25 Horror Films You Must Watch Before Halloween

By Jack Pooley /

7. Let The Right One In

Tomas Alfredson adapts John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel to deliver arguably the greatest vampire movie ever made, depicting the tender friendship between a timid 12-year-old boy, Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) and Eli (Lina Leandersson), a vampire girl he meets. More a tale about this relationship than about a vampire feeding on the locals, Let the Right One In was rightly praised for its restrained, artistic approach to the genre, while still delivering on its promise of gory violence. Above all else, though, it's the two central performances that make this one work, because without a convincing friendship, it would fall horribly flat. Best Moment: When a group of bullies force Oskar to hold his breath underwater for 3 minutes, Eli saves him, violently dismembering the bullies in one brutal single shot, which sees a severed head and arm go flying into the pool. Jaw-dropping isn't even the word. In 2010, an English-language remake, Let Me In, was released, which while rather unnecessary, was visually stunning and benefited from an excellent performance by Chloe Moretz.