Mom, Dad... I'm dating a vampire!

Like being a teenager isn’t hard enough without having to keep the love of your life, who just happens to be undead, from your parents. Coming of age sucks. In two new films we’re being reminded of it all over again through the angst and alienation that comes when lonely, out-of-place teens fall in love with pasty, cold-skinned, pearly toothed immortals who could just as easily lean in to offer a kiss as to bite an exposed neck.

These films suggest that the decision to become a vampire may be more tempting than when Jonathan Harker and Professor Van Helsing battled the cruel, transmogrifying monster in Bram Stoker’s Dracula 120 years ago. The two vampire characters in the films Let the Right One In, directed by Tomas Alfredson, and Twilight, directed by Catherine Hardwicke, are forever teens, and we sympathize with them for this. Eli, the twelve-year-old girl in Alfredson’s film, was in the throes of puberty when she became a princess of darkness. And Edward was on the brink of death at the prime age of eighteen when he was brought over to the other side.

Although, the style and direction of these films are as opposing as the over world is to the underworld, the premise of both is similar; growing up is really hard. When you feel like you don’t belong, who better to understand your battle with loneliness than one doomed to walk the Earth for an eternity. Parents be warned.

[via youtube, hbo, twilightmovie]