2. Let The Right One In
Year of Release: 2008Director: Tomas Alfredson Well this is another odd choice; a lot of these films are very bizarre in that they dont take a straight-forward path as movies such as
Stand By Me established all those years ago. Its almost as if theyre coming-of-age movies with a twist. The twist here? Vampire. In a way, this isnt anything new.
Twilight was released in the same year and can very much be considered a coming-of-age story. I dont have much respect for the script nor the acting, but the sombre mood of
Twilight was done to perfection. This is evident in
Let The Right One In as well; the setting really highlights the tale of this boy, NAME, and his loneliness. The blistering cold snow has settled in heaps in this outer-Swedish town and when a series of vampire attacks begin to appear, the story starts twisting the screw. We
know that this strange girl isnt like other girls. We pretty much know what she is from the beginning. Thats not important. Its not a tale about vampires and their relationships with humans. Its about a young boy and girl looking for something that they havent found before companionship. Someone to hold them during the night, to protect them, to play with them, to make them feel whole. The role of parents in this film is kept to the very minimum; they're not important and are barely part of the children's lives. By the end of the film, the two children have constructed their own world, their own inner circle and slammed it shut in a touching and terrifying manner. Definitely not a film for the faint of hear - one particular scene towards the end is an eye-opener and no doubt, but the contrast with vampire gore and teen friendship/romance is surprisingly fitting for a film of this nature and that's why it occupies second place on my list.