In the Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In (2008), a lonely twelveyear- old boy, Oskar, who is bullied at school, is befriended by the new girl, Eli, when she moves into the apartment next door. Oskar is drawn to Eli as she appears to be an equally lonely child of a single parent who, like him, does not seem to fit in. Eventually, however, Oskar discovers that his new friend is a vampire. After this revelation, Eli explains that she is just like him, reminding Oskar that the first time she heard him speak, he was holding a knife and rehearsing threats against the classroom bullies. He counters by pointing out that he doesn't kill people, to which she responds ‘but you'd like to if you could to get revenge’. She, as Eli explains, kills only out of necessity. To make her point, she sits on his lap, stares into his eyes and asks that he ‘be me for a little while’, inviting him to see the world through her eyes. This is followed by a lyrical shot/ counter shot sequence between an extreme close-up of Oskar's eyes and Eli staring down at him, all filmed in shallow focus as if for a moment they are unified in private space. As Oskar closes his eyes and a gentle musical score plays over the image, the film suggests that perhaps he is able to see the world through her eyes, even if briefly. This shot is then followed by a short over-the-shoulder shot of Eli, now revealed as an old woman who once again begs Oskar, ‘Please – be me, for a little while’. While the shot of the older Eli is a moment that reminds us that she is not what she appears to be, that is a child, there is also a sadness to this image of the old woman trapped within the body of a child. This image represents, in part, the ‘othering’ of the vampire as a creature that blurs lines of identity, but it also provides a glimpse of who she is on the inside. It is a highly subjective moment that positions the audience, along with Oskar, in her point of view.

This sequence introduces two key ideas that are important for our understanding of a significant strand of the twenty-first century undead.