is not that she kills Thomas, but rather the fact that she allows a friend to get to that point. There must have been a point in time when Abby could have left a teenaged Thomas with a few thousand bucks and snuck away into the night...before he killed, before there was nothing to live for but her. But she didn't do it, and when the chips are down, she sees Thomas's sadness and understands his last request, but she still watches him leave to kill for her. She could have stopped him from leaving that night, she could have tried, but she didn't, because she's happier with Owen. So it's not about euthanasia, but about the years that preceded it.

I've no doubt the rules of life are different. I'm using the word "evil" only in the sense that Abby's interests are diametrically opposed to everyone else's including Thomas, at the point we see them. With this definition, Eli would be as evil as Abby with regards to society as a whole, what makes Abby more evil, (more opposed in interests) is that she's also evil to Thomas-whom she claims to love whereas Eli is not evil to Oskar, the one she loves, (she's still evil to Hakan, less so, but an argument could be made that Hakan was better off not meeting Eli, or, all things considered, would have chosen not to meet her if he could). It's the fact that Abby claims to love Thomas that makes her more evil than Eli, and only that, and not her diet, or victims, or whatever else.

And as for an open mind, I've no doubt that that a benign Abby exists. In fact, one of the reasons I don't like LMI is the fact that I think that Chloe gave a much more nuanced performance than the role called for. That is to say, if the story was a puzzle, it would be much more satisfying if all the pieces fit together perfectly- if Abby gave a bit more hint that she was in control of everything, (some small look of satisfaction to the audience, maybe) It would be in sync with the tone of the movie: the "good v. evil" theme, the abandonment of Owen by his mom and the abandonment of Thomas by Abby.
In fact I *WANT* Abby to have a masterplan, because to me that is more preferable than how Chloe seems to play her: as a pathetic girl that does nothing but suffer and spread suffering. She can either be the hapless victim of eternal torment, sucking everything in her path dry (especially the ones who befriend her) and so oh so sad about the tragedy of it all, but more afraid to change or face the sun-in a metaphorical hell of her own creation, or she could be the apex predator, masterfully hunting her natural prey and completely in control of her own destiny, thinking decades ahead in the most innocent of gestures. She'd be a demon of the night, sure, but that is more glorious than a mere slave to her own loneliness and savagery.

Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven-in a sense.

[Lee Kyle]

To return to the topic of the original post, one possibility is that Abby has some backstory that makes getting naked especially meaningful to her. In 1887 Abby's friend Constance tries (and fails, as usual) to get Abby to take off her clothes:

Abby received a lot of strange looks as she carried Constance toward the stairwell, but this was the fastest way to get her friend upstairs and right now the vampire wanted nothing more than the privacy of her own closet. By the time they got inside their room Constance was giggling. The girl ripped her clothes off at last and jumped on the bed. Abby pulled out the rum and cigars and leaned against the door frame, exhausted.
"Take your clothes off, take your clothes off," the mad girl coaxed.
Abby handed over the bottle and produced a box of matches. If a vampire stayed up all day, would it cause her to sleep all night? That would probably feel even stranger than being awake during the day. Plus she had fought to stay awake. If she went to bed now, would she have to fight to stay asleep?
She lay down with Constance and held her close. Such a beautiful woman. "I love you," Abby whispered.
"One day you'll take off your clothes for someone," Constance said. "And get in bed with him."
"Sleep naked with a boy? That's crazy!"
"I mean it, Abby. No one makes you. You choose to be naked. You take your clothes off. You get in his bed. That's when you know you love him."
Abby smiled. She would never sleep naked with anyone, of course. Certainly not with a boy. A sign of insanity, this tendency toward nudity. Perhaps Constance was right: the insane had nothing to hide. Abby had lots to hide. And now Edward knew. Or at least suspected. A vampire was staying at Kimball House. The guests weren't dying. But somebody was. And Edward, though unwittingly, was a part of it.

I've never liked the "Abby's clothes are wet" explanation. For starters, prior to entering Owen's room Abby never comes in contact with snow. So how can her clothes be wet? More fundamentally, however, from a storytelling perspective everything Abby does is intended to communicate something about her character. We don't always know for sure what it is, of course. But undressing is intended to say a lot more about Abby than that she stopped to make snow angels on the way to Owen's bedroom. There's some serious backstory behind that undressing. The fun is in trying to figure out what it might be.

[DavidZahir]

She's been flying through snow, as well as crawling up an ice-covered wall.

Another possibility is that she wants to feel close to someone, even if only barely. Regardless of how badly it ended, or how much she might be to blame, Thomas was the emotional center of Abby's life for decades at least. Losing him, and in fact killing him, cannot have been easy for her--even if she's endured and gotten used to things no preteen should ever have to even see.

[lombano]

Abby is on a snow-covered windowsill before climbing in. It's to be expected she'd get snow on her clothes.