To bad they couldn't finish the film

The thing about Caleb rejoining his family is actually one of the most interesting dynamics of the story. He is forced to choose between his former family, his actual father and sister, and his new family, the vampire group who have now finally accepted him as one of their own. By having him choose his old family, it sets up the events for the final act.

About the reversing of the vampire curse: According to Kathryn Bigelow, the whole "blood transfusion being a vampire cure" thing was a reference to Bram Stoker's "Dracula", where a blood transfusion is used to keep the character of Lucy in the world of the living (this same concept was featured in the Francis Ford Coppola version of "Dracula"). That's what it was, a reference to "Dracula".

Homer, the little vampire, was obsessed with Caleb's sister for two reasons: 1. That Mae was originally his (he turned her) and he hoped to keep her as his. However, when Mae turned Caleb and turned her attention to him, Homer became angered. So, when he found Caleb's sister, he sees it as a way to seek revenge against Caleb for taking Mae (this is clearly obvious in the scene in the hotel room where Caleb tries to get his family away from Jesse and the others).
2. Homer is a 40 year-old man in a kid's body. To him, no one else truly understands his condition (he even tells Severen about it in the camper, with the line, "Y'have any idea what it's like to be a big man on the inside and have a small body on the outside?", to which Severen replies, "You have ANY idea what it's like to HEAR about it every NIGHT?"). So, when Homer sets his sights on Caleb's sister, he sees the possibility of turning a little girl who may later understand what Homer feels like, and he wouldn't be alone.

The vampires didn't get careless, it's just that one of their own, Mae, was the calalyst for their destruction. Think about it: If Mae hadn't stopped Jesse from shooting Caleb or hadn't grabbed Sarah and pull her out of the car towards the end, Jesse, Diamondback and Homer would have continued on to live. Even more so, if Mae hadn't turned Caleb, none of the events in the film would have gone the way they did. It's the classic "straw that broke the camel's back" situation. Mae was the straw.

The film is complete. That was the way it was written and that was the way it was filmed. And that is the way that many fans of the film like it.

But this one's eating my popcorn!

I dont think that Neon Bunny "got served", I think he/she brought up some interesting points. Personally I agree that the whole family aspect of the film was a bit much, and most of the fans of this film I've spoken too agree that the moral values in this film not only took the edge away, but also took the spotlight off of the more interesting characters.

Do you really like the way it ended? Personally, I would have liked to see more adventures from the band of renegade vampires. Call me crazy, but they made the movie. I dont think it's uncalled for to feel that the ending seems a bit rushed and over polished. Aside from Severan's death the whole ending was very unsatisfying and left much to be desired. I know it's just a matter of a opinion, but Neon Bunny isn't alone on this, and I dont think the whole movie needed to be reitterated play by play to execute a matter of opinion.


www.myspace.com/scumbalinascinema

codebreaker2001 brings it to the point. the vampire band is great, but not the center of the story and the ending is all right. its a happy end but it fits the tone of the movie.

Yeah, I never understood how these simple country folk would suddenly have the tools and expertise to set up a total blood transfusion in their garage. Or how Jenny Wright's character, after decades of being vampire would suddenly be "cured."

I like the movie for the vampires, but the heroes and the whole transfusion thing was kind of lame.

I think the key element of the film was true immortality. The vampires think they have it, because they don't age, but in order to survive, they must destroy, and they embrace this destruction. They derive pleasure in torturing the humans they used to be, the humans they believe to be inferior. But it is in fact the humans who survive, generation after generation, and their flaws are learned from, whereas the vampires stagnate. The whole movie was the conflict of a teenager going into adulthood, does he choose to abuse his new power and strength and become a vampire on society? Or does he choose love, self determinism, responsiblity, and as one of you ignorantly complained about, morals? His family acts only to save, the vampires act only to destroy. But ultimately he could live both ways, and it's his decision. Either way, he will live forever, through children, friends, family, or through his own selfish self-destruction.


Whether or not you like this dynamic is moot. The ending was necessary. If you don't understand this, you failed. You can hate the movie, you can hate the conflict, but that's what this movie was. And to focus on the foolish meandering moldy vampire's meaningless lives to the end is the biggest disapointment I could imagine. The most profound scene was Caleb at the dinner table promising to read to his little sister when she goes to bed.

Turning caleb back to me was alright, maybe sense he hadn't made his first kill or whatever. I was dissapointed that they were able to revert Mae.

I have a different take on the ending though. I think the vampires are the "good guys" right up until the end. At least one of the vampires, the young one, would probably have taken the cure had it been offered. I think the intent was clearly for us to be sympathetic to the vamps till the bitter end. The "mortal" characters in the story witholding knowledge of the cure was a pretty evil thing in my mind.

I'm no movie reviewer so i hope you guys can see what i'm getting at.

I just saw this...
I think it aged rather well.

lots of good thoughts in this thread.
Promontoriom thank you... I really like what you said.

Yeah, when the writers decided that Caleb and Mae had to be human at the end and live happily ever after as humans it required a series of ridiculous things to happen. The transfusion was dumb and all the vampires kill themselves. The movie was doing so well up until that point but they wanted a more normal hollywood ending and had to run the movie into the ground to get it. When his family shows up at the hotel, the movies starts falling apart immediately. Though strange, the movie was much better when it was about Caleb dealing with all the changes and becoming accustom to his new lifestyle and gaining acceptance among his new friends. I didn't care if they were vampires at the end of the movie, I was actually rooting for Caleb to finally kill someone.

"The thing about Caleb rejoining his family is actually one of the most interesting dynamics of the story. He is forced to choose between his former family, his actual father and sister, and his new family, the vampire group who have now finally accepted him as one of their own."

But that wasn't interesting at all because he is obviously going to chose his actual family because the movie isn't going have the vampires killing his little sister and father in a hotel room while he's like, "oh this is fine." This choice doesn't exist so there is nothing interesting about it. Then a serious of things that make little to no sense happen, none of which are interesting. Bill Paxton lets himself get hit by a truck because he needs to die for the movie to continue, the truck explodes because that will kill Bill Paxton so the movie can continue. Caleb can't defeat the vampires, they just have to kill themselves. So they have to write the movie so all the vampires kill themselves.