Comparison between ‘let the right one in’ and ‘the lost boys’

In ‘let the right one in’ the vampire in the film doesn’t seem to be enjoying the fact she is a vampire, we know this because Eli doesn’t like going out and killing people herself. Eli doesn’t do normal human things until she meets Oskar and even then she tries not to do human activities, and tries to avoid any attention that could be given to her.  In comparison David and the other vampires in ‘the lost boys’ go out at night and ride around on their motor bikes creating the attention to be drawn to them, it seems like they are purposely making people be afraid of them by intimidating them with their motor bikes and loud shrieks/ shouting as they ride through the Santa Carla board walk. David and the other vampires clearly enjoy the fact that they are vampires, due to the fact that they choose certain types of targets almost to create more fun. We see this when they target a whole group of teenage boys as they are partying on the beach.

‘The lost boys’ seems to be focused around the 1980’s the American fear that teenagers might rebel against the typical American lifestyle. David and the other vampires loom like they were purposely rebelling against everything of the time. In Santa Carla the other people were wearing very colourful clothes and had normal haircuts of the 1980’s however, the lost boys wore mainly black and had rocker style haircuts. Whereas, ‘let the right one in’ is focused around the European fear for their children, they didn’t want their children to be isolated and left unemployed due to this. Oskar and Eli both have been isolated by their peers or because of their lifestyle and this helps to reflect the isolation of people who were worse off in the 1980’s. Eli and Oskar both looked like they were just trying to blend into the background of their surroundings by isolating themselves off from the outside world.

The difference in non-verbal communication between the two films sends very diverse messages. In ‘the lost boys’ the characters are very open and in your face with everything they do.  David is particularly open within his non-verbal communication and this seems to be because he is sort of the leader of the boys. This causes the audience to be resilient towards David as he seems to enjoy killing people and being able to control everything the other vampires in the group do. Whereas in ‘let the right one in’ Eli is very much closed off in her non-verbal body language. This helps us as the watcher to emphasis with Eli as her body language helps to show the innocence of the character and helps to highlight the fact she doesn’t really want to be a vampire.