We, The Infected

Even though the underwater perspective of the pool scene was absolutely stunning, I would have like to have seen how angry Eli was while saving Oskar. She must have been pretty enraged considering how quickly she dispatched the the three boys contrasted by the effort it took to kill her previous two victims earlier in the movie.

Not so sure I'd say "effort". She really just dropped in on Virginia looking for a quick snack, and I think putting Lacke away was out of annoyance. I mean, a gentleman just does NOT walk in on a girl while she's catching some Z's in the tub!

More seriously, this is actually quite a bit of restraint on the part of the filmmakers. Both here and in the corresponding scene in Let Me In, the actual slaughter isn't shown. In LTROI, just enough is seen and heard that the viewer can't mistake what's happening, and while LMI includes more (and gorier) body parts being dropped into the water, it's still not nearly as graphic as it could have gotten. The focus, in other words, wasn't on the vampire or the destruction she wreaks, but on the boy (a dying boy in LTROI and a terrified one in LMI) with the real blood, guts and dismembered appendages in the background. This is thematically consistent with most of the rest of the film(s), which is/are far more about a couple of very lonely and tormented preteens than about what might be happening in the world around them.

I agree with everything you said there. I think its my inherent Americanized need to see things that leads me to wonder how pissed she was. But again, its irrelevant. I wouldn't change a thing. LTROI is as close to a perfect story as I've ever seen. So happy to be among the infected.

Happy to have you on the forum!

It's a "Don't mess with someone I love" situation. I had a math professor in college, ask us if we could kill anybody, a bunch of hands went up, then she asked who had children, most of the same hands went up. Love can make you do a lot of things, to include ripping off heads.

gently steps a little bit further away from JToede

NigelNinja wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 30, 2020 11:24 am

Even though the underwater perspective of the pool scene was absolutely stunning, I would have like to have seen how angry Eli was while saving Oskar. She must have been pretty enraged considering how quickly she dispatched the three boys contrasted by the effort it took to kill her previous two victims earlier in the movie.

I feel similarly. So I tried to see and feel it by writing this:

"He has a knife. He wants to hurt Oskar. He's holding Oskar's head under the water so he can't breathe.
Eli's rage explodes in a storm of raw power. She crashes through the plate glass window of the pool and flies among the bullies. In less time than it would take to describe how each boy died, the carnage ends and her fury abates. Eli takes Oskar's arm and pulls him to the surface. Oskar is okay. Eli's heart soars when she sees Oskar's beautiful smile."

Yes! You described exactly how I feel. Her rage surpasses anything she feels while hunting or feeding. Its almost a beautiful anger at the sight of Oskar being hurt, and knowing what she has to do to save her love's life!

And OMG the look they exchange. At that moment they both realize that had let the right one in.

In a really ham-handed effort at fan fiction, I'd postulated that Eli very was fully human (a girl, because I saw the movie before reading the book) except when the beast takes over when it's hungry or scared. Given that she can use that beast's extra-human abilities without being overcome by it (e.g., jumping off the jungle gym with preternatural slowness when the kids first meet), that fiction had Eli herself driving the beast in a fit of blind fury at the pool scene.

It was a powerful image for me, a beast possibly thousands of years old and directly responsible for the deaths of millions of people, invincible, inhumanly powerful and normally fearless, quailing in fear and being driven by the ineffable fury of a twelve year old child the way a slave might exert superhuman effort to comply with the will of a master wielding a particularly nasty whip.

sauvin wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 01, 2020 7:53 pm

In a really ham-handed effort at fan fiction, I'd postulated that Eli very was fully human (a girl, because I saw the movie before reading the book) except when the beast takes over when it's hungry or scared. Given that she can use that beast's extra-human abilities without being overcome by it (e.g., jumping off the jungle gym with preternatural slowness when the kids first meet), that fiction had Eli herself driving the beast in a fit of blind fury at the pool scene.

It was a powerful image for me, a beast possibly thousands of years old and directly responsible for the deaths of millions of people, invincible, inhumanly powerful and normally fearless, quailing in fear and being driven by the ineffable fury of a twelve year old child the way a slave might exert superhuman effort to comply with the will of a master wielding a particularly nasty whip.

I have had something similar in mind, the difference being that Eli didn't consciously drive the beast, but rather that the beast was aroused by the very strong feelings of fright and anger Eli experienced observing what was happening to Oskar.

Anyway, the result would be the same...