Throughout the film the music is always dim or dark yet with a twist of romance. The instruments, such as piano or solo guitar are used often. This emphasises the characters of both Oskar and Eli, for example whenever Eli appears the music becomes creepy and not in tune which creates a mysterious vibe to the atmosphere in the film. Although when they are both together; communicating, the music becomes light and in harmony. The music has been put together effectively to create tension throughout the film whenever there is a killing coming up.
There are many devices used throughout the film to create the contrast between the two children and the different sides of each individual. For example the dark evenings, when Eli seems to always appear, and the light snow which I think shows as Oskar, being the innocent, at first. Although this does change as the film continues and we find out that there are two different sides to Oskar, as well as Eli. When the two meet for the first time Eli is shown to be a blameless strange little girl, and, yet Oskar is shown to be violence as he practices knife tricks on a nearby tree. This is quite peculiar as Eli is meant to be the aggressive one, and Oskar the quiet vulnerable one.
We first find out Eli’s malicious side when she attacks a local man, by sitting down under a dark bridge and crying out for help, the man, Jocke, offers to pick her up, yet as he does she brutally kills him by biting and drinking his blood. She does this in the evening, which emphasises her dark side; although after this scene she starts to cry, as if she hates herself for what she has done. This is evidence that she might not like what she does to the viewer; showing her innocence. Every time that Eli has killed someone, such as Hakan, she is always seeking something to make her feel better. She seeks Oskar for comfort after her unfortunate killing, which could indicate that she feels guilty and upset.
Eli also has her child-like self whenever she is with Oskar, which seems to ease her when she is with him. To me Eli does not want to be this monster, she just wants be a normal kid like Oskar. To support this, an example is when she tries a sweet; she must know that they do not interest her, yet she says she will try on anyway. This shows that Eli wants to act as normal as possible, although this does not work and she ends up being sick in front of Oskar as a result.
In the scene when Oskar cuts himself, Eli shows her love and feeling for him when she licks up his blood she calls for him to run, for his protection and safety. This provides us with information that Eli does care about people and is not just killing people for the thrill of it. This makes me feel a bit sorry for her, as she does not want to do but has to which must be really hard for her to live with.
Oskar also has violence personality, which is shown at the beginning, although this is only pretend, it still shows us what is going through his mind. This could also be the result of Oskar not having any friends. Yet throughout the film he becomes a lot more aggressive, for example when he hits Connie (the bully) and also towards the end when he attacks a man. Before he meets Eli these incidents are something he would have never done, yet she tells him he must fight back; which could show that Eli is also to blame as he encouraged him to do the things. This violence side to Oskar could have been why he and Eli get on so well as if helps them both to become friends. He does not seem to be threatened by Eli being a vampire or a killer which must mean he trusts her a lot due to their similarities.
Like Eli, Oskar has a child-like personality also. His, obviously, is normal child behaviour. Even though he has just seriously hurt the boy, Connie, he goes of to see his father, which he seems to enjoy. The scene shows a bright sunny day with white show; this contrasts with the town scenes with Eli, everyone is dark and dull. Eli does not follow Oskar, and so the scenes are light and joyful, which emphasises that Eli is not around.
The camera work is very fluent and there a mid-shot is used for most of the scenes when Eli and Oskar are together, although the camera does show from each ones perspective at times, such as when they are talking. To show the facial expressions on the characters there is many close ups so we can tell what they are felling or even thinking for example when there is a close up of Eli after she has killed the camera zooms to her face when she is sobbing which can show the viewer that she is upset, showing the detail. A good plan camera shot is towards the end of the film where we see the kitchen in Eli’s house but also the doorway when the man enters her house, here we can see both sides, which gives us a good view of the area.
The typical binary opposites from Levi-Strauss are found in the film, for example good verses poor and girl verses boy. These are shown obviously through Eli and Oskar, but also with Connie and Oskar who relate to good verses evil, or innocent verses guilty (bullying). Another example is Eli, the vampire (evil) and the humans (good) who are fighting against each other.
Vladimir Propp’s character roles are also quite clear in this film; we have Eli as the princess, yet also the villain and we then have Oskar the hero who eventually helps Eli to feel normal again, yet also contributes to one of her killings. We also have Connie and the bullying group who are also the villains and then finally the dispatcher who I think is Hakan, as he is the one that continues Eli to live. Eli is also helpers in this film, for example Eli is the one who tells Oskar to fight back and stick up for him, she also kills of the villains (Connie) in the end, instead of Oskar dying or being injured.
