I got ask---did you see Eli as Evil Incarnate?

[Cmaj7th]

I never got that Abby was evil. She was manipulative but even on my first viewing I thought that she loved Owen. As I've said before here I think she needed him because she loved him, not the other way around.

She was watching over him after she left to make sure he was okay, she never did that for her guardian. And I'm pretty sure Owen would have left with her the first time, the kid looked more than devestated with her gone. What his fate will be is open for intepretation obviously but I'd like to think she wants Owen for companionship, not as a servant.

In the deleted scene she sent him on a guilt trip for wanting to kill people, she clearly did not approve of his fascination with death and I don't think she'd want to corrupt him.

As for her and her guardian I liked their relationship much better than the relationship in the other film. The scene were she reaches out to him in the apartment didn't seem loving per se but appreciative. Like she was throwing him a bone for all he went through for her; perhaps a throwback to what they once were. The slew of emotions flowing through this scene always make me a little uncomfortable.

The first time I watched the movie I thought when she pulled away from him after he asked her not to see Owen it was out of defiance but the last few viewings her expressions looked more guilt ridden to me. She looks at the floor, conflicted in regret for hurting this man but unable to carry out his request. When I saw this in LTROI Eli kind of just brushed him off like a mother does her child but this came off to me as mildly patronizing.

When she asks him to leave the room she was being very impatient and rude but it didn't strike me as far off from a normal twelve year old. She was being rude and authorative but not threatening or hostile. It reminded me of how my older sisters used to talk to me.

And when she visited him in the hospital she looked like she was about to cry. It hurt her to see her guardian in that state, even though she didn't love him she did care to a point. Not enough to look after him but enough to not want to see him in pain. Again the intimacy between them in this scene also made me mildly uncomfortable. I saw LTROI after LMI and Eli seemed extremely cold in that scene.

I dont think Abby is evil at all, just very lonely.

[abner_mohl]

This is in the trivia section for LMI at imdb:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1228987/trivia?tr1316838

Director Matt Reeves stated the main thing he loved about the novel Let the Right One In was the fact that Abby wasn't a scheming 250-year old woman inside a 12-year old body. She was very much a child emotionally and has had to protect herself from getting too close with anyone. He believed Abby was testing Owen to see if he would show he cared for her and stay or if he would get scared and stop seeing her.

[lettheolddreamsdie]

I think you're absolutely right, the director of the film distorted the original character and personality of Eli, just to give the film a more sinister side .He did not was interested in showing the rediscovery of a feeling so warm and yet so confusing as love is, for someone who had more than two centuries without feeling it and almost forgot it by complete,to re-discover it through the eyes of a loving and innocent boy of 12 years old, who made her feel and vibe as when she was just a child and was alive.But no, he would not see it that way, and instead, he put just one part, the more sinister, and made it conform to the stereotypes and molds that Hollywood has for its horror films, and so is supposed to have been thought do a very good job with the hot potato which his employers gave it . That's why for me, this version has nothing unique or outstanding as the original version have .who was and will be a masterpiece because it was able to express through each image a different way of a physical ambiguity and a real emotional need, that no longer appears on any side and takes out a lot to the story.In short,just say that what was done, was transform a different and original story in something commercial and stereotyped.

[gattoparde59]

@lettheolddreamsdie, what are you quoting in your signature?

[ColBlair]

I never got that Abby was evil. She was manipulative but even on my first viewing I thought that she loved Owen. As I've said before here I think she needed him because she loved him, not the other way around.

She was watching over him after she left to make sure he was okay, she never did that for her guardian. And I'm pretty sure Owen would have left with her the first time, the kid looked more than devestated with her gone. What his fate will be is open for intepretation obviously but I'd like to think she wants Owen for companionship, not as a servant.

In the deleted scene she sent him on a guilt trip for wanting to kill people, she clearly did not approve of his fascination with death and I don't think she'd want to corrupt him.

As for her and her guardian I liked their relationship much better than the relationship in the other film. The scene were she reaches out to him in the apartment didn't seem loving per se but appreciative. Like she was throwing him a bone for all he went through for her; perhaps a throwback to what they once were. The slew of emotions flowing through this scene always make me a little uncomfortable.

When she asks him to leave the room she was being very impatient and rude but it didn't strike me as far off from a normal twelve year old. She was being rude and authorative but not threatening or hostile. It reminded me of how my older sisters used to talk to me.

And when she visited him in the hospital she looked like she was about to cry. It hurt her to see her guardian in that state, even though she didn't love him she did care to a point. Not enough to look after him but enough to not want to see him in pain. Again the intimacy between them in this scene also made me mildly uncomfortable. I saw LTROI after LMI and Eli seemed extremely cold in that scene.

I dont think Abby is evil at all, just very lonely.

The first time I watched the movie I thought when she pulled away from him after he asked her not to see Owen it was out of defiance but the last few viewings her expressions looked more guilt ridden to me. She looks at the floor, conflicted in regret for hurting this man but unable to carry out his request. When I saw this in LTROI Eli kind of just brushed him off like a mother does her child but this came off to me as mildly patronizing.

One thing for me when I seen LMI and when I continue to think about it in the terms of character arcs, I don't think you really needed the deleted scene in there. It works fine without it. Cause throughout the movie, you get a scene of Owen who is fuelled by vengence to someone who wants nothing to do with death. When I seen the part with Abby and her Father, I had a feeling they had a history together and that they didn't want to see each other go. The Father even sacifices himself for her as well. If Abby was evil, she would of just killed The Father without giving a second thought, she would do it.

As for Abby being rude to the Father, yeah, I can see that being normal. I don't think she was being threatening, just being a 12 year old. interestingly enough, I thought the Father was Abby's brother and she was bitten by a vampire in the 1930s, which is why I thought Abby acted the way she did.