Maggie Kay's Horror Blog LTROI feature

[Barb]

You know, even though I'd seen the film several times, it wasn't until after I heard other people talk about LTROI that I'd even considered the Oskar as caretaker theory. I guess I saw the film as being more about an angry child that might have gone down a bad path, but he met someone who listened, someone who cared, someone who told him just to use the amount of force he needed to defend himself. Once Oskar hit his enemy (an enemy that was going to push a poor swimmer into icy waters while the teacher wasn't looking), his rage seemed pretty spent. Otherwise, he would have thought nothing of killing the man who threatened Eli. I figured that the film was about a role reversal. To me, Eli became Oskar's caretaker, not vice versa. After all, Oskar's a bit of a shrimp and he'd have to have a real growth spurt to even be able to do anything to help Eli survive. And seeing that Oskar is just a kid, not a Hakan, there's no indication that he would feel any compulsion to stay with Eli after he grew. Sometimes, I think that people see the film through strict horror fan eyes and try to put it into horror plot terms because it's what they expect and are used to. Now, I love horror, but I saw the film through the eyes of knowing I was seeing something different---a supernatural drama that broke horror rules. Whatever happens to Oskar and Eli, whether they just stay together a few years or he becomes a vampire too, like in the later story, the fact that Eli and Oskar knew an innocent love is an incredibly happy ending, IMHO.

[a_contemplative_life]

Nicely said.

[Jules]

Sometimes, I think that people see the film through strict horror fan eyes and try to put it into horror plot terms because it's what they expect and are used to.

Right. I heard some opinions like this. I want to say to them to they miss a thing who are very more important It's pity (? not sure about vocabulary) to see to when there are a vampire or a surnatural thing in a movie, most of people view this movie directly like an horror movie, or a gore movie

[sauvin]

You know, even though I'd seen the film several times, it wasn't until after I heard other people talk about LTROI that I'd even considered the Oskar as caretaker theory.

It was a very common theory on the IMDB boards when I still hung out on them a couple years ago. When I run across it, I can't help half-remembering the one about the three blind men and the elephant, and the fact that so many people saw Oskar being seduced into servility where I didn't makes me wonder if I also might not be blind.

I guess I saw the film as being more about an angry child that might have gone down a bad path, but he met someone who listened, someone who cared, someone who told him just to use the amount of force he needed to defend himself. Once Oskar hit his enemy (an enemy that was going to push a poor swimmer into icy waters while the teacher wasn't looking), his rage seemed pretty spent.

That's certainly possible. Did you check out his facial expression while Conny was on his hands and knees at Oskar's feet, screaming? Pure unalloyed elation. It was still there when he went home to face his mother. This downtrodden boy was looking UP for a change.

I'd be slow to claim that his rage is spent, though. Elation, like any other strong emotion, wears off, and his very next encounter with his girlfriend ended badly. Now, on top of whatever rage might have remained him, he has to contend with confusion and fear, with suddenly having to realise that there's more to his girlfriend than just a pretty smile and a promise of help. Rage stoked anew, maybe, when his father abandoned him yet one more time over a bottle of spirits.

Would he have killed Lacke if Eli hadn't beaten him to it? We'll never know, but if his rage had been completely spent, why did he still carry the hunting knife?

I'm not sure I'd buy into a "spent rage" theory. I'd say it had very quickly been overlaid with temporarily weightier matters. Personal experience suggests that rage does not dissipate quite so easily.

Otherwise, he would have thought nothing of killing the man who threatened Eli. I figured that the film was about a role reversal. To me, Eli became Oskar's caretaker, not vice versa. After all, Oskar's a bit of a shrimp and he'd have to have a real growth spurt to even be able to do anything to help Eli survive.

This argument is very close to my own personal disagreement with the theory that Eli was just recruiting. You're describing a considerable investment in terms of time, effort and risk - including the risk that Oskar might turn out to be not fundamentally unhinged enough to perform the services she would require.

Quite the opposite, if they're beginning a new life together, Eli is accepting a role for which I can't see her being anything other than disastrously ill-prepared: she'll not only be his friend, and perhaps his lover, she'll also be his mother for at least a few years.

And seeing that Oskar is just a kid, not a Hakan, there's no indication that he would feel any compulsion to stay with Eli after he grew.

Compulsion has a way of changing even while it resists change. Given the kind of life they'd have to live - essentially fugitive - after a time, even if Oskar grows sick of her, it could be argued he'd stay with her because she would be the only other person he'd know. I fear I mean that almost literally - how do you get to know people well when you're only in the neighbourhood for a couple of weeks at the most? What happened in Blackeberg happened for Eli for the first time in two hundred years.

That said, I'd hasard a guess that particularly acute and critical pressures on their relationship would happen when Oskar is roughly 16 or 17, another when he's in his mid-20's, another when he's in his early 30's and yet another when he reaches whatever age men are routinely supposed to suffer mid-life crises. At all of these junctures, for reaons I don't have time to articulate just now, the essence of this crisis would be in an unfrozen and continually aging Oskar asking of himself (or the sky) "Is this all there is? Is there nothing more?"

Sometimes, I think that people see the film through strict horror fan eyes and try to put it into horror plot terms because it's what they expect and are used to. Now, I love horror, but I saw the film through the eyes of knowing I was seeing something different---a supernatural drama that broke horror rules.

I saw several things colliding at the same time. Horror was a part of it, yes, but not a typically American interpretation of it. For me, the real horror wasn't that Eli was a vampire, but that she wasn't. Dracula, for example, was a fulltime monster, absolutely no hint of remaining humanity and therefore no capacity for experiencing any human emotional state, but Eli is a little girl who has to live with the horror of what her beast makes her do, of what it makes her be, and how it makes her live.

I love horror, too, but not as much as I used to. It's gotten to be mass-produced and packaged in anti-theft plastic shells. If LTROI "broke the rules", I say, YES! and hope to see more of this kind of ground-breaking storytelling.

Whatever happens to Oskar and Eli, whether they just stay together a few years or he becomes a vampire too, like in the later story, the fact that Eli and Oskar knew an innocent love is an incredibly happy ending, IMHO.

It is. It's all of that, and more... but can we in the deepest and rawest parts of our hearts honestly say they're riding off into the sunrise to live happily ever after? It's an ending, after all, that happens on a moving train; nothing is "ending" here, and these kids are just moving on.

[Cuchullain]

You know, even though I'd seen the film several times, it wasn't until after I heard other people talk about LTROI that I'd even considered the Oskar as caretaker theory. I guess I saw the film as being more about an angry child that might have gone down a bad path, but he met someone who listened, someone who cared, someone who told him just to use the amount of force he needed to defend himself. Once Oskar hit his enemy (an enemy that was going to push a poor swimmer into icy waters while the teacher wasn't looking), his rage seemed pretty spent. Otherwise, he would have thought nothing of killing the man who threatened Eli. I figured that the film was about a role reversal. To me, Eli became Oskar's caretaker, not vice versa. After all, Oskar's a bit of a shrimp and he'd have to have a real growth spurt to even be able to do anything to help Eli survive. And seeing that Oskar is just a kid, not a Hakan, there's no indication that he would feel any compulsion to stay with Eli after he grew. Sometimes, I think that people see the film through strict horror fan eyes and try to put it into horror plot terms because it's what they expect and are used to. Now, I love horror, but I saw the film through the eyes of knowing I was seeing something different---a supernatural drama that broke horror rules. Whatever happens to Oskar and Eli, whether they just stay together a few years or he becomes a vampire too, like in the later story, the fact that Eli and Oskar knew an innocent love is an incredibly happy ending, IMHO.

Welcome to the infected Barb and an even bigger welcome as this post shows that you agree with my interpretation.