Let the Right One In (2008)

The one bad scene in Let the Right One In involves a bunch of cats, and the effects look like they were finished on a school computer. Everything else is about as good as horror gets. Tomas Alfredson tells a vampire story so quietly you can hear the snow crunch, and the horror comes in short, cold bursts instead of jump scares. At the center are two kids, Oskar and Eli, and Kåre Hedebrant and Lina Leandersson play them with an awkward, serious tenderness that grown actors rarely manage. Oskar is lonely and picked on. Eli is strange and very old around the eyes. Their friendship, built on a Rubik’s Cube and messages tapped through a bedroom wall, is the real story, and it’s tender and eerie all at once. The grown-up side plots wander. It made $11.2 million worldwide on a reported $4.5M. A 9.1 because it’s a horror movie about loneliness that actually understands loneliness. $625.38 says you tap something on your bedroom wall tonight and feel weird when nothing taps back.

What works: The two young leads are extraordinary, and the snowy, hushed atmosphere makes every scare land harder.

What doesn’t: The cat attack’s effects look cheap, and the neighbors’ side plot pulls focus from the kids for too long.

Who it’s for: Horror fans who prefer dread and atmosphere over gore, and anyone who likes their coming-of-age stories strange.