That trailer is soooo much better than the international trailer which made it look like a straight up horror film.

Brilliantly stated man. I'm STILL hung up on this film and it's been what? 4-5 days since we saw it?? That being said, I think you're spot on....the jokes on anyone who gets sucked into the sticky sweet romance. Without giving too much away, this film is about necessity.

p.s. it's playing in San Francisco tomorrow night and I'm totally rallying the troops to go! I get to see it again SUCKAHS!!!

p.p.s....Clay might have been right, eh?

Lovely review, as ever, David. And since you were willing to mention the spoilerish detail of Eli's genitalia and even researched the book's description, I will add this one comment. Clearly, if Eli had female genitalia, it would lead to she and Oskar becoming lovers. Which is to say that the conventional seduction would have introduced the possibility of Eli converting Oskar to vampirism. That sex is not the issue introduces a whole new level of commitment. The love that passed between them in the final scene: Eli looking down at Oskar in the pool with radiant protectiveness; Oskar sheepishly smiling at the pleasure of being protected, suggests love's contract. Was the "father" figure Eli's longtime companion, now too old to truly care for her? Will Oskar become the new longtime companion, her "familiar" if you will? The openendedness of that question was profoundly moving for me. Love and care are indeed necessity as Don has phrased it. Though just a glimpse, Eli's "incomplete androgyny" textures their particular "amor fati" in the years to come.

I loved this movie. I sincerely hope I have a chance to see it again.

I like your take, Michael, and from that vantage point, the sexual issue definitely makes sense. However, the emotional profundity of that closing scene - that exchange of expressions - was underscored for me by the equally profound discord of what I took to be the ulterior narrative; that is, manipulation. Eli is enlisting Oskar into what is an ultimately evil partnership. Along this line, I assumed that the father figure was indeed Oskar's predecessor (and Todd's interview with Alfredson confirms as much). This suggests that he's not too old to truly care for her but that she simply has no use for him anymore; her atrophied childish side needs someone her own age to relate to. It's a much colder, more brutal flipside to your reading; both are equally valid, and that the film can be read so fully in either direction - that the generic masquerade can be flipped so squarely - is one of the things that really makes me love the film. You wrote on your site that it's the best genre piece since Pan's Labyrinth, and I'm tempted not only to agree but to say that Alfredson has bested Del Toro.

David, when you speak of manipulation being the "ulterior narrative", it makes me very much want to read the book to sift out the author's intent. I don't see Eli enlisting Oskar in any more of an "evil partnership" than I see Oskar desiring the benefits of such a relationship and--in his own way--calling out to Eli to make it so. That wish for darkness in young psyches--however it might be judged by adults--strikes me as authentic, even if ethically misguided. By way of example, the cockiness with which Oskar challenges Eli once he has ascertained that she is indeed a vampire, the test he puts her through by coaxing her over the threshold without an invitation just to see what would happen, belies a natural "evilness" in him; at the very least a mean streak power exchange. She doesn't have to enlist him. He wants to go there. That's the fatefulness of their attraction.

I would also disagree that Eli has no use for her older longtime companion. The way she strokes his face implies a longstanding affection. But, truthfully, he has become inept and is unable to help her, and in that ineptitude has compromised not only her but himself. That he offers a final sacrifice as a last show of capability is, perhaps, the morbid side of all obsessive loyalties.

But as you've mentioned, the power of an image to contain multiple interpretations is the strength of image. I'm not really arguing with you. I guess I fell in love with Eli a little bit too and am unwilling to see her as evil. No more so than what William Burroughs has defined: "The face of total evil is the face of total need."

Michael, you've done the impossible, which is make me reconsider my entire stance on the picture! And what did it was that Burroughs quote, which hit me like a sack of hammers.

That said, even if Eli isn't manipulating Oskar (and I think you're right there, that he's jumping in of his own volition), I believe that the film is manipulating the audience - by winning us over entirely to the cause of a monster! Like you, I grew attached to the protagonists; it wasn't until I considered the fact that the film was something of a Moebius strip, that we'd already seen, in effect, the outcome of this relationship, that I realized how completely and pleasantly I'd been won over.

I should note that I haven't read the book, and while my curiosity has been piqued, everything I've read about it suggests that the movie (whose screenplay was penned by the novel's author) actually improves upon the original tale.

I LOVE this film. It was absolutely my favorite at Fantastic Fest and grew on me more and more as time and additional films went on. I have to say: I am SO glad that I, for some reason, didn't catch those 12 frames. You're absolutely right: the film doesn't support that additional story element and, really, it just gets in the way.

Hrm. I just realized that I was so caught up in Fantastic Fest, and then the catchup on work that followed, that I never got to blogging about it all. This film was certainly top on my list.