The Transfiguration

In the last few years, the number of films trying to re-examine and reappropriate the vampire genre has grown steadily. Apart from the obvious commercial examples such as the Twilight franchise, a few art films have also left their mark. Tomas Alfredson’s 2008 coming-of-age vampire-in-the-city Let the Right One In was a huge success, particularly for its use of the vampire motif to explore the body as the place where sexual identity is constructed. Its influence on this debut feature by Michael O’Shea, The Transfiguration, is not subtle, even though it is understandable. Alfredson pointed the way towards untapped possibilities offered by the genre, but O’Shea does not manage to in turn mine these possibilities for clever, or even satisfying, results.