Oskar- 12 years old, blonde, small. Strange, talk to himself ( repeats what his bullies say to him) also cuts out articles from newspapers about murders. Gets bullied at school and also carries a knife round with him. His mother and father are separated, he lives with his mother.
Eli- 12 years old, brunette, small, skinny, pale. Drinks victims’ blood to stay alive as she is a vampire. Very intelligent, lives with her father.
Oskar’s mother- Middle aged woman, blonde. Very protective over Oskar, looks after him most of the time tries to make a life for them both.
Eli’s father- Middle aged, small, grey hair. Doesn’t like talking to other people, very timid and quiet. Tries to hide that he lives with Eli, goes out and drains the blood out of innocent people to keep Eli alive.
During the films there are examples of the different binary opposites between the characters.
Good v Evil- Oskar and Eli are both the same age but they lead very different life styles, Oskar goes to school, he is just an innocent 12 year old boy. He may have his fair share of problems with his mum and dad not being together and getting bullied but after that he leads a very normal life style.
Eli on the other hand is not a normal 12 year old girl, she does not go to school as she cannot go out in the day light and because she is a vampire she could not be trusted around other humans. She is only 12 and she has already murdered innocent people to stay alive.
Old v Young- Oskar has not been 12 for as long as Eli has and will not stay 12 for the rest of his life.
Eli has been 12 for a very long time, which makes her a lot older than Oskar. In contrast with the fact that people think that if your older you have more control, Eli seems to have a lot of control over her father as he does and says what she wants. In some ways even though he is her father he seems to fear Eli, and acts like he could at any point be one of her victims if he gets on the wrong side of her.
Rich v Poor- Where Oskar and Eli live seems like a quite deprived area, Oskar’s flat seems a lot more welcoming than Eli’s his is filled with furniture and personal possessions. Eli’s flat is not welcoming, there is a mattress on the floor where her father sleeps, Eli sleeps in the bathroom in the bath where it is dark also all of the windows are boarded up. Oskar’s fathers home seems like a much more happier place to live with lots of open land and no one around for miles.
The film is set in Sweden in the winter season; this means that the whole way through the film there is snow everywhere. Having snow in most of the scenes adds some natural lighting too the shots for both day and night, In the day the sky is very white and bright because they are using the natural lighting from the weather as well as artificial lighting. The sound effects are very exaggerated in the film, for example when Oskar is walking over the snow on the park the sound of the snow crunching underneath his feet is very strong. Other examples where the sound has been made stronger for effect would be when, Eli bites into the man’s neck and when Elis father slits that mans throat also when Oskar and his mother are brushing their teeth and when Oskar and Eli are Scratching the wall to communicate with each other. When it came to Elis makeup it looks extremely realistic from when you see her when she meets Oskar for the first time in the park, she looks very pale and ‘dirty’ looking. When Eli enters Oskar’s house without being invited in she starts bleeding from her neck, head, eyes, nose, ears, back and scalp because he didn’t invite her in himself this looks very realistic because the blood is just pouring from her like its being forced from her skin.
In the film the camera shots vary, some scenes have very close-up views making the scene very intense and keeps the audience on edge through the duration of the time and some of the scenes has very long shots. Doing such a contrast in shots from one scene to the other is a rather big risk but they flow very well together. The best scenes where these camera shots are use is when Eli makes her first attack under the bridge, you cannot see in detail what is happening but you know what is going on with the movement of the characters and the sound that was used in the scene. Another scene using the long shot is when Elis father gasses someone in the park, the same again you cannot see in detail what is happening but you can see from a distance. The scenes with a close up shot are when Oskar is getting hit with a stick round the face by his bullies and when he is at his father’s house when he and his friend start drinking and smoking.
Thinking back to the theory from Tzvetan Todorov this is how it runs in this particular film.
Equilibrium- Oskar is a normal young boy, lives with his mother and sees his father from time to time.
Disruption- Strange murders start happening in the area as Eli moves in next door to Oskar
Restoration- Eli ends up saving Oskar’s life at the end of the film.
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