MovieChat Forums > Sauna (2008) Discussion > Eerik (spoilers)

Eerik (spoilers)

posted 15 years ago by jankkinen
28 replies | jump to latest

********SPOILER ALERT******

I have watched this movie two times, and on first watch I was so thrilled about the disturbed and grim atmosphere of the movie and truly enjoyed it.

On second watch I started to put the puzzles together and would like to share them on this forum, to make a creative conversation.

So here we go.

In my opinion, mainly this is a story of Eerik's life, the sins and crimes of his past. It is said many times that Eerik has killed 73 people on his life. When we are watching we witness a few:

The girl at the cellar and his father for example. But there's something strange about the girls father killing. At later on the movie, theres a dialog which goes something like :

Knut:"You killed that girls father."
Eerik: "I was defending my life. and yours. Didn't you see the axe he had?"
Knut: "No. I didnt."

Is it that Eerik was put to pay his sins because he killed innocent people too?

So, lets say that girls father was the victim number 73.

Victim number 74 is the girl at the cellar. This comes pretty clear at the dialog near the ending of the movie:

Eerik: "Where have you been?"
Knut: "...."
Eerik: "I will leave with you tomorrow. Lets go and get that girl out of the
cellar. But Knut, maybe its too late."*and so on*
Knut: "74?"

Number 75 is not a victim, but a sin. His brother, Knut. We can see in the early beginning of the movie the strange birthmark on Knut's back, and the same mark is written in a piece of parchment which Eerik discovers, and then flips it a few times and you can see "75" on it. But what was the sin he committed against Knut? I have listened to bits and pieces about the directors commentary, and there is a theory said, that "If you have committed many sins, you cant pay for them by yourself. You have to give more." Some sort of innocent casualties. And this is witnessed at the ending, when the little girl is killed by the strange faceless creature.

But the biggest question which have puzzled me, is the strange town, what they found.

At the town there are 73 people living, and I cant just put it out of my head that this is a coincidence. So is this strange town a ghost town, where habits all the ghosts, which eerik has killed?

In the ending of the movie everyone at the town disappears and there are only clothes left, and it is said that "they are waiting for you at the sauna". And when Eerik steps in to the sauna, he sees every 73 killed, and also his brother and the girl, which are the "innocent casualties" (Well, in the movie only the thing we ACTUALLY see is his brother with some sort of monks rope, but perhaps..)

It's pretty hard to put all these thoughts and things to words, but I hope I make even slightly sense.

Any thoughts?

There are many hints and answers on the directors comment track, I recommend

[–] The_Third_Revelation 13 years ago

few things i didn't understand:

1) Why he spits out the tooth and the line, "She is perfect. Save your souls." What does this mean?

2) Why Knut goes into the Sauna and comes out evil?

3) Why the girl has the blood coming from her mouth?

You can't see California without Marlon Brando's eyes

[–] ss454327-1 13 years ago

I think some of you might be reading more into it than is actually there. I think the 73 villagers ARE the 73 people Erik killed. They don't have to be at the same point in their lives as they died. One of the ways it hints to this is the boy/girl in the village. When she is being chased by something she puts her hands over her eyes the same way the girl did in the cellar when she thought Knut was going to rape her. There was no way to save her in the end because she was already dead.

[–] profweetos 12 years ago

That was my guess too. But then, how do you explain that the agreement written and signed on the parchment arrived to its destination ??

And di you noticed that the people in the village disapeared exactly like the orthodox monks, by leaving their clothes behind them.

Great movie but lots of questionning!!!

[–] lvobby 13 years ago

I'm pretty sure it was the brunette soldier's tooth (can't remember his name), the one who wrote the messages in his own blood. Remember the scene where they sit down to eat, just after he had approached the sauna by himself and whispered "momma?" into it? He stuck his finger in his mouth at the table, and saw blood on it.
He stuck the tooth into Knut's mouth and whispered something in his ear. Knut was repeating what he had just heard. I'm assuming the soldier's mother was dead, the sauna being a gateway to death and whatnot. He was either referring to the girl in the cellar or the young girl pretending to be a boy, though.

I suppose when you "see" whatever this entity is, you die or are driven to madness, but Knut seems to have been possessed by this force to harvest the remaining people left in the town (purgatory). I think he was the vessel required for death to enter and take the souls that hadn't been "washed" that they spoke of in the hospital scene. They hadn't been washed so they hadn't truly died. When the russian guy was talking about the papers they found, they said the sauna was there before the monks, and the monks had thought that perhaps it wasn't a sauna at all, but our minds just can't comprehend it as what it really is.

The blood on the girl's mouth is from the bandage on Eerik's hand. He holds his hand over her mouth for a while in the scene where they're boarding up the little shack and he's making plans to get her out of there. His hand is bleeding at this point, and later in the sauna with Knut, it's healed up.
Unless you're talking about the scene where she's hiding from death in the barn thingy? That I think was just an extension of the blood-pouring-out-of-your-eyes thing when death is near you. Her scalp is bleeding just before the faceless creature finishes her off.

[–] ramencigar 13 years ago

The faceless man-- I had assumed that it was the physical manifestation of Eerik's sins/guilt, rebelling against his one attempt at redemption. It seemed like it might fit, anyway.

But now knowing that it was the Russian soldier... I'm confused. Not being able to come up with a meaningful reason for him 1) being turned into a monster and 2) attacking the girl, it just seems like a "Hey, you thought there might be one bright spot in the ending? Nope. Girl get's et by a monster, the end" thing. That, I can't abide by. It's go time:

So, for one, how/when/why did the soldier get turned into the monster? Because he killed that one fellow, and this is his punishment? But what part did Knut play in it? Someone here mentioned that Knut promised to love him if he did something horrible-- I don't recall that, but it gives some clues. One thing I wondered about was whether or not Knut was really Knut by the end, or if he had been overcome by this inexplicable "sin-eating" entity. If that were the case, it would make sense for it to want Masko to commit murder-- then it could take him/feed off him/whatever it does/wants.

But I'm still not sure why he was by the river (just coincidence?) and why he attacked the girl-- other than the obvious "He's a monster, that's what he does". Ah, let's see. If the village is supposed to be a kind of purgatory (real or imagined) for Eerik's victims, and he attempts to redeem himself by saving one of them (though how she remained...), but there's some horrible THING living nearby that says to him "No, you can't be redeemed", then it makes sense for it (by way of Masko's body) to destroy his one attempt at redemption.

Or maybe none of that at all. I don't think even I understood what I just wrote. Man, when "it was the manifestation of an abstract moral concept" is the easy answer, I don't even...

But, hey, postscript: did anyone else catch that bit, when Eerik is explaining his glasses and how light reflects, and then refers to Knut as the only "light" in the family? And then Knut's birthmark "reflects" Eerik's sins by numbering his victims? I may just be making this up, but if not: awesome. Now I must think about the possible parallels between Knut and what that woman said about darkness only absorbing... I <3 over-thinking.

___
Yes, I am aware that I am not intelligent enough to understand the film being discussed.

[–] Mastadge 13 years ago

For your question about the soldier's reasons at the end -- 2) he love Knut, and Knut asked him to. I figured that just as Knut couldn't save the girl in the cellar, he wasn't going to let Eerik save the girl in the village. Knut knew as well as Eerik how to get to the party waiting for them, so he simply sent the soldier ahead on the route. As for 1) I'm not sure. Maybe it's just a creepy visual. Maybe it's that since Knut was a monster, what he thought he was doing for his lover he was instead doing for a monster, and therefore become a monster. Or something.

[–] profweetos 12 years ago

"attacking the girl, it just seems like a "Hey, you thought there might be one bright spot in the ending? Nope. Girl get's et by a monster, the end" thing. That, I can't abide by."

I guess she's being killed because she's already dead and no one can escape from the village because it has to remain unknown