The award-winning Swedish shock sensation of the year is Tomas Alfredson’s stunningly directed juvenile vampire saga written by John Ajvide Lindquist (adapting his acclaimed novel). It charts the budding friendship between bullied loner Oskar and angelic Eli, his new neighbour. But Eli requires freshly tapped human blood to survive and Oskar might just be the person to replace her ageing guardian getting sloppy in his covert murder methods. Alfredson adopts a naturalistic approach to developing the core relationship and the duo’s parallel dramas, using long takes and static shots, combined with Hoyte van Hoytema’s gorgeous cinematography and Johan Soderqvist’s perfectly pitched score, establishing a strangely captivating mood. Adult in unsentimental tone, chilling texture, and encompassing a full spectrum of provocative emotions, Alfredson’s subtle masterpiece is a remarkably moving and genuinely frightening evocation of childhood terrors, fantasies and frailties. It immediately takes its place among the classics of the vampire genre.